Sarah Carney: Working to Empower Young Women

This week, Her Campus had the pleasure of sitting down with the incredibly hardworking and fiercely dedicated, Sarah Carney. Sarah is a sophomore at Ohio State and is majoring in Materials Sciences and Engineering. Outside of academics, she is involved in the Girls Circle Project, a program that works with girls in various Columbus schools. Read on to find out more about her experience with the Girls Circle Project and why she finds supporting young women so important! You go girl!

Name: Sarah Carney

Major: Materials Sciences and Engineering 

Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio

Year: Sophomore 

Her Campus: What is the goal of Girls Circle Project?

Sarah Carney: The Girls Circle Project is a group of Ohio State women that work with girls in the local Columbus area on topics such as identity, wellness and relationships. The girls participating in the program range in age from 9-18, typically from the fifth grade up to the twelfth grade. Our goal is to provide girls with a strong support system while allowing them to be themselves in a welcoming environment. The program is for girls of any race, economic backgrounds and religious beliefs and is not targeted to reaching out to a particular demographic of young girls. The Girls Circle Project focuses on empowering girls and women from all backgrounds and to create positive connections with others as well as improving personal strengths and competence in girls.

HC: What is the process for getting involved in GCP?

SC: Applications to be a part of  the Girls Circle Project go out early Spring semester. Unfortunately, our application deadline for this year has already passed, but follow the Girls Circle Project on Twitter for updates on application dates next year!

HC: Why is working with young women important to you? 

SC: Working with younger girls is exciting and is a huge learning experience for me. Even though I was at one time a fifth grade girl, so much has changed in our society in the past ten years. Not only does the media give younger girls the message that they should be beautiful and skinny, they should also be successful and smart and athletic and caring and want a family. Girls are expected to do it all and look great doing it. At a younger age, these influences have a profound effect on the way young girls view themselves and their peers. Adding social media into the overly long list of things that girls are expected to have perfect makes the pressure they face monumental. Girls are trying to construct an image of themselves online in a way that makes them appear older, cooler and prettier so that they can live up to these expectations within social media as well as in real life. Now, girls feel like everywhere they go their lives are on display and they think they need to be perfect and camera-ready at every minute. Being in the Girls Circle Project and working with young girls and women has shown me how important it is to recognize what a huge impact our society has on girls’ idea of self worth and I think that’s something everyone needs to become more aware of so that we can begin to get rid of social constructs and rebuild the support system that every girl and woman deserves to have unconditionally.

HC: What have you learned about yourself through your involvement with GCP?

SC: My involvement in the Girls Circle Project has taught me to be aware of the influences placed on me by society, to support other women in their goals and choices, and to believe that I am worth supporting. It can be incredibly difficult to take care of yourself mentally and emotionally in college, but being a part of the Girls Circle Project has shown me that my well-being should be a priority. It’s also incredibly important to support the women and girls in your life and to let them know that they are important and worth taking care of. We need to empower each other, because our society does an awful job of making women feel worthwhile unless they’ve lost six thousand pounds and are wearing makeup. Even then, they still might not be good enough! Needless to say, being in GCP has helped me a lot with the idea of self acceptance which has ultimately made me a much happier and healthier woman.

HC: Who is someone that you personally look up to and why?

SC: I will always always always look up to my mom for her patience, her stubbornness and her personal drive. When I remember growing up with my brother and sister, she never once told any of us that we couldn’t do something. She also worked multiple jobs, would come home late, and would still have time to paint pictures with us and talk about our day at school. She’d sing songs that she’d make up on the fly that would be ridiculously off-key and would usually be her trying to make brushing our teeth a really fun experience, when in fact we just hated the song and would run to the bathroom to brush immediately so she would stop singing. The neighbors would tell us how amazing our mom was, because she’d inflate the tires on our bikes and make us snack trays and build a patio in our backyard. My mom just made everything fun, but was still productive and focused. If I could take one thing from her, it’d be her ability to never take life too seriously. 

• columbus
• osu
• student