When you first get to college, faculty and staff members will be consistently telling you that getting involved on campus is pretty much the most important thing to do. My professors told me that it would help me establish roots and make friends faster. They also told me that being involved in a club or organization would help me build up my resume, which would help me stand out from the crowd when I go to apply for jobs in the real world.

So I listened to my professors and I joined a club, RadioSNHU. I went to one meeting and all of a sudden, I found that I was on the executive board as RadioSNHU’s sales director. Which was strange since I was only about three weeks into my freshman year at the time. The general manager of the station came up to me at the end of the meeting and told me that I was going to be their new sales director, and I couldn’t say no, which was funny because I was so shy then that I wanted to say no. Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t actually forcing me to take the position. He was joking, but there was some seriousness to him. A few weeks later, I learned that the only reason why he gave me the position was because none of the upperclassmen wanted it. At the time, it bothered me that it had to happen that way, but these days I wouldn’t change how I got the position because I love it.

I was the only female on the RadioSNHU executive board for about a year. I was also the youngest. It was difficult for me to keep up with them since I always felt as if I was the one being left out of the loop, but I tried hard and I managed the station’s budget well. I made my own mark on the station, even when the odds were against me.

My college, Southern New Hampshire University, is pretty great at empowering women to step up and chase after everything that they can accomplish, but that message, unfortunately, doesn’t always cross over to the student body. When I looked around at other clubs and organizations, I noticed that most of the clubs’ executive board members were men. However, there were a few exceptions here and there, meaning that there were some clubs and organizations that were led by women.

When I realized this, I made it a goal of mine to work hard to become a better student leader and over the past three years, I’ve achieved that goal. For my junior year of college, I was elected as RadioSNHU’s music director, which essentially meant that I was in charge of all of the music that gets played on the station and the DJing program that RadioSNHU offers. That whole year, I worked with numerous clubs and helped co-plan events. I helped the station get new DJing equipment, which was used at numerous events across campus. I really started to make a name for myself at the station, so much so that I was elected as the General Manager of RadioSNHU.

I was the first female general manager of RadioSNHU in years.

As the general manager of RadioSNHU, I was one of the few women on the executive board. During the Fall semester of junior year, there were two other women on the executive board besides me, but due to other obligations, they had to resign for the spring semester. Their positions were filled up by two guys, who were great to work with. For about five to six months, I was the only woman on the executive board. Don’t get me wrong, though, I loved working with all the guys I was with. We all worked well together and we made a lot of progress with the station.

As for the upcoming executive board for my senior year, we have two other girls joining us to replace the members who have graduated. The seven of us have already started coming up with great plans for this upcoming year. So far, we all have worked together without difficulties regardless of our personalities, gender, or roles in the executive board.

Now that I’m going into my senior year of college, I’m going into my second year as RadioSNHU’s general manager, and on top of that, I’m also going to be the President of a new organization that I started called the Marketing and Communication Student Association, the vice president of the High Film Society, and the promotions chair of SNHU’s Drama Club.

Over my college career I have joined a few clubs, became a leader in those clubs, became a resident assistant, and started working at Southern New Hampshire University’s Office of Marketing and Communications where I make and act in videos for the SNHU On Campus social media accounts. I put myself out there and worked hard to accomplish just about every goal that I have set for myself.

Sure, there have been times where things have been difficult due to me being a female student leader. I have been contradicted by a male leader, but I have worked through it and made myself a better and stronger leader. Being a female student leader is important, especially since there aren’t that many of us. Women need to step up and become stronger leaders. If we do this, then maybe the world could take a step closer to gender equality. We’re getting there, but there’s still a bigger leap that we all need to take!