Sara Natividad
snatividad@mustangdaily.net
From fashion blogs, to profiles on inspiring students, Her Campus Cal Poly is an online magazine that focuses less on the student aspect of life and more on what it means to be a female in college, according to co-founders Alyse Schember and Christina Favuzzi.
Founded, written and run by journalism senior Schember and sophomore Favuzzi, Cal Poly is now among one of the 200 branches of Her Campus catering to college women.
Schember knew of the original online magazine (which began at Harvard), but it was her friend who gave her the idea to start a site for Cal Poly, she said.
“The idea kind of just sat with me for awhile at first,” Schember said. “Then I realized I was in the right place in my college career to take on something like that and start a branch of my own here.”
After searching for someone to help start the site, Schember met with Favuzzi and they decided to co-run Her Campus.
“I’ve always loved multimedia and online journalism,” Favuzzi said. “This seemed like the perfect way to jump into that.”
Though “Campus Cuties” is the section with the most clicks on their website, the staff’s favorite section is “Campus Celebrities.” This section profiles different Cal Poly women who have set the bar for career-oriented role models. Among these celebrities are Quincy Freeman, a rodeo boot designer and Hope Hanselman, a former KSBY multimedia journalist.
“They deserve the spotlight to show how great they are in a certain aspect of their college career,” Schember said.
Her Campus Cal Poly is a campus club and consists of five permanent staff as well as other contributing writers. Though the main Her Campus site is for-profit, all of the Cal Poly staff are voluntary.
Journalism sophomore Leila Durmaz started Her Campus not expecting to write more than a few posts. After some time, she became heavily involved in the site and became Twitter Director, as well as a frequent news writer.
“My favorite aspect of Her Campus is writing articles that appeal to all of the women at Cal Poly,” she said. “I have also really gained a lot of experience being involved in this.”
The online magazine reached out to public relations classes to help build its brand, which is one of the more difficult aspects, Favuzzi said. The staff decided to pitch their site to a public relations campaign class and now have a handful of people working on building a brand people will come to know and love.
“Public relations students have been a really great resource for us,” Favuzzi said. “Having that support and enthusiasm in our department has been great.”
Her Campus is very student-run, Schember said. Its goal is to have women be involved in the club and the organization and want to write frequently.
“It’s interesting, it’s relevant and it brings us together as a community on a college campus,” Schember said. “It’s something we don’t have.”