This past Sunday, April 29, the Chi Delta Theta chapter here at UCLA hosted their annual Benefit Concert in support of Girls’ Inc, a non-profit organization that inspires young girls to be strong, smart and bold.
Her Campus talked with the co-community service chairs of Chi Delta Theta, Jillian Ubando and Sera Lim. Jillian is a second-year neuroscience student, currently pursuing a career as a psychologist, while Sera is an undeclared second-year wanting a career in entertainment and marketing. Read on to find out more about Girls’ Inc and the Chi Delta Theta Benefit Concert!
Her Campus: What is Girls’ Inc.?
Jillian Ubando: Girls Inc. is a non profit organization that focuses on the development of a strong and whole girl, supporting, mentoring, and guiding girls through academic enrichment and life skills instruction support. They provide educational enrichment programs that focus on STEM education and literacy to young girls from Title 1 schools in South Los Angeles, Watts, and Compton. Each year, Chi Delta Theta of UCLA holds a large scale benefit concert to raise money for a beneficiary of our choosing. This year, we wanted to focus on empowering young women within our community. We knew that as a sorority, we wanted to spotlight women building other women up. We attended Women’s March Los Angeles 2018 and after researching the organizations that participated, we saw that the vision of Girls’ Inc. most aligned with ours. So, we reached out to partner with them and offered to donate all of our proceeds from the Benefit Concert to Girls’ Inc. of Greater Los Angeles.
HC: How does your annual Benefit Concert support Girls’ Inc?
JU: In our partnership with Girls’ Inc., we aimed not only to bring awareness to the various resources and direct services that Girls’ Inc. has to offer to its local communities, but also to inspire students to be strong, smart, and bold. Our concert is free admission so our proceeds come from the audience buying raffle tickets during the event. Through many generous donations from companies that sponsor our event, we were able to raffle off amazing prizes and raise several hundreds of dollars for Girls’ Inc.
HC: This year’s Benefit Concert took place this past Sunday, April 29. How did it go?
JU: I’d say it went really well! We got a lot of support from local organizations, UCLA clubs that were willing to come out and perform, as well as companies in LA who showed their support by donating. Our sponsorship committees went door to door collecting over $600 in raffle prizes for things like tickets to the National History Museum, VIP Passes to the Broad Museum, a month of unlimited yoga from CorePower Yoga, and more. We were also able to book a lot of cool local performers such as UCLA’s Hawaiian Club, Awaken Acapella, On That Note Acapella and solo artists such as Diddy and our very own president, Charlyne Nicolas. All of us in Chi Delta Theta are passionate about the cause, so we were inspired to work our hardest to host a great Benefit Concert for Girls Inc. I’m proud of the hard work we did and I feel that our efforts really shined through this year!
HC: What do you look forward to in the future?
Sera Lim: I look forward to using this recent partnership between Chi Delta Theta and Girls’ Inc. to build an even stronger relationship with the women at Girls’ Inc. I am excited to work hands on with the young girls who dream to become part of a larger movement in uplifting other girls. I am proud to be part of an organization where we can host events like our annual benefit concert in support of women’s rights and spotlight educational inequity and other challenges that young girls in low-income communities may face.
HC: What advice do you give to the young girls?
SL: No matter how young you may be, you are the difference. Every young girl has the power to start a movement – a movement to encourage, to share, and to love those around us. It starts with young girls who dream to become leaders in their communities – don’t be afraid to try new things and to be and to stand as an advocate for the things you are passionate about because everything counts.
HC: What advice do you have for your fellow college women?
SL: As a sophomore in college, I’ve been really trying to take on this year day by day and enjoy the little moments. This year alone, I’ve managed to join a new student organization and commit myself to prioritizing my health by staying active in the gym. With the crazy amount of responsibilities that we tackle as college women, it’s always important to give ourselves the credit that we deserve. You are strong, you are smart, and you are bold!