‘Her Campus’ at Saint Michael’s: A fun social way to practice writing

An original graphic for the Saint Michael’s Her Campus club designed bu Erin Mikson ’21.

The national organization “Her Campus” bills itself as “an online magazine dedicated to, written by, and focused on empowering, college women.” Saint Michael’s College has an active and productive chapter with a high-achieving “silver level” designation, based on its frequent contributions.

Her Campus purports to be “the #1 media site for college women, written entirely by the world’s top college journalists.” Elisabeth O’Donnell ‘15 founded the Saint Michael’s College’s (SMCVT) chapter in 2015 because she felt it was important to join a group that combined the professional world with college life. Though it is not an exclusive club by gender, Her Campus contributors are mostly young women with a self-proclaimed drive toward “promoting gender equality, female empowerment, and big girl boss energy.”

Another earlier club logo designed by Rachael Prescott ’20

Organized into roughly three separate teams, everyone that is a part of Her Campus SMCVT plays a role. One team writes articles that are published on the Her Campus site about whatever those authors feel inspired to write about. Some articles discuss pop culture, while others delve into more substantive topics such as mental health or global news. After the editor in the campus club reviews submissions, they are ready for publication on the Her Campus site under the author’s profile.

Another group in the campus club is in charge of social media and photography. Instagram is where a lot of the SMCVT chapter of Her Campus holds traction, moving from a “bronze level” eventually to a “silver level” chapter between 2020 and 2021, largely based on the fun graphics that Saint Michael’s College students create, as well as the influx of articles they added to the site during that time.

The final group is in charge of social activities on campus. As a club that centers largely on social media, the members of Her Campus SMCVT are in charge of organizing when and how they are going to recruit new members and encourage members to get to know one another. It is popular every year for Her Campus to put on a “Galentine’s Day” social for club members as well as one or two other in-person events throughout the school year.

Author Kaylee Sayers shares her personal experience with Her Campus:

I have been a part of Her Campus since the fall of my first year at St. Mike’s. It is a club that is widely advertised by word-of-mouth, though my first year I saw a flyer for it in Lyons dorm.

Kaylee Sayers ’23

After meeting with the Campus Coordinator at the time, I knew that writing articles was a skill that I wanted to hone. I wrote a mixture of news articles reporting on global issues and opinion pieces. It has been a fantastic resource to get better at something I already enjoy and am passionate about, as well as feeling supported by a network of my peers.

Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, when we were not capable of meeting in person, we were still able to participate in the club. In fact, the SMCVT chapter of Her Campus garnered so much participation during the pandemic that it jumped from a bronze level chapter to a platinum level chapter for a time in a matter of months, meaning we were in the top 20 percent of all Her Campus chapters in the country.

Francesca D’Elia (Class of 2020) was and still remains a huge proponent of Her Campus. “Anytime we got all of the girls together it was always so fun. Everyone was so supportive and excited for team nights!” she said.