Relying solely on caffeine and a dedication to the fight for gender equality, 10 students walked into room 1303 at eight in the morning for HeForShe’s first meeting of the year.

HeForShe was founded in 2014 by the UN Women and brought to City High by Yardley Whaylen ‘20 and Mya Kahle ‘20 in March of last school year. The founders of the club are excited to get the year off to a strong start and bring the global aim of the organization down to a community level.

“It’s all about promoting male advocacy and getting people to stand by women in the fight for gender equality,” Kahle said. “That’s pretty much our goal here at City High, too.”

In order to strive for the organization’s goal, the club has many plans for the new school year.

“One of our first projects is going to be Change for Change,” Whaylen said. “So we’re going to have change jars set up to collect spare change from students, teachers, and administrators, and all the proceeds will go to the Malala Fund, which sends girls in impoverished countries to school, so it’s like we’re back to school and giving education to others.”

Monthly speakers will also be starting in the end of September and continuing throughout the entire year.

“They’re all going to pertain to different topics,” Whaylen said. “One thing we’re going to have a small focus on is teen dating violence on both sides. Not just female victims, but male victims too.”

One area where the founders of the club have expressed concern is low levels of male participation.

“You can’t have a male advocacy group without the men and boys from City High. We only had three guys consistently show up last year,” Kahle said.

Whaylen opened up about one of the club’s tools to increase participation.

“We usually have food,” Whaylen said. “So many boys ask me about it, and are kinda shy about it, but literally just come for the snacks, stay for the equality.”