By Theresa O’Connor
While most people at TPA learn about history in their classes, not many know about the Herstory club that meets every Friday at lunch time. Herstory/Girl Up is a student led, all-inclusive organization that empowers girls and boys to explore the past experiences of girls/women in order to improve gender equality. It lends an opportunity for members to lead, organize, learn and provide each other with mutual support on how to address gender disparity and build better relationships based on mutual growth and respect. The goals are to gain and promote a greater understanding of the physical, social-cultural, economic and political barriers girls/women continue to face within our school, community and world.
This past fall, Herstory made a huge stride and became an official club. From transitioning to an unofficial to an official club, Herstory hopes to be more recognized throughout the school.
With the help of Clara Moffitt, who is the club president, the Herstory Club has also partnered with Girl Up as of last year. The Girl Up community is an organization of numerous clubs of dedicated and passionate members who have teamed up to make an impact and change lives. Girl Up also allows women to rise up in their community and feel empowered globally. Girl Up has helped Herstory club organize several events to raise awareness such as a Herstory club spa night and a 5k run! Sounds incredible right?
Herstory also organized a service project with Days for Girls which sewed reusable cloth feminine hygiene products to be shipped worldwide to countries with limited access. Herstory hopes to see more of this involvement around the campus and is planning several fundraisers and service projects for this upcoming school year!
The club anticipates to partner with the Math Society with a joint goal of celebrating Women in STEM and to hold a job fair and other planned events to increase opportunities and access for female TPA students interested in pursuing STEM. So make sure to stay tuned!
The Herstory Club was first formed by Billie Nagy, a former TPA student from the class of 2016. Billie, and many of the members of Herstory today, felt as if not enough achievements and contributions of women had been displayed in history textbooks. Dr. Salcido, who has been the club’s sponsor since the club was formed, says she was very willing to support such an important and overarching cause. “Today, the club still continues to focus on expanding our knowledge of how women/girls shape history,” she says. “However, it has expanded into a safe space for any student who wants to address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion and a willingness to be and help others feel empowered.”
Through the Herstory club, members have understood more about important women in history through games, videos, and presentations from club members! Dr. Salcido also continues on to say that she appreciates that the Herstory club is student-led and after every meeting, she enjoys feeling inspired to do more to improve our school, community, nation, and even the world.
In Herstory, members discuss and analyze the contributions of women in history. They also help educate, fundraise, advocate, and serve adolescent girls whose human rights are being threatened.
President of Herstory, Clara Moffit, opens up about her experience with Herstory and Girl Up. She says, “I can easily say that Herstory/Girl Up has changed my life. When I joined the club in freshman year, I really didn’t know what I was doing there or really what I was doing with any aspect of my life. Since then, I brought Girl Up to TPA and currently serve as Girl Up’s state coalition chair. Herstory has given me a sense of direction and has guided my passions. It has opened my eyes up to the scope of feminism. As I am preparing to go to college, I know that the things I have learned in Herstory will impact my choices of extracurriculars, university, choice of major, and my career.” Super inspiring!
Herstory, through being educational and influential, can help many understand more about the ongoing issues in the world around us. It can also help those who are part of the club find ways to use the aspects they learn in their daily lives! This year’s vice president, Kylie Klassen, says that Herstory allows people to talk about the issues that are bothering them and the club has allowed her to become more of an activist in her community! She also believes that the Herstory club is very important because “it is a very caring environment and the goal is to learn and never judge.” Herstory is a great way for everybody to learn more and become more involved in their community on the issues of the struggles of women around the world.
This year, Clara’s main goal is to keep the Herstory club active around TPA for many more years to come because many of the senior leaders will be leaving this year. They will be missed! Herstory is such an encouraging and motivational club and new members are always appreciated and welcomed. So make sure you stop by the Spanish room or contact Clara for the Zoom meetings every Friday at noon! We cannot wait to see you there!