The women of Her Campus Kent State are turning their organization in a new direction by refocusing on philanthropy and community involvement. 

“Her Campus has definitely done an amazing job on this campus,” said Linden Miller, junior public relations major and director of philanthropy and community involvement. “I think just uniting girls and stuff like that from the get-go. Philanthropy is kind of like that base that you have when people ask, ‘what do you guys do for others?’”

Her Campus is an online student publication dedicated to helping aspiring female journalists launch their careers.

The digital magazine was founded in 2009 at Harvard University by Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, Annie Wang and Windsor Hanger Western after they realized there was a gap in the market for women journalists.

“They saw that tons of women wanted to promote their work, be writers and publish things, but they weren’t getting where they needed with other publications,” said Jessica Goodwin, junior journalism major and editor-in-chief of Her Campus Kent State. “They created a whole organization just for women to be able to write and voice themselves.”

According to Her Campus, there are more than 380 campus chapters across 46 states and eleven countries run by more than 10,000 contributors. Kent State’s chapter currently has 66 members. 

Miller became a writer for Her Campus spring semester of 2019 and eventually started her new role as director of philanthropy this fall.

Her Campus shifted to philanthropy to get the word out about their organization and show Kent State’s community that they are more than just a writing and social media platform.

Linden saw the opening as an amazing opportunity because she wants to go into nonprofit advocacy work in the future.

Within her new role, Miller said she plans on guiding Her Campus into a future where they have strong relationships with other colleges and organizations on campus, but while giving back to as many as they can.

“What I do now is kind of come up with different ways for our girls to volunteer together, to get us all in the community together,” Miller said. 

Recently, Her Campus partnered with Best Buddies, an on-campus organization that typically pairs developing students with students who have special needs.

“We did a spa and movie night where we painted their nails and then we made hot cocoa mixes. But it’s about touching someone, you know, making their day better,” said Shelby Rabideaux, senior digital media production major and president of Her Campus Kent State. 

Her Campus will travel to the Ronald McDonald house on Saturday in Cleveland to host a luncheon for the families.

“We’re doing a cinnamon chip pancake type thing and fruit salads for brunches,” Miller said. “We’ll have all of that ready and cooked at 11 a.m. It’s going be a brunch and then the families come in and they get served.”

Miller said through their philanthropy efforts she hopes the women of Her Campus will feel fulfilled.

“I hope that they know that they’ve helped other people that day,” Miller said. “I think that it’s really important to know that you’ve actually changed something like made an impact on someone’s day.”

Contact Gershon Harrell at [email protected].