The Women’s Network Expands to 16 Campuses Across the Country

On Friday, June 12, The Women’s Network expanded to 16 college campuses, more than doubling in size. In less than three years, TWN has grown from just another club at Syracuse University, to a national organization at seven universities and now to 23 college campuses across the nation. 

Ranging from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. to the University of Minnesota, this growth solidifies The Women’s Network’s role as a nation-wide organization connecting ambitious womxn from across the country. 

Founder, Jamie Vinick, created The Women’s Network in the fall of 2017 at Syracuse University. Since then, it quickly became one of the largest organizations on the SU campus, encouraging the executive board to add seven additional campuses in March of 2020. 

Marissa Goldberg, president of The Women’s Network’s SU chapter, recalls when Vinick first mentioned building The Women’s Network at other universities.

“I remember when Jamie first talked about expanding to Cornell,” Goldberg recalls. “Now we’re at Cornell and we’re doing great at Cornell, but we’re going to be succeeding at so many other schools.”

After a successful first round of expansions, Vinick determined that it was time to ramp it up a notch and introduce The Women’s Network to 16 more college campuses. 

With this in mind, Vinick, her Chief of Staff, Catherine Chung (TWN SU alumna) and a team of interns began their grassroots expansion by selecting campuses based off of interest, geographic diversity and where they thought they would find the most success. 

According to Mia Givens, a TWN National account manager intern and blog manager at the SU chapter, an incredible amount of thought, time and effort went into launching the 16 additional campuses.

“Leading up to the launch, it was a lot of behind the scenes work,” Givens said. “Like how to pitch to potential new members and how to really start an organization from the ground up.” 

Clare Sellers, TWN National sponsorship intern, writer, and Cornell chapter president, agrees that the expansion was the result of months of hard work from the TWN National team. 

As a product of TWN’s first expansion in March, Sellers has enjoyed being on the other side of the project this time around and building a presence on national campuses, while building connections with driven, like-minded womxn at the same time.

Sellers says she’s also had the unexpected opportunity to make new friends and connect with other interns whom she otherwise wouldn’t have met. Creating these relationships with her co-workers online also gives Sellers hope for the fall, with the possibility of in-person meetings at Cornell and other campuses being uncertain due to COVID-19.

“It gives me hope that the organization will still be able to bring people together and help people professionally even if it’s online,” Sellers said.  “I’m looking forward to that challenge of bringing people together while being online.”

The idea of connection during COVID-19 is exactly why this launch (and future launches) will continue to be successful, according to Vinick. 

“More members are going to be able to connect with one another,” Vinick explained. “Especially during COVID, people want that [connection] more than ever and we’re providing that.”

As for what’s next for The Women’s Network, there is plenty more in store for 2020. The national website launches June 22, high-profile speakers will continue throughout the summer via Zoom and Instagram and the TWN podcast, “Redefining Ambition,” is scheduled to release on June 30 (the first guest may or may not be Jay-Z’s lawyer, just saying). 

With plenty of ambitious and admirable womxn around the country, Goldberg is confident that The Women’s Network will continue to expand and grow in the years to come.

“Everytime I talk to someone about The Women’s Network they always say, ‘Oh, I wish I had something like this on my campus,’” Goldberg mentioned. “And I respond with ‘That’s exactly what we’re doing.’”