IT ALWAYS STARTS WITH ONE By: Karli Wilson

Michelle Quinn hopes to spread empowerment and support for women everywhere, especially on the campus of Augustana College. On September 27th, she spoke highly of Her Campus, a club which she is co-president of, along with Shubhi Sharma.

“Her Campus would not be Her Campus without Michelle being my co-president!” said Sharma.

Sharma explained that they both have trust in each other, and are able to be honest when developing new ideas for the group. Because of this, they have grown “to become better leaders!”

Quinn says that Her Campus is meant to “ spread positivity and empowerment.”

“Just being able to reach out and be there for one girl, and have that girl be there for another girl, and it’s just this whole positive effect,” says Quinn. “All I want to do is just give back,” “I want to be able to inspire people and motivate people, and help them realize their full potential.”

Her Campus at Augustana is one chapter of a national magazine directed toward women in college. There are different teams within the group to help run the chapter: events, marketing, social media, and editing/writing.

Different perspectives are brought together “with one common goal” says Quinn, “to help people, very general. Whether it’s motivating them, inspiring them, or just giving them another perspective, or letting them know they’re not alone in their struggles.”

Here at Augustana, Her Campus puts on different events throughout the year such as this month’s fundraiser, the Trash Dash, which took place last weekend. It was an event put on by both Her Campus and the Sierra Club, meant to raise money for Quad Cities Earth and clean up Augustana’s campus.

The Trash Dash “was a huge success,” says Quinn. “We fundraised over $500 for the QC organization, and we also picked up over 450 pounds of trash on campus.”

“We’re really trying hard to do that philanthropy, and I think it's being successful,” says Quinn.

Not only is Her Campus trying to build on philanthropy, but building a strong female community.

“If everybody feels that love, and everybody feels that support, and everybody feels that self-confidence, just imagine how far we can go”

“Ever since I have met Michelle, she has gone out of her way to make sure people feel included and like they have a community to lean on,” says Cheyenne Bartelt, one of Michelle’s friends and past roommates.

Although Quinn believes that she has always been a very confident person, she says “Her Campus has given me the opportunity to share that, and to spread that.”

Quinn explained how she hopes to spread this confidence to other women on campus. She hopes to be the person to help one girl find the beauty in herself, hopefully building a domino effect, so that girl will spread her newly found empowerment and share it with someone else, and so on.

“It always starts with one,” said Quinn. If this happens, “how many powerful women are we going to have on this campus?”