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person holding rectangular black wooden photo frame with Give. Thanks. print
person holding rectangular black wooden photo frame with Give. Thanks. print
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Culture

Why I Am Thankful For Her Campus This Thanksgiving

Chantal Canales
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Baylor chapter.

It took me three years to gain the courage to chase one of my dreams. It took one message on Facebook and Instagram to make it into a reality. 

During my senior year of high school, I discovered Her Campus in search of some advice for everything college-related. How to make friends, how to dress for class, and how to study for finals. Everything and anything college I needed to know, I found it all on one website, all dedicated to college women. 

As soon as I found Her Campus, I knew that I wanted to become involved with this special organization. Whether it was submitting an article, becoming an intern in Boston for Her Campus or joining my own chapter at whatever college I decided to attend. After already having a crisis on what I wanted to study in college and finally settling on journalism and marketing, I knew that I wanted to do something with writing, editing and social media with my career. With Her Campus, I could do everything I want with one organization. 

I decided soon after that I was going to attend Baylor (one of my best decisions ever) and I quickly found out that Baylor didn’t have a chapter of Her Campus. Right there I made another decision that would change my life: 

I wanted to start a chapter of Her Campus at Baylor.

I arrived here, a timid freshman with no confidence in my abilities, unsure of how I was going to start this crazy journey. With no clue of how to start a chapter by recruiting members to my team, I threw the idea aside until my sophomore year. Sophomore year, once again, threw its challenges in my face and I thought I was not ready to manage a team of people and make our chapter as successful as possible. 

On August 2nd, 2019, I bucked up the courage to send a message out on Facebook and Instagram about the grand project I had been dreaming about forever. I sent out a long paragraph explaining what Her Campus was and the things we get to accomplish with it, and the response was overwhelming.

Every comment, every DM and every text that I received in response warmed my heart. The excitement and enthusiasm for this idea astounded me. I had no idea that there were people here at Baylor that wanted something like this on our campus. 

I am so thankful for Her Campus in every single possible way. It has given me a voice to write about what I want, how I want. I have been able to connect with girls that I would have never met otherwise and through Her Campus give them a voice as well. I get to lead a team of 20 incredible women that have the power to speak up about issues they believe in. They give me such great joy every time we meet as a group because they are a reminder of that I dream I had long ago, and how that dream became a reality. They are the reason why all the late nights of publishing articles, making meeting agendas, creating content and working on everything Her Campus-related are worth it. 

When I’m working in the real world, hopefully looking out of my window in my office in New York with an amazing view of the city life, I will think back to my time with Her Campus with such appreciation and thanks. Just within four months it has given me my best college memories and has driven me to become more of an advocate for women’s empowerment. From our first meeting at a local coffee shop in our union building with my heart beating so fast out of nerves and our launch party to our plans for our future with our outreach to the Baylor community, Her Campus has given me the best girl gang and the best memories a girl could ever ask for.

Her Campus continues to teach me about everything that I love within the world of journalism. Every Friday night I crack open my AP Stylebook to edit articles, schedule meetings with female leaders on campus, and creating social media posts for our different platforms. 

To Her Campus, I am so thankful for you. Everything you have given me is such a treasure in my life. The two years that I will be able to serve as a Campus Correspondent will change me for the better and give me opportunities that no other organization could do. I am forever in your debt.

 

Chantal Canales is a senior journalism new media major at Baylor University. She is from McKinney, Texas, just north of Dallas. When she is not editing articles, she loves getting coffee with friends, reading books, discovering new places in Waco, and working at Fabled Bookshop and Cafe. She hopes to work as a book agent for a publishing house or as a magazine editor after her graduation in May 2021.