Club Spotlight: Generation She Club
Generation She is a nonprofit organization that aims to close the gender gap in the professional workforce by helping women in high school develop entrepreneurship and leadership skills. In advancing this goal, full-time OHS sophomore Lily Sun ’23 opened a Generation She high school club chapter at OHS this year.
Lily first heard about Generation She in early 2020 when many of her friends attended the makeathon they hosted at Lyft’s San Francisco headquarters. As one of Generation She’s main events, Lily noted it was “this really big deal.” Like a hackathon, the makeathon is a “high-intensity, small time frame [...] to build a business” and involves speakers, mentors, and networking opportunities as a part of Generation She’s aims to support young women. Last summer, she pursued an internship with them in digital marketing. Lily continues working in digital marketing at Generation She and now leads OHS’s Generation She club chapter.
As a young woman herself, Lily’s involvement with Generation She and motivation for starting the OHS Generation She Club stems from her passion for women’s empowerment. Lily explained that she is “very against discrimination in any form” and “hates” that there is an imbalance in how workforces are often structured. Certain groups of people can be valued over others, and while she recognizes gender bias is only one facet of the issue, Lily explains, “I personally feel very passionate about [women’s empowerment] because it [...] affects [me] and all the people around me. A lot of my friends are girls and we’re all women, but we’re sort of looked down upon because of our gender.”
To tackle such inequalities, Generation She’s approach is to bring women directly into leadership positions. Lily explains that “companies [...] try to diversify their employees” by hiring women for “low-level jobs” and create the illusion of diversity in their workforce, but in reality, higher level positions in their companies are still dominated by white men. With Generation She, instead of going “from the bottom up,” Lily says, “we’re trying to go from the top down” by having women become leaders and “raise the standard” for the kinds of jobs that they can seek.
As a part of Generation She’s mission, the OHS Generation She Club has so far hosted several workshops in different areas that are essential to navigating the professional landscape. A Generation She team member who is a USC Marshall student led one workshop about resumes for the club. She talked about “how to [...] find [...] opportunities and how [...] to format your resume in a way that best appeals to recruiters.” The Generation She Club has also hosted an employee of consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to speak about internships and share advice and her own experiences with them. Most recently, the club held a workshop about Linkedin in collaboration with Generation She’s other chapters. Attendees had the opportunity to understand “how to [use the] platform and how to best market yourself on it” since, Lily noted, “it’s a great place to meet new people, find new opportunities,” and find recruiters. With these skills and knowledge, Lily explained that “a lot of people [...] don’t really realize how valuable” they can be. They will especially “come in handy” when “you’re coming out of college, [...] looking to [...] find a career, and start[ing to] building your professional portfolio,” she noted.
Lily hopes to continue making efforts toward balancing the workforce with Generation She, and there is a lot to look forward to. Lily remarked that this year’s Generation She chapters are beta tests as a “small test run” of the organization’s vision for their high school clubs. Though she is not directly involved with its development, Lily said that the next school year will officially launch Generation She’s chapter program and include “at least over 70 chapters.” Lily is looking forward to having a large community not only within one club but also within the entire Generation She network including “a ton of [...] accomplished professionals, other high schoolers, [and] college students.”
If you are interested in learning more, visit www.generationshe.co and follow Generation She on social media. To stay updated with our OHS chapter, join the Generation She Club Skype group through the OHS Skype directory or Canvas.