This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Belmont chapter.

Classification: Senior

Major: Exercise Science with minors in Psychology and Spanish

Hometown: Watertown, South Dakota

How did you end up making the decision to come to Belmont, especially being from so far away?

“I have some family in Mt. Juliet, which is just to the east of Nashville, so they were one of my big pulls to leave the Midwest and try something new.”

Tell me a little bit about your Passion for fitness.

“Being an exercise science major, you have a love for fitness. I was always an athlete, even in middle school and high school. I danced at a studio and for a dance team, I played softball in the summer, tennis in the fall, worked out with the basketball and volleyball teams every spring. I just always loved being active. When I came to college, I was worried about not being on a team anymore and not having anything structured. So I started coming to group fitness classes and loved those. I started working at the rec and became a personal trainer and group fitness instructor. I really love teaching group fitness, it’s one of my favorite things to do each week.”

So how did you hear about CHAARG?

“I found out about CHAARG [Changing Health, Attitudes, + Actions to Recreate Girls] from the director of the fitness center spring of my sophomore year, March/April of 2015. He was interviewing grad students. Natalie Szocs, who is the GA for personal training, was involved with CHAARG chapter at the University of Cincinnati and mentioned it in her interview. I’d just been hired as a student leader, and got called into the office and was asked to bring it to Belmont.”

What was the process of starting a CHAARG chapter like?

“When I first looked into it, I learned that I’d just missed the deadline to bring it to campus for the fall semester by two or three weeks. So I started out by joining the virtual community, which is offered to anyone who doesn’t have a chapter on their campus, and participated in that all summer. It turned out to be great because I was living in Washington DC at the time for an internship, and I didn’t really know anyone to workout with. It gave me routines so I didn’t have to create them on my own. Then once school started back up applications opened. I started trying to get signatures to start the chapter, I needed at least 50.I was kind of nervous about asking for them because no one really knew what CHAARG was. I actually ended up getting about 150, which was incredible. I applied, went through all the interview stages, and started our chapter last winter. We applied to be a student organization and went through the whole nine yards of becoming official on campus. We became official on campus last February and had 78 members for the semester.”

CHAARG has grown a lot since then, right?

“We have 182 girls as of right now. We’ve more than doubled, which is incredible!”

What’ve you gotten out of CHAARG?

“I’ve really grown so much as an individual, and it’s been a really great way to learn how to be a leader.”

Why do you think CHAARG had become so successful?

“CHAARG provides a community for the girls. A lot of people really need the motivation and support from other people, which is why group fitness is so popular for females. CHAARG is a great way to experience that, we have small groups and studio spotlights every week. Small groups are a campus workout, led by an exec team member or additional small group leader, normally a past FitPlan workout and our way to really promote community in the chapter. We have weekly themes and challenges to keep the girls engaged and aiming to live a healthier life. Studio Spotlights, Tuesday nights at 7pm – we work with studios all around Nashville, we travel to them or they come to campus and we try everything! Last semester we did crossfit, barre, hot yoga, kettlebells, HotBox – this semester we are trying jazzercise, spinning, title boxing, Pound, self-defense and much more! They provide an awesome way to meet other girls who have similar interests with each other. We all encourage each other to be our healthiest selves. A great example of this is when Aerie sponsored the CHAARG national retreat a couple weeks ago. CHAARG took pictures for Aerie of the girls wearing the new pants and sports bras to thank them on social media for the donation. A girl in the middle wore her CHAARG shirt to promote the organization. Someone posted a comment saying that the girl must have chosen to do that because she was ‘chunky.’ CHAARG has empowered this female and gave her the confidence to respond with a blog post to the hurtful comment. We recognize that everyone has a different body. She has muscles, she has skin, and she’s a human being. So many CHAARG girls commented on the initial post (insert link embed), saying that this was an empowering community and things like that aren’t tolerated. CHAARG really teaches girls to love themselves and love their bodies. We’ve had girls throughout all the different chapter have had struggled with eating orders and depression and it’s been such a positive place for them.”

CHAARG is not a sorority, but I have heard it being described as being like a fitness sorority. Why do you think that is?

“I would say it’s described that we because we are a group of girls. The structure of CHAARG was based off of sororities because the founder was part of one at OSU. Nothing in chapter is mandatory, everything is optional. Clearly though, the more involved you are, the more you’ll get out of it. Also, there really aren’t any cliques in our chapter. I personally don’t think of the term ‘sorority’ when I think about CHAARG, just a community of girls.”

So how can one become a part of CHAARG? What if your school doesn’t have a chapter>

“If you head to chaarg.com/shop, click the membership button and register under the Belmont chapter. And of course, you can also join the virtual chapter if one hasn’t started yet at your school. You’ll be added to a Facebook group with girls all around the country. Many girls in the same area often meet up. Another great way to get involved with nationals is through the inCHAARG instagrams. If you search #BelmontCHAARG or #inCHAARG you’ll see all sorts of posts of girls empowering each other. I actually get so many more likes on that account than my personal account, I feel so popular! You really just post about your fitness journey, and it’s a great way to meet girls in other chapters. National CHAARG also does giveaways.”

Are there any events non-members can get involved in?

“Unfortunately, at this point is the semester, we don’t offer any opportunities for non-members. At the start of each semester, we have our ‘recruitment period’ where we open spotlights, events, and small groups to everyone. You can still join though at any time. And of course, the sooner you join, the more you’ll get out of it.”

Follow CHAARG

Facebook @BelmontuniversityCHAARG

Instagram: #BelmontCHAARG

Twitter: @Belmont_CHAARG

Maren Johnson: CHAARG Ambassador

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