By Violeta Panayotova
Imagine yourself going back to sixth grade and coming to TPA for the very first time. As the annual open house approaches, this year TPA will have something new to talk about regarding its many and fantastic clubs. TPA has a lot of clubs and one of the smaller ones but yet not so small is Herstory. Established by Dr. Salcido, Herstory is a free space for everyone to go and learn about women in history and start projects with the goal of helping women in Third World countries that are unable to get the same products as women can in the United States.
The club has grown and become more popular among the TPA community in recent years and it is always looking to expand. The importance of the club is far-reaching and it continues to grow with this year’s very new program inside the club. Sophomore Clara Moffitt first introduced the idea of the organization Girl Up on the very first meeting of Herstory. The organization is providing the club an opportunity to grow and expand and make a better and bigger name for itself.
But before we jump into the role of Girl Up in the Tempe Prep community, we must first understand what it is. According to Clara, the Girl Up TPA president, it is “an international organization funded by the United Nations with a goal to increase equality and rights for women both domestically and internationally.” It focuses on education and violence and more of those social problems and increasing awareness to tackle those problems head first.
As one can see, the organization is the very idea of Herstory. Then why change it? According to Oscar Fortunato, a senior and the president of Herstory, this change is not necessarily a big one since the school is simply adding another layer to the original club. Girl Up is going to be an addition to the already amazing club and it will be led by Clara, who was also elected to be on the governing board of Girl Up in Arizona.
What would that mean for TPA, you may ask? According to both presidents, this is a great opportunity to expand the original idea. From the beginning, Herstory has been creating projects that help the general population and now they have an opportunity to expand the effects of this club. With more schools involved, the opportunities are almost limitless, which will help everyone at Tempe Prep. Such a growth cannot be experienced by everyone, and thanks to great networking, the Herstory club will have the chance to expand and do more in the near future.
However, the club will still save its roots and will not completely be turned to the powerful organization of Girl Up. The president says that even though this is a great opportunity, “the club and all its members want to keep the traditions and the uniqueness of Herstory.” Tempe Prep prides itself on the established small community and Herstory wants to keep that value as it goes forward. Even though the club may and most certainly is growing, it will not forget its core values and goals.
As goals and progress come, everyone in the club is brainstorming ideas of what projects they can do and what will help the most amount of people. Last year the club created hygiene products which were sent to Third World countries to help women who often are not able to go to school or work because of such shortage.
Herstory and Girl Up are going to work together and will show not only Tempe Preparatory Academy’s ability of success but also it will spread the goodness of the hard-working members.