I was watching CSPAN this week and heard the introduction to a speech, I did not listen to the speech in its entirety because the introduction sent me into a whirlwind of thought. A man who worked at the institute where the speech was broadcast from introduced the speaker. In his introduction, the man kept referring to the next president to take office in 2009 and in his every reference he said "he or she". It got me thinking because not only did it strike me as wonderful that he referred to the future president of having the possibility of being a woman, but I realized despite my knowledge that Hillary Clinton is in the race to be the next president, I had not once heard or thought of the president being referred to as "she". Though one may think that is not important that I think of it is that wording specifically, it was wildly important to me.

In that rush of thought, I also remembered something that had been said to me in a conversation last week. It was "think of how much we don’t know and have to learn". Both when this was said to me and when I thought again about it, I thought about the last year, my involvement with NNPCW and how much I have learned from those experiences. As this year’s Leadership Event is approaching I think back to the days and weeks leading up to last year’s event. It was my first introduction to NNPCW and I was beyond intimidated by the "Jesus loves Feminists" bumper sticker I had received in the mail with my pre conference packet. I had little knowledge of what feminism was and had a strange connection with the word itself.

In a short year’s time, my life has changed drastically because of my involvement with NNPCW. I applied and was accepted to the Coordinating Committee and have been on the Leadership Event Planning Team for this year’s event. After over a dozen conference calls, many trips to Louisville, meeting and getting to know NNPCW staff and other members, learning more about the church structure, representing NNPCW at a conference, and being mentored and loved by other members and staff, I think that I am in a pretty good position to tell you why you should consider applying for the NNPCW Coordinating Committee (CoCo); and, in honor of NNPCW’s tendency to make lists, here are your top six reasons to apply for CoCo (please note that these are not qualifications but rather my thoughts).


6. You love getting meaningful and important emails that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
5. You want to learn more about the church, how you can be a part of it and be an advocate for young women in the church
4. You want to know and love14 young women who will care about who you are and what you do while learning how to work on a committee with them.
3. You want to create and advocate for safe space for women on their campuses, at the leadership event, and at CoCo meetings.
2. You want to be united with women who share a common faith in Jesus Christ and you want to share that with as many college women as you can!
1. You love NNPCW!!
Applications are available on the NNPCW website 9 http://www.pcusa.org/nnpcw/aboutus/coco.htm) and are due August 15th!!