“Best New Or­ga­ni­za­tion”, EM­POWER, mak­ing a dif­fer­ence at Maryville

Win­ner of “Best New Or­ga­ni­za­tion” at the an­nual Golden Louies, EM­POWER has made an im­pact on the Maryville Uni­ver­sity com­mu­nity. EM­POWER is a stu­dent or­ga­ni­za­tion des­ig­nated to­wards so­cial aware­ness and brings to­gether a di­verse and in­clu­sive com­mu­nity in pur­suance of bet­ter un­der­stand­ing of those around us.

“EM­POWER has given me the op­por­tu­nity to work to­gether with bril­liant strong women. I’ve learned so much about how to or­ga­nize ac­tions, speak about so­cial jus­tice, and be an ally,” said Mar­i­lyn Vazquez, past Vice Pres­i­dent of EM­POWER. 

They come to­gether to of­fer knowl­edge, ideas, and re­sources re­gard­ing fem­i­nism and so­cial in­jus­tices in ef­forts to make the world a bet­ter place. 

The group meets as an ex­ec­u­tive board twice a week in or­der to pre­pare for events to suc­cess­fully im­pact the sur­round­ing com­mu­nity. EM­POWER plans 2-3 events per month which of­fer any­thing from “con­ver­sa­tion cafe,” movie nights and open speak­ing pan­els.

For ex­am­ple, their last event was an open fo­rum dis­cus­sion re­gard­ing rape cul­ture where 4 peo­ple in the field spoke and the group of­fered food and an op­por­tu­nity for guests to ask ques­tions and pro­mote con­ver­sa­tion.

“We want each per­son on cam­pus to feel like they have a place within our wide range of events!” said Pres­i­dent of EM­POWER, Tatum Sharp. 

Em­power works with Zonta Club STL and has sup­ported Planned Par­ent­hood and Safe Con­nec­tions through­out events. They did a Tam­pon Drive in the fall se­mes­ter to ben­e­fit char­i­ties in our com­mu­nity. This past fall they were able to put to­gether 300 hy­giene bags for five dif­fer­ent lo­cal or­ga­ni­za­tions. EM­POWER hopes to make this an an­nual event. 

Next year they hope to come back, “big­ger and bet­ter than ever!” shares Sharp. They will host their 3rd An­nual Art Ex­hibit and many other op­por­tu­ni­ties to learn about top­ics like ho­mo­pho­bia, racism, sex­ism, and re­li­gious in­tol­er­ance. 

She of­fers, “fem­i­nism is for every­body and every­body should be a fem­i­nist. In­jus­tices are all around us and it is im­por­tant for us to re­main ed­u­cated and re­cep­tive of peo­ple’s ex­pe­ri­ences.”

To keep up with their up­com­ing events, fol­low EM­POWER on Twit­ter.