▫️REFLECTION ▫️

Throughout the 22-23 academic year, HERd met up weekly to develop innovative solutions for the students of Larchmont Charter School. We decided to collaborate using our various skills to create mini magazines, "zines" for short that emphasized strong topics such as feminism, sexual assault, prevalent problems in our community, etc. 

It was a challenging process trying to maintain efficient collaboration. Many people would go past deadlines or be randomly filtered out of the process as a whole. Despite this, it was a learning process for all of us on how to work as a team. We were able to combine powerful opinions and ideas into memorable art pieces and writings that were shared with our wider school community. 

We faced much backlash from the school administration, but greater love and support from our peers. Many were proud of our courage to come forward with problems that students face on the regular. They were able to relate to the issues we addressed and were there to support our outcry. 

Participation from both members and leaders was inspiring, as each individual person was able to utilize their interests, passions, and specialties to contribute to the zine. HERd met up weekly on Fridays to discuss issues of interest and upset and develop writing and artwork to directly address these issues. Every meeting was used wisely with discussions on how we can move forward with helping our school and surrounding community, as well as raise awareness targeting injustices and concerns. Creating a monthly zine to convey our community opinion and address societal issues was a huge undertaking and risk, however, our pursuits paid off in the end with extensive positive feedback from our student body. HERd’s focus on creativity, awareness, and civic engagement was a great success with the many obstacles overcome. 

We also continued to host our project from last year: The Walk-in Closet. What started as a one-time clothing swap turned into something none of us could have imagined: a permanent space on campus to provide access to clothing and combat the negative stigma of thrifting. Every Wednesday, students would line up in front of the closet door and wait eagerly to see what new items were available. We have had a great social media presence to advertise the closet, our profile is an aesthetically pleasing space people enjoy visiting. This is just the start, and we can't wait to see what the closet has in store for the next few years to come.