HERA Society Brings One Love to Campus

Dickinson’s female athletics honors society, The Hera Society, is partnering with the college’s One Love chapter, a group committed to eradicating relationship violence.

The Hera