The Her Campus Guide to College Life by Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, Annie Chandler Wang, Windsor Hanger Western, and the Writers & Editors of Her Campus

Many of you are probably already familiar with Her Campus, especially since we have our very own chapter here at Fairfield University. Her Campus is the #1 global online community for college women founded by three Harvard alums. Their website is an invaluable tool for female college students and it was the winner of the Harvard College’s business plan competition in 2009. Articles on the site are written by top college student journalists (5,000+ contributors) and more than 250 college chapters have been formed. Many contributing writers and campus correspondents have gone on to accept positions at big name magazines and marketing companies such as Glamour, Vogue, People, and Ogilvy.

This guidebook offers the “collegiette” (Her Campus’ moniker for the in-the-know female college student) lots of helpful advice, such as creating roommate contracts and eating right—despite some unhealthy dining hall options. As a senior, I did find some useful tips, particularly in the chapters on LinkedIn, social media etiquette, and landing coveted internships and jobs. It is also always beneficial to learn about new ways to beat stress (whether it’s low level or chronic) and get refreshed on ways to handle roommate situations or unhealthy relationships with friends or dates. Despite enjoying this book, I do feel it is best targeted to the first and second year student. 

The five-part sectioning of the book works well to organize subjects, for example, “Staying Safe in College” and “Managing Your Money and Career”.  Each chapter concludes with Wellness Check-ins, like “Six Workout Mistakes to Avoid” as well as Chapter Checklists.  The authors’ goal is to take you through all aspects of college life both academic and social with insights that will help you succeed in thriving during your college years.  They accomplish that goal having created a most thorough and well written guide.

Reading this book is like having a conversation with your best girlfriends and older role models who sincerely want to help you succeed. These articles written by the founders, are recent college graduates who, in looking back, can give you sage counsel on how to navigate the often-complicated waters of college. This ultimate college handbook should be given to young women at their college orientation as there are so many tips that are perfect for new students, such as how to beat the freshman fifteen and talking with career planning.  Some say diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but I say, this book will be the best friend that can change your life.  If you aren’t already a collegiette, you’ll certainly be on your way after reading this book!

 

Interview with co-founder Stephanie Kaplan Lewis:

GW: What sparked your interest in starting Her Campus for college girls? Did you have a specific experience that launched the idea?

SKL: My co-founders and I met as undergrads at Harvard while working on a student publication that was a lifestyle and fashion magazine for Harvard women.  We took over leadership of the publication and transitioned it online, and it took off—not just with women at Harvard, but also with women at colleges across the country. Women at other colleges started contacting us asking for advice on how to start something similar at their school, and this gave us the idea to create a national media property targeted at college women, with both national and local content, all produced by student journalists.

GW:  What was college life like for you?

SKL: College was very busy!  I was a psychology major, economics minor; editor-in-chief of the student publication that gave us the idea for Her Campus; VP: Communications for my sorority, Delta Gamma; conducted psychology research in two different labs; and worked as a tour guide at the admissions office.  Over the summers I studied abroad in Barcelona, and held editorial internships at Seventeen and SELF.

GW: When and how did you come up with the idea of a “collegiette”?

SKL: We came up with the term "collegiette" in the very early stages of Her Campus, before we had launched.  I don't remember exactly how the idea came to us but as soon as we thought of it, it stuck!

GW: What does it take to become a campus correspondent for Her Campus or to start a new chapter?

SKL: Anyone interested in starting a chapter of Her Campus can apply here: http://www.hercampus.com/start-your-own-my-campus-chapter and we then conduct a rigorous application process involving publicity ideas, demonstrated interest from your peers, interviews, and more.  If your school already has a chapter of Her Campus, you can visit your chapter's page within HerCampus.com and email the Campus Correspondents to get involved!

GW: What is a typical day like for you at Her Campus?

SKL: There really is no typical day!  But on any given day I might be meeting with different departments and people I oversee, answering emails, going through agreements for clients, working on the editorial calendar, working on projects like our conferences, and more.  Some days might also involve speaking engagements or, most recently, book signing events!

GW: What advice would you give to college students or “collegiettes” that you did not include in your new book?

SKL: If you have an idea for a business, get started as soon as possible!  There is no time like the present.

GW: What do you think is the most important takeaway from The Her Campus Guide to College Life if you had to sum it up in a few words?

SKL: College is all about balance.

GW: What are you reading now? What would you recommend a soon-to-be college graduate put on her reading list? (Other than The Her Campus Guide to College Life of course!)

SKL: Two great books I've read recently are Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (obviously!) and The Glitter Plan by the founders of Juicy Couture.

Co-founders of Her Campus: Windsor Hanger Western, Annie Chandler Wang, and Stephanie Kaplan Lewis

Making Marks: Discover the Art of Intuitive Drawing by Elaine Clayton

Before even opening this book, I was privileged to experience a stream drawing session with Elaine Clayton. What many of us call “doodling”, Elaine terms stream drawing, or intuitive stream drawing. Upon sitting down with her, she asked me to form a question in my mind with emotional attachments or meaning. For example I chose to question my future, specifically where I’ll find myself career-wise in the near future.  She then told me to pick up the pencil with my non-dominant hand and close my eyes. After drawing one continuous line of random twists and shapes, I opened my eyes to find a mess of swirls and curves.

