My Experience as the President of Her Campus at Carleton

In first year, I was lost. I had just graduated high school, affirmed my identity as an over-achiever, and was terrified about all of the changes that came with starting university. To name a few, I moved houses, I moved cities (twice), I moved schools, and I started living on residence. I faced a million choices, with no clear place to start. One thing that has always comforted me is a sense of certainty, often through a defined routine and schedule. So, when it came to extracurriculars, I thought it would be easy to pick something, to start making friends and to start belonging somewhere. I’ve always loved contributing to something bigger than myself and clubs have always allowed me to do that.

When I found Her Campus at Club Expo, I was elated. It was female-led, related to writing, and managed by some of the friendliest people I had met since starting at Carleton. Unfortunately, I hit a rut in first semester and didn’t write anything. I struggled to balance all of the changes and hyper-focused on school work, working part-time, and making friends. Once I had settled down in second semester, I revisited HCC and wrote my first article: How to be ok with not living up to your high school self. From there I took off. I wrote an article each month and was featured on the organization’s front page—a rarity for most writers. I felt passionate, happy, and purposeful. So, I decided to apply to the executive team. As a member, I noticed a lack of an equity lens at HCC, which pushed me to make changes and apply for EDI Officer. Things didn’t go according to plan.

Before I knew it, I was raising my hand to become president and fill the empty spot during elections. I was terrified, but I had presidential experience from high school, and I knew that I was capable. Here are the lessons that I learned on my journey from April 2023 – April 2024:

You can’t control everything

This one was extremely relevant to my life at the time. Everything that happened from that fateful day in April of 2023 was unforeseen: Despite my best efforts, things were constantly out of my hands, I spent my summer learning the ins and outs of HCC and trying to get on top of things. It didn’t matter. Things kept going awry. But out of that came a sense of calmness and agility that my stringent high school self had only dreamed of. What’s a disruption but a new and fun challenge to say you’ve overcome?

Kindness goes a long way

As a leader, you end up in a lot of situations where you have to balance the act of directing others and working with others. One thing I’ve found is that especially in a volunteer role, people actually want to be there. They are sacrificing their time and other opportunities to be a part of the team. Because of this, it’s so important to take the time to recognize their work, to be graceful when mishaps happen and to above all: be understanding.

Just by being kind, I’ve had people do things that I haven’t even asked them to. I’ve had people show up for me and offer to take some of the load off. Just by being kind, I learned so much about my team and became someone they could trust and be honest with; especially if they struggled to meet expectations. Managing a club is a team effort and I couldn’t have done any of it without my fellow executives.

Have confidence in the capabilities of others

Throughout my term, I was pleasantly surprised by the initiatives and campaigns that came from handing over the reins to others and trusting their capabilities. Everyone went through an application, interview, and election process, they earned their spots and it was really important for me as a leader to give them the space to prove that.

With that mindset, our Black History Month campaign was born! It was all engineered by the brilliant mind of Simone Brown (our EDI officer last year) and heavily supported by our interns Hailey and Lakayla. It was such a beautiful initiative that made me feel incredibly represented as a Black girl and it was wonderful to see everyone come together to make it happen.

There are too many instances to name where team members showed up and excelled at their roles. Our senior editor Melissa always held down the fort, and our events team was always amazing and took initiative (especially the director Maia). Because of this, we were able to generate many innovative ideas.

Know your limitations

On a personal note, my over-achieving ways were really put to the test during this term. There were several times when I was overwhelmed and struggled with living up to the image that I had presented to others. It really helped me to be honest when I was sick, burned out, or needed a break.

I set specific times to work on Her Campus during the day and cancelled meetings wherever needed to make things easier. I tried to show myself being human, so others on the team would feel comfortable following suit.

Community is beautiful and irreplaceable

As president, I had many instances where strangers and acquaintances reached out to tell me about the impact of the club and the articles I had written. I learned that impact is real. People notice and are inspired by what you do. So, it’s important to keep going, even when it doesn’t seem that way.

We were also able to gain many new Black members through the Black History Month campaign and expand our reach as a club overall. By being dependent on articles each week, it became apparent that none of this would be possible without a persistent and all-encompassing community. I really embraced that!

So, I guess this is me signing off. I’m incredibly excited about what the new team will bring to the table and will be forever appreciate this experience.

HCXO,

Teni