Emily Anderson
Contributing Writer
On the Wooster campus, women like Anushkaa Gupta ’20 and Marina Rosales ’15 are seeking to combat an entrepreneurial environment that encourages women to compete with rather than support one another. The Voice had the opportunity to sit with Gupta, the leader of Wooster’s own chapter of createHER, a revolutionary support group for women in business.
CreateHER started in the fall of 2017 as an initiative aiming to encourage women to take a stand for themselves in the business world through entrepreneurial growth and support. Though a relatively new enterprise, createHER has already proven itself to be an indispensable asset for women on campus.
The initiative is composed of advisor Rosales, Gupta and a leadership team of 13 members as well as a network of other Wooster students and alumni who expressed interest in the project and/or found success in the business world. “[Our] dream,” Gupta said “is a space where women are encouraging one another rather than cutting one another down.”
Gupta further stated that more than anything else, createHER’s aim is to create a strong and stable network of working relationships for women not only at the college level, but also within the greater Wooster community, as well as far beyond the creative and entrepreneurial boundaries of Wooster itself. “We want to make sure other women know that there are other women out there supporting them,” said Gupta.
This upcoming Saturday, April 7, createHER is hosting their first — and hopefully annual — createHER Day, a seminar composed of breakout sessions led by three different speakers who, as described by Gupta, are women who have shown incredible success in their fields in a way that some might consider radical.
One of the main focuses of the event, she went on to say, is to emphasize that success looks different for different people, meaning that many of the speakers — two out of three of whom are Wooster grads themselves — pursued and found incredible success in fields maybe not directly related to what they majored in in college.
The event itself will begin at 9 a.m. in Wishart Hall where attendees will gather for registration before an opening panel on Women in Leadership in Lean Lecture Hall at 9:30 a.m. The breakout sessions to be held throughout the remainder of the day — led by Anjua Maximo, Tayler Hollman and Caitlin Hudak ’11 — will be comprised of hour long talks with focuses on “Women in Business, Investing in Your Future Self, Female Entrepreneurship and Women in Leadership.”
At the end of the day, there will be an opportunity for networking with hors d’oeuvers provided by Spoon Market and Deli, a local restaurant co-owned and operated by women — Jordan Smith and her daughter Jordan Baker.
This event is free and open to the public, and the Facebook event page as well as website registration can be found online. Registration will stay open until tonight, and all women are invited and encouraged to attend, regardless of their academic field of study.