Since 1896, the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs has existed to help develop young colored women to cultivate a strong bond with their community. Today, it is present on college campuses in all 50 states and the District of Colombia.

At Eastern, their mission is stated as working to benefit communities and empower young women to make the world a better place by educating them on how to be the best they can be.

Zaria Greene, NACWC treasurer and a senior political science major, said she joined because of the connections the club seemed to provide.

“You could tell that (the club members) were pretty close, professional but with personal connections, and I was looking for something like that,” Greene said.

The NACWC has multiple events every semester, including forums to help prepare both members and non-affiliated students for the professional world, such as the sessions they ran to prepare students for the Career Fair two weeks ago.

A big event the club organizes is Sister-to-Sister, where they help younger students integrate into the collegiate community and start to develop themselves away from home, while simultaneously developing each woman’s professional skills.

T’amber Sherrod, the NACWC’s new member chair and a sociology major, said professionalism is an important topic for the club.

“Some of the biggest lessons we focus on are how to work with others and develop teamwork,” Sherrod said. “Two heads are better than one, and sometimes five are better than two. We are professional women, business women, so we try to focus and work on that every day by working on each other and working on ourselves.”

Greene said students just have to step out of their comfort zones.

“It can be intimidating to approach a group, but by learning to work with others now, we are opening a door to the professional world while making life-long friendships,” she said.

Members of the NACWC said they support one another, just as the original founders did two turns of a century ago.

Morgan Colvin, the co-vice president and a double major in political science and English, said that support has helped shape colored women and their influence on society for over one hundred years.

“The NACWC started in a time of discrimination against African American women and is the oldest organization to help in that movement. [Being a part of it is] exciting because it connects you with your history,” Colvin said. “It connects you with that passion … It’s just breathtaking to see the interaction.”

Colvin said the NACWC does more than just let her practice for her future careers.

“It also teaches me how to work in a big group with women in a world that is run by men. Women who look like me, are educated, succeeding and trying,” Colvin said.

The NACWC has worked to defy and change stereotypes for over a century, stereotypes of colored people and women by developing them on an individual and communal level to something they all can and should be proud of, members said.

Morgan Colvin said she would sum up the NACWC in six words, in what it stands for in our nation and in the young African American women who proudly claim membership for over one hundred years of trials, tribulations and, inevitably, triumphs.

“It pushes us to be better,” Colvin said.

Madelyn Loellke can be reached at 581-2812 or at mcloellke@eiu.edu.