Blog: Reflections by HoyasForShe Fellow Amber Broder
Feature Series: HoyasForShe Reflections
In the process of applying for the HoyasForShe Fellowship, I made note of the fact that I travel frequently to compete on the winter equestrian circuit, and as such my schedule can be a little more unpredictable than other undergraduates’ might be. This need for flexibility, as well as my experience working with social media analytics and marketing, led me to partner with the Georgetown Women's Alliance (GWA) for the 2019-2020 academic year.
My responsibilities for this fellowship center primarily on organizing all aspects of the biweekly email newsletter, from coordinating content collection to designing the newsletter (with feedback from others on the communication committee) to reviewing statistics after release that help GWA understand who is engaging with the newsletter and how to improve.
Over the course of the fall semester, I initiated a redesign of the content collection procedure in order to streamline the submission process for other members of GWA, as well as ensure the individual responsible for organizing the newsletter does not miss content arriving into their inbox. I designed new sections for the newsletter in order to make it easier to find the aspects most interesting to someone as they browse it. Finally, I have also been slowly working on an email list scrub, to ensure that the people receiving the GWA newsletter are interested and engaged.
My work with the newsletter may appear, at first glance, a simple “drag and drop” process of arranging content from other branches of GWA and making it aesthetically pleasing. While streamlining and organizing the newsletter was my initial goal, I believe the work has a deeper purpose that ties directly to the Georgetown Women’s Alliance’s mission of connecting women’s groups from all over campus and highlighting opportunities across networks.
Technology is vital to making connections and sharing information across groups that, without that technological access, would not be able to work together and improve from their collective knowledge. The Women’s Alliance has an important role to play in ensuring the various women’s groups at Georgetown are sharing their work and experience, since it has the positioning to act as an umbrella organization. The newsletter in particular is a key first step in helping amplify opportunities that may not be known outside of specialized groups or communities. I also envision the newsletter not only as a tool for sharing events and opportunities on campus, but also as a way to foster connections between individuals in organizations and empower women with a strong network on campus.
Working with the Georgetown Women’s Alliance has offered me an exciting opportunity to blend my knowledge of social media analytics and marketing with my interest in women’s issues. I look forward to continuing improving the newsletter and the network it creates among women’s groups on campus throughout the rest of my time as a HoyasForShe fellow.
This post was prepared by Amber Broder (SFS’22) as part of the HoyasForShe Student Fellowship.