As the school year kicked off, so did one of Park’s clubs, Girls United. The female-run club focuses on meaningful discussions about misogyny and women around the world. This year they are hoping to recruit new members, raise funds and host events.
Sela Myers, junior co-president of Girls United, said Girls United is striving for more inclusive spaces and larger events.
“I want to achieve a lot of action (on) unplanned events,” Myers said. “I want us to have more people in the club and create a bigger space where we can have more people come and have events that include everybody.”
Julia Germain, advisor of Girls United and social studies teacher, said Girls United tries to tie in recent events that connect to Park with the meetings they host. Their meetings focus on uplifting women and providing information.
“They have an Instagram page that they post on with updates. They are really amazing about being creative with their meetings, so they tailor their meetings to the time of year and the month and different days that are celebrated in the month,” Germain said. “They create events that are fun and inclusive and bring in different people as a way to create more community.”
Myers said her initial reason for joining was to be a part of a united group of women at Park, and Girls United allowed her to find that.
“I really wanted to be part of something,” Myers said. “Freshman year it was just a really cool group of people that have really good discussions about feminism and intersectionality of feminism and the problems that all women face.”
Junior Chloe Lorentz said she wanted to join to learn about a variety of women across the world.
“(I joined) to learn about different people,” Lorentz said. “Especially learning about different women and different areas — people I wouldn’t normally learn about.”
According to Germain, raising money is a huge goal for Girls United. She said they hope to have more members join and participate in future events.
“This year the girls really have a goal of fundraising and expanding their membership,” Germain said. “They’ve already been brainstorming a lot of fun ideas of how to create events that are going to attract all different types of people to the club.”
Myers said she hopes to expand membership and move meetings to a public area.
“I want us to have a bigger group of people signed up. I want to have bigger events that connect to the outside organizations outside of (Park),” Myers said. “I love the meetings in here, but it’d be really cool to meet with people outside of (Park).”
Germain said community is a central part of Girls United’s goal to unite women at Park. She said creating a student-led club like Girls United is an important way to form bonds.
“The whole purpose is to create community within (Park), so who’s better to do that than the actual students of (Park)? It allows them to take their ideas and be able to run with it,” Germain said.
Girls United meets 7:45 before school in C361. Learn more on their Instagram: @slp.girlsunitedmn
