Her Campus Akron: A Student Organization that Gives Women an Outlet to Write

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Her Campus logo

By Brooklyn Dennison, Editor-in-Chief

Her Campus Akron provides women with an outlet to write and a resource for college life, Abigail Bashor, the executive and editor-in-chief of The University of Akron’s chapter of Her Campus said.

According to Her Campus’ website, http://www.hercampus.com, Her Campus is a media brand for empowered college women that features stories in categories such as style, entertainment, career, news, and LGBTQ+. Her Campus has 350 chapters nationwide and in 10 countries, the website said. Her Campus Akron is one of those chapters.

Bashor started the Akron chapter of Her Campus in January 2017, and it officially launched April of that year, she said. She said she had known about Her Campus at the national scale for a year, but Akron never had anything like it before.

“I believe in the doors it opens for people. At a heavily STEM school, we need more of these humanity based outlets, Bashor said.

Her Campus is a way that women can have an opportunity to give their voice a platform on campus, Bashor said. It’s also something to put on your resume, she said.

Arden Palmquist, the marketing director for Her Campus Akron, said that, along with Her Campus Akron being a big resume builder, it allows students to learn how to work and communicate with a team.

Palmquist joined Her Campus because she heard that it was an online magazine that empowered women.

“My goal as of right now is I want to change pop culture to where feminism is not a horrible subject,” Palmquist said.

Her Campus Akron is not only a chapter of Her Campus national, but it is a student organization at the University. Being a student organization allows Her Campus Akron to rent space at the University and request funding for events, Bashor said. An event that the executives of Her Campus Akron hope to attend is a conference hosted by Her Campus national, she said. The conference, called Her Conference, focuses on things like media, marketing, PR, journalism, and entrepreneurship, she said. Her Conference is held every July in New York.

Students can join Her Campus Akron by going to one of their meetings, Bashor said. Her Campus Akron meetings are held on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. in Bierce Library room 274. It is entirely volunteer based, Bashor said, but they encourage members to write articles every week.

Members of Her Campus Akron gathered around a table for their meeting at Bierce Library Tuesday evening // Photo courtesy of Her Campus Akron

Bashor said that Her Campus Akron members have fun at their meetings. They are laid back, but they get things done, she said. Her Campus Akron is welcome to everyone, not just women, Bashor said.

There are also no fees to join Her Campus Akron, Bashor said. She said that it was very important to her to make sure that students did not have to pay to be a part of Her Campus.

Her Campus Akron is having a fundraiser on Oct. 10 at Chipotle from 5-9 p.m., Bashor said. When mentioning Her Campus Akron while ordering, a percentage of money from that order goes to Her Campus Akron.

The organization is also hoping to do a donation drive in December, Bashor said. Twice a semester Her Campus Akron receives box of promotional items, called survival kits, from Her Campus national, she said. Starting with the items from those boxes, they want to put donation boxes in high traffic areas.

Her Campus was founded in 2009 by Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, Windsor Hanger Western and Annie Wang, the Her Campus website said. When they created Her Campus, they were undergraduate students at Harvard University.

“I just love it so much; I can talk about it all day,” Bashor said about Her Campus Akron.