She began by asking what I saw in my drawing, what images first came to mind when looking at the piece of paper. I immediately saw a dragon pointing to the right of the page, which she said was facing towards the future, after which I told her about the recurring dragon dreams I had been having. She said this could mean I am thinking of a job or the working world as a “beast” or that I have this strength inside me pointing towards the future. As we turned the paper around to view each angle, new images popped up like an Indian Scout, the number two, and a dog. She then examined the images and feelings that sprang forth. It was a very emotional experience, one that can really help you delve into your intuitive, creative center.

The book begins by explaining the art and process of stream drawing, followed by the practice of reading and uncovering meaning in these drawings. Each chapter contains playful illustrations in the margins. She also includes examples of sessions she conducted with people in the past with color illustrations. Reading about her experiences is enjoyable as they often reflect the uncanny abilities of our intuition.

If you’re feeling blocked to new ideas or you are seeking answers to seemingly unanswerable questions, stream drawing is a great process that takes us back to a child-like state when our intuition was at its height. It doesn’t matter if you are not artistically inclined. Stream drawing puts you in touch with your intuition and frees you of the rigidity of daily life. Many of us who used to draw as children have now stopped due to busy lives or feeling “not good enough”. When Elaine asked me why I no longer draw, my response was part bewilderment, part feeling as if I wasn’t skilled enough. Elaine argues that drawing is a fundamental part of our lives. By revealing our emotions and experiences, “stream drawing can calm the nerves and open the mind and heart to new self-acceptance”.

The next time one of your professors reprimands you for “doodling” in class, let him/her know that people actually retain 29% more information when they “doodle”! Put it on your calendar now to come and meet Elaine Clayton at the Fairfield University Bookstore on Saturday, April 25^th at 11am. She will discuss her new book and conduct stream-drawing sessions. Don’t miss this great opportunity! Check out her website: http://www.illuminara.com/.

Fairfield's One Book One Town event for Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Upon returning from Paris on a book tour in Europe, Emily St. John Mandel swept the stage inspiring her audience and instilling in them the notion that life is ephemeral. No average day or small feat should be taken for granted. She urges her listeners to stop sleepwalking through life and notice life’s intricacies through a sharper lens. Stop to notice the astonishing technologies and inventions that surround us like the flick of a switch that floods a room with light or the ability to travel across oceans in hours rather than days, weeks, or even months. These miracles have been diminished to mere routine predictability. Emily’s new book, Station Eleven forces readers to take a step back and examine your life. Do you appreciate the wonders around you? Are you living an honorable life?

Fairfield Public Library’s annual “One Book One Town” event was centered on Emily St. John Mandel’s fourth and latest book, Station Eleven. The “One Book One Town” concept was developed by Nancy Pearl of the Seattle Public Library’s Washington Center for the Book. She launched a program wondering what the results might be if everyone in one town/city read the same book at once. The idea has since spread throughout the country and the rest of the world. Fairfield’s One Book One Town initiative began in 2006 with Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. Last year’s selection was a current New York Times Bestseller, Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Librarians and community volunteers put together an array of month-long programs and events focused around the book selection for each year. Mandel’s appearance last week at Fairfield University’s Regina A. Quick Center was the culminating event for the Fairfield town-wide celebration for Mandel’s new book.

Emily was born on an island off the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, which, incidentally, she used as a model for a central character’s birthplace and home in Station Eleven. She pursued her passion for dancing at the School of Toronto Dance Theater and subsequently moved to Brooklyn where she now lives with her husband.

Before deciding to become a writer, Emily was a dancer primarily with a focus in ballet, later switching to modern dance. She always loved writing and in fact wrote a published anthology of poems when she was 15.  Her first book was published when she was 30 after she was discovered in a slush pile at a publishing house. Currently she works part time as an administrative assistant at a cancer research center as her day job, writing whenever she can.  Her husband, also a writer, understands her need to lock herself in her office for hours on end on weekends when she finally gets the chance to write uninterrupted.

Station Eleven, a dystopian apocalyptic novel is one of many in a popular and ever-growing genre of books. It has been equated to a love letter in the form of a requiem. Her book transforms the genre, placing her story in an entirely different sphere, one where the best aspects of society, like Shakespearean plays, meet apocalyptic pandemic. Mandel reflects, “it seems to me that the citizenry of Elizabethan England would have been haunted by the memory of pandemics in the recent past. The plague swept over England again and again in those years, and it brushed close against Shakespeare’s life”. In writing the book, she asked herself the question: what would people miss most from their old life and the world as we knew it? Certainly they would want to be reminded of the best our world had to offer and Shakespeare is symbolic of the best in literature.

In creating her characters, Emily finds herself most akin to Miranda, first wife of Arthur Leander, who has been writing and illustrating a comic book called Station Eleven. The comic book is central to the novel’s plot and is also a possible next project for Emily. She has also sold options for a movie adaptation. Fingers crossed!

Emily reminds aspiring writers to finish what work they have started, although constant revisions are necessary. A common misconception is that you must know the right people and work your connections in order to get published; either that or live in Brooklyn, which is simply not true. Determination, motivation, passion, and a little luck are all involved when it comes to getting published or even possibly authoring the next bestseller. Unless you submit your work and get it out there (even if it finds its way into the dreaded slush pile) your manuscript will never find its way into the hands of readers. Emily St. John Mandel’s novel, Station Eleven, is a case in point in which her novel went from the slush pile to become a 2014 National Book Award Finalist and now a New York Times Bestseller.