During lunch in room 163, on Wednesdays, the Women’s Empowerment Club meets. The club’s goal is to create a safe environment that will teach young women to have higher self-esteem and promote self-love. The founder and president, Stephanie Vega, accompanied by, secretary/treasurer, Daisy Garcia, welcomes and encourages anyone to come to their meetings. “Anyone is able to join the Empowerment Club, as long as they support women and what women stand for, and they bring positive attributes to create a motivating environment.”

The club has only met three times, however, after each meeting, the number of members keeps increasing. At first, the Women’s Empowerment Club only had 18 members, now the club is closer to thirty members. The first couple of meetings were established in order for the members to get to know each other better because Stephanie wants the club to feel more like a family. “I want everyone to feel comfortable with each other. More like a sisterhood.” Besides the club being mostly composed of girls there are also boys. The Women’s Empowerment club takes gender inclusiveness and diversity very seriously, “We take gender inclusiveness seriously as we mostly strive to encourage others to be comfortable in their own skin, whether they’re working towards or empowering their own identity. We show each other our support and stand for empowering one another.”  In their latest meeting which occurred on October 19th, a workshop was hosted called: “Letting Go Of The Negative”. The workshop consisted of all the members taking a moment to write down all of their negative thoughts and insecurities on a sheet of paper. After a couple of minutes, the members were asked to take a moment to read the awful stuff they wrote about themselves privately. Then, they were asked to rip the paper apart with all the force they had and to remember that they were more than their insecurities. The club hopes to have more workshops in the future.

Besides having activities and meetings during lunch, the club hopes to have activities outside of school, “I want us to be able to form a sisterhood of girls where they can network with each other, mentor each other, support, and bond.” Mrs. Frias continued, “Basically we want to have future events where we can go as a club outside of school to women’s conferences, hikes, and other team building experiences.” However, in order to have such events, the club needs funds, so the club has signed up to sell at the food faire, which will take place Friday, October 28th during lunch in the quad. The Women’s Empowerment Club will be selling plates of homemade alfredo pasta that includes a side of salad and a piece of baguette for $7. The club hopes to also sell once a week after the 7th in order to increase their funds.

Even though the cabinet of the Women’s Empowerment Club is made of seniors, they both hope that the club will create a safe environment for all for many years to come. President Stephanie Vegas stated, “After Daisy and I are gone, we want girls to continue to have a supportive family at South.”