College Feminists Connect!

An Awesome Opportunity: Go, Girls Go!

The Women’s Center over at St. Cloud State University has been busy all summer. We’ve been brainstorming and planning for the coming semesters and we have quite a few fun, interesting, and cool things in store for SCSU campus and surrounding communities.

Aside from our (top secret) planning, we’ve been asked by a local Boys and Girls Club to organize an afternoon for a group of young girls (ages K-4). The young girls are a part a group called, Go, Girls Go!; a young girl’s summer empowerment group focusing on creating positive body image/self esteem, cultivating and inspiring personal growth and independence. Needless to say, this group of young girls is definitely creating their destiny in feminism, and that couldn’t make me or the ladies at Women’s Center any happier.

Obviously, the Women’s Center agreed to take on this opportunity with a resounding, “YES!”, but at the same time we were all puzzled and curious as to how we were going to keep 15 girl’s attention for over an hour. I mean, come on, since when are college students used to working/collaborating with children when it’s not required for class? Never, that’s when, but we were all eager to find the perfect activity and create conversation surrounding positive body image and self esteem, which was the theme we decided to go with.

When brainstorming, I couldn’t help but think about my little nieces (ages 10, 9, 7, and 5) and what types of activities they would be receptive to – and then I thought of a conversation that was had a few months ago involving said body image topic.

Babysitting these girls is always such a treat.  They're always teaching me new things and never fail to keep me informed on "what's cool" now-a-days (because apparently, I'm old and totally out of the loop).

Are You a Coordinator? We Need You.

The Minnesota Women's Consortium is currently hiring a College Feminist Connect Coordinator Intern. The CFC Coordinator is responsible for communications between college campuses, liaisons, and the Minnesota Women's Consortium. Tasks include but are not limited to:

• Promotion of College Feminists Connect
• Maintaining an interactive online calendar of feminist, women, and gender related campus events
• Write and distribute a monthly online newsletter
• Schedule and coordinate meetings with campus contacts
• Coordinate campus liaison activities
• Be the main point of contact for campus liaisons
• Management of CFC social networking accounts
• Weekly blogging

Qualifications: Applicants must have a strong, demonstrated commitment to justice and equality for all women and girls. An applicant must be flexible, responsible, and willing to take on new projects. 

Additional Information: The Minnesota Women's Consortium is willing to work with students and their school to provide the supervision needed for students obtaining credits for the work. The position requires 10-12 hours a week.

How to Apply: Send a letter of intent, resume, and writing sample to Erin Parrish.

The Minnesota Women's Consortium is an association of 160+ women's organizations around the state working for women's equality and justice. The work of the Consortium is to connect and inform these groups and individual women to each other.

College Feminists Connect is an intern and student led program of the Minnesota Women's Consortium that seeks to connect women's resource centers, campus feminist groups, an individual college feminists across the state of Minnesota. Find out more here.

The Morgan Generation

It was not Harry Potter that broke Twitter records this past weekend, though it did smash box office records. It was the women from the United States and Japan that broke records at an astonishing 7,196 tweets per second. The Women’s World cup has not drawn s much attention since 1999, and the sad fact of the matter is most people remember that game because of Brandi Chastain taking off her shirt after the game-winning goal. Sunday, people around the world gathered around a TV or computer in order to watch the much-anticipated match. Even the Huffington Post published a photo of President Obama and Michelle with their daughters Sasha and Malia cheering on the U.S. in the White House. It is called the most beautiful game, and after years of playing soccer myself it truly is a perfect game.

In 1999, Twitter did not exist, and the way I watched the game was through a recorded VHS a day later. I was 11 and my room was plastered with soccer posters, I had player cards memorized, and at 11 I could name every player and position. I, like so many of my friends wanted to be a professional soccer player, I wanted to be just like Brianna Scurry; I mean I too was from Minnesota. In 1999 the U.S. women had a dream team every player made history that year, Kristine Lilly broke the record for most caps, while Mia Hamm to this day has the most goals.  Michelle Acres retired soon after the game that highlighted her career. Abby Wombach was fairly unknown in 1999, but is now the most popular female soccer player in the world.

Does Your Women's Center Have a Link?

Does your women's center have a link to College Feminist Connect? 

The College of Saint Benedict's Women's Center has a direct link for the College Feminist Connect. This link enables students to easily access information that College Feminist Connect posts and allows students to post blogs or find resources. The hope for College Feminist Connect is to have direct links on every women's centers page from every college or university in Minnesota. If you are interested in getting you school involved or applying to be a college feminist connect liaison please send a letter of intent and your resume to the College Feminist Connect Coordinator.