WECARE is a club created by and for women all across the globe. WECARE stands for Women Empowerment through Collaboration Awareness through Resources and Education. As I sat down with the President of WECARE, Sri Gopal, Senior and majoring in Cellular, Molecular, and Physiological Biology, and 2 other members, Sarah Trachtenberg, Senior and majoring in Psychology and Leadership, and Gwenyth Pattarini, Junior, majoring in Marketing, to discuss this powerful club and the impact it has made on their everyday lives.

WECARE participates in many movements that impact women’s lives not only in their backyard, but places that go beyond North America, such as India. The club actively keeps the importance of women’s education and women’s health all together the prime center of their focus. WECARE strives to spread awareness about many topics that concern women, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and various other holidays throughout the year while also collabing with various other clubs and organizations associated inside and outside of CNU.

WECARE was founded in the fall of 2020 by Gopal, when at the time the club was completely virtual their first year, only becoming an in-person club in 2022.

“I think the hardship of the first year was definitely COVID and navigating how to start a club when everything was virtual and we had to do a lot of our campaigning through social media and not in person….I’ve only been used to doing things in person.”

When asked why Gopal founded WECARE, she said, “One of the biggest missions in WECARE is specifically our partnership with ‘Veernie,’…a non-profit organization that sends girls in India to a boarding school where they receive free education, and so they are able to have free housing, access to healthcare, access to any sort of amenities that they need.”

Trachtenberg expressed that one hardship she has through WECARE is taking on the role of Marketing Coordinator and “the day to day management of people can be difficult just in terms of finding meeting times, but it’s been very helpful that I have learned how to navigate that and sort of like learn those skills, and we’ve managed to get through situations.”

With the many great roles Trachtenberg takes on in WECARE, she expresses the bright future she hopes to see in the blossoming club.

“A big one (accomplishment hope to be seen in the near future) that Sri and I kind of touched on is longevity, ‘cause a lot of us are seniors or juniors, and so there is that fear that after we graduate, the club might not have a future, but I think that’s really proving to not be the case as we’re getting new members of all different years, and just keeping the mission going.“

Pattarini, a veteran member of the WECARE club, expresses how she came to find WECARE and why she stuck around.

“I found WECARE on the compass because I wrote down any club that I was remotely interested in, and the name just stuck out to me. It caught my eye, and it’s the only club that I have stuck with. I’m a junior now.”

Seeing that Pattarini has stuck with WECARE for a few years and will be the future president of the club in the 2023-2024 school year, she says what she hopes to see the club accomplish in the near future.

“I hope they (the general public) see that even if these issues that we’re raising awareness for, that it is more than just us here right now, it’s all over the world. We have to do our part, as women in America.”