The weekend leading up to University of Central Florida’s inaugural Big 12 Conference home football game was filled with events to get students excited about the historic jump to the big leagues. One such event was the Be You Women’s Empowerment series, hosted by the Big 12 Conference and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit. Her Campus’ University of Central Florida chapter was invited to the event, and I along with ten other chapter members went and enjoyed all that the event had to offer.
Hosted at the Addition Financial Arena, I and our other members walked into the basketball stadium to see it transformed with a stage for panels and booths set up with different offerings and sponsors. Each visitor at the event got an opportunity to pick up a Be You t-shirt with our school’s colors as well as posters for our UCF sports teams. After walking past the welcome table, you could see multiple photo opportunities, including a replica of the iron throne from the HBO series Game of Thrones. Even Knightro, the UCF mascot was making his rounds, stopping to take pictures with attendees.
After walking in further, our club was welcomed by a team of makeup artists from Maybelline, who were doing everyone’s makeup and giving away full-size Maybelline products. I had my makeup done by Katie from the Maybelline team, who did my eyes and lips so that I was ready for all of the photo opportunities the day would have in store. The event also featured a station where you could take your headshots, and the Maybelline glam team was ready to help you look picture perfect for the shots. The beauty bar stations were decorated with quotes about female empowerment, and were a perfect spot for our group to get photobombed by none other than one of the featured speakers, Camille Kostek.
Around 12:00 p.m., attendees were ushered to the seats to watch a performance by Knight Moves, UCF’s dance team. Knight Moves delivered a showstopping performance and were followed by the first panel of the day. This panel featured local women leaders in business and in sports. The speakers included Shelley Wilkes, who is the External Vice President of Marketing and Social Responsibility for the Orlando Magic; Kay Rawlins, the Orlando City soccer team founder who is also SVP of Community and Social Impact; Ashley Turner, Director of External Affairs and Partnerships for the UCF Sport Business Management Program; and Suzanne Worthington, Orlando Health’s Senior Vice President at Winnie Palmer Hospital. The panel focused on themes of women empowerment and challenges in working in fields that are usually more dominated by men. Each woman had a connection to UCF or the city of Orlando in some way, and all offered insights and advice on advancing in the corporate world.
Following the women’s empowerment panel was the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit panel which included the SI Swim Editor-in-Chief MJ Day, SI Swim General Manager Hillary Drezner, and two current models for SI Swim, Olivia Ponton and Camille Kostek. Olivia Ponton rose to fame on Tik Tok and has since launched a successful social media and modeling career. Camille Kostek was SI Swim’s 2019 Covergirl, and in addition to modeling, is the current host of Wipeout, Dancing with Myself and is also featured on Ridiculousness.
The SI Swim panel focused on themes of empowerment and embracing you and touched on how to handle negativity and criticism. Olivia Ponton and Camille Kostek both stressed the importance of self-care and in making sure that you are taking care of yourself. Olivia Ponton and Camille Kostek both were incredibly vulnerable and honest in talking about issues such as social media, body image, and online hate. The panel also discussed goals that SI Swim has for the future, including shifting the perception of the magazine and casting models on a multitude of factors besides their physical appearance.
At the end of the panel, Olivia and Camille both took pictures with all the attendees and mingled with everyone who was there. Both women were incredibly down to Earth and so enthusiastic to be there. Special shoutout to Camille, who during the panel mentioned how she was learning about Her Campus and what a great organization it is to be a part of!
Overall, the event was an incredible experience for me, and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to attend. As a current Business Marketing major, I felt so inspired by every woman who spoke in both panels since I want to work in the sports or entertainment industry. Leaving the panel, I felt a better sense of what I wanted to do post-grad and felt relieved to know that the career path I am on is something that I will enjoy after hearing the speaker’s experiences and triumphs within their respective fields.