by Marielle Mondon

Hatchet Reporter

It is hard to be phenomenal if you have no one to back you up.

So goes the story of the Phenomenal Women of George Washington, a new student organization that started last April to focus on encouraging success and leadership among women through community outreach programs.

The group held an event last Wednesday night to raise awareness at GW about rape. They screened “The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo,” a film about rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and discussed the issue of rape on campus and in the world. Personal experiences and the recent spike of sexual assaults on campus inspired the group to reach out to the GW community about the topic.

But the 50 or so people who attended the event and the event’s co-sponsors were mostly part of the group’s own social network. Many new student organizations on campus experience this same challenge of attracting a diverse group of people.

“It’s an issue for all new student groups to reach out to individuals,” said Sally Nuamah, president of Black Women’s Forum, a co-sponsor of the event.

Members of Phenomenal Women said they are facing problems common to new student organizations that can hinder a group’s success: membership and demographic appeal. For Phenomenal Women, the battle to expand inclusiveness has been difficult, group members said.

“The goal of the Phenomenal Women of GW is to attract diversity,” Vice President Emma Thelusme said. “We ask a lot of other groups to co-sponsor, but we always get responses from the same kinds of groups. PWGW becomes backed up by shared organizations.”

With a limited network in their nine-person group, they turned to members who were also involved with other organizations on campus to find co-sponsors for their event. The bulk of the co-sponsorships came from GW’s black community including GW NAACP, the Black Women’s Forum, the Organization of African Students and the GW Caribbean Student Association. Pi Beta Phi sorority also co-sponsored.

Due to little interest from other potential co-sponsors, Phenomenal Women representatives said they currently have no choice but to keep relations tight and seek support from groups who share members with their own.

“We’re not trying to cater to a specific group. But our group is still a baby, so getting support from different groups is hard,” said Rachel McKenley, who serves as both the community service outreach coordinator for Phenomenal Women and as the public relations chair for the Caribbean Student Association.

Nuamah encouraged student organizations to reach out to Phenomenal Women.

“It’s really up to individual organizations to see if what we’re doing is a priority for them. We’re all trying to reach a greater rate of people,” she said.

With this in mind, members of Phenomenal Women said they plan to stress their tag line “unity through diversity” as their group continues to grow.