Her Campus is an online magazine that provides female college students with a creative outlet and an opportunity to make connections. There are over 400 college campus chapters and HC is considered to be a community that focuses on women empowerment.
Lydia Trimble is Her Campus’ Co-Campus Correspondent, or Co-CC, and also a writer.
“All articles are written by women for women,” Trimble said. “A lot of us (students) use HC as a creative outlet to write about whatever we want.”
Lupe Belmontes is Her Campus’ Marketing and Publicity Director and also a writer.
“We’ll write articles where we really get to express ourselves the way we want to,” Belmontes said.
Members typically write articles on college advice, relationships, beauty
tips, hobbies and interests, trending topics and even current events and politics.
SAU students can be involved with Her Campus in several different aspects and roles within the group.
Many members write articles or contribute photographs. There is also an executive board with the Campus Correspondent, which acts as the president. There are also editors, a pr and marketing team, an events coordinator and a social media team.
Currently, SAU’s Her Campus chapter is ranked at the Diamond level, which is the second-highest-ranking a chapter can reach.
“We did this by posting more content on our social media as well as publishing more articles on our website,” Trimble said.
Members benefit from the above expectations ranking by receiving survival kits. Survival kits contain an assortment of products that brands send HC chapters. Members get to try out these products and potentially write articles to review their favorites.
However, for the members of the Her Campus ‘girl gang,’ HC is more than the articles and occasional product.
SAU’s chapter has a large emphasis on empowering women and creating a close community of strong, successful and supportive women.
This community is so important to these women, especially in times like now where a community might be hard to find in the midst of social distancing, online meetings and little in-person connections.
“My favorite thing about Her Campus has to be making new friends within the club,” Belmontes said. “I know when I first transferred to St. Ambrose I didn’t know how to start making new friends, but the girls in this club really made it easy to do that.”
The group is also active around campus and in the Quad Cities community.
“We would also try to collaborate with other clubs on campus to try and improve our outreach,” Trimble said.
Last year the group donated food and self-care products to the SAU Campus Ministry food pantry.
“We also would have meetings to discuss events we could go to or volunteer together at,” Belmontes said.
Some members volunteered at SAU’s Introduce a Girl to STEAM Night, an event designed for girls in grades 2-8 to explore STEAM topics. Other members assisted local Girl Scouts selling cookies.
Members agree that they have created an empowering and meaningful organization.
“It’s a way to really express yourself in a creative manner, but we also strive to provide a sense of community on campus so if you just wanna make new friends or talk to new people, this is a great place to start,” Belmontes said.
Students interested in joining Her Campus can message the group on Instagram.
Anyone interested in reading their articles can visit hercampus.com.