Meet our Campus Correspondent, Ellen! She is a third year writing major with a minor in Professional Writing: Editing and Publishing. Ellen is from Pitt Meadows, but came to UVic for the beautiful campus and well-known writing program. During her time here, she has become a great contributor to the community, especially through Her Campus!
Ellen joined Her Campus as a writer just two years ago, but is now a Campus Correspondent (co-president) of the club. She managed to move up to that position by taking advantage of opportunities and applying for positions, even when she didn’t feel that she had enough experience for them. In her first year, the club was looking for someone to manage their social media accounts, and even though Ellen was new to the team, she decided to jump right in! The next term, when the club was looking for a new Campus Correspondent, she decided to do the same thing and see what happened! The position ended up going to a girl with more experience, but the old CC’s appreciated that she had put herself out there and they offered her the position of Vice President. By the next year, she was next in line to be a CC and was finally offered the position!
Running Her Campus at UVic is a lot of work, so the tasks are distributed between two CCs, Ellen and Jasmine. “I don’t know how I would do it without Jasmine,” says Ellen, “Without her, the most challenging thing would definitely be keeping everything on track.” For her part, Ellen essentially works as our Editor in Chief. She helps to run meetings, where we brainstorm and schedule articles, and to upload all of our content, which usually entails last minute edits, formatting all of the articles and making sure that everything looks nice and ready for our readers! On top of this, she still does quite a bit of writing as well. Her favourite articles to write are personal pieces, such as short essays that include personal stories, experiences and thoughts.
When Ellen joined Her Campus at UVic, there were only about 10 members on the team and they would struggle to get enough writers every week. Today, the club has grown to over 40 members and readership has increased substantially! This is exciting because the club is now able to publish more diverse content, put on more events and connect with more UVic students. “I think it’s just a little easier to reach a little higher now, and we aren’t as scared to take some risks,” says Ellen. The club has been a great experience for Ellen, because she hopes to go into publishing after school and through Her Campus she has been able to develop skills that are relevant to that field. In general though, she loves that such a big, international community exists for college women, because it gives anyone the platform to express themselves. She also sees it as a great opportunity to expand one’s resume, meet new people and have a lot of fun! Her favourite Her Campus memory was the Professional Headshot Event that the club put on last year. As she says, “it was great to have the whole team together in one room, creating something really cool.”
Without a doubt, Ellen has been a huge part of the team’s success and growth over the past couple of years. She hopes to continue to work on expanding the team and inspiring the members to be just as passionate about the club as she is! She has taken steps towards this by becoming a Her Campus High School Ambassador Advisor. Through this position, she connects with High School girls and guides them through small projects and discussions in order to mentor them through the transition from High School to University! She is there to help them with everything from college applications to their love lives. Ellen took on this role because she thinks that everyone should consider joining Her Campus. She believes there is a lot to gain from writing and magazine experience and being a High School Ambassador Advisor gives her the opportunity to inspire younger girls to get involved in the club!
Outside of Her Campus, Ellen is a full-time student, the Communications Assistant in Alumni Relations and works at Earls downtown! She loves baking, hiking and all things Disney! Last summer, she was part of the Disney Cultural Exchange Program, which is a three month internship for international students that let her work at Disneyworld! Through that experience she met a ton of lifelong friends and made amazing memories. “It was honestly such an incredible experience,” she says, “ I got used to talking to strangers and making friends with pretty much anyone. I think I’m a lot more independent and confident because of it.” She had such a great time that she has applied to return this summer!
Ellen’s favourite place on campus is Mystic Market for waffles, and her favourite restaurant in Victoria is Bin 4. If you ever see her around, be sure to say hi!