How would you define your club?

We champion issues for women. We look at ways in which to get women more engaged in the community and in leadership positions. We are very interested in advocacy and engagement.

What is something that people might assume about your organization that isn't true?

This club isn’t just for women. We have male members. We also want to get more representation of people with different viewpoints. Currently, many members of the club are friends outside of the club, and we know what happens when that is the case. We often have the same or similar views on things or come up with similar ideas, but that isn’t what we want for this club. We need to be able to expand our views on different issues and get new ideas about things.

What has been the most successful event/project you have held this year?

For International Women’s Day we gave out lots of funny inspirational buttons. We also ran out of safety whistles when we were giving them out at our table, so that shows us that students really liked the idea. We are proud when we see those bright orange whistles dangling from people’s bags across campus.

Are you planning any upcoming events?

We are one of the sponsors for the Survivor event with Ashley Beniksen, who will be coming to campus to talk about sexual assault and partner violence as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. (April 8 at 5:30 PM in DPAC).

Tell me about something funny that has happened in your club.

Well, it wasn’t intended to be funny, but looking back, we can see how it probably looked crazy. We went through all the bathrooms in McCarthy to see if the tampon/pad machines actually worked. The guys were standing outside yelling to us asking for updates, while we were inside trying to figure out who had quarters. Most of us don’t even carry cash around anymore. We don’t even use quarters for the laundry in the residence halls. It was funny, but not funny that only two worked. This is going to be one of our new projects.

What is a benefit to becoming a club member?

It is really a way to learn how to be an advocate for causes you believe in and to get opportunities that you might not have, especially to include on your resume. iGNITE is a national organization and as members we got to attend the New England Women’s Policy Conference. It’s a way to exercise your political power.

You can follow this club on Twitter @IGNITE_FSU and keep up with the national organization at www.ignitenational.org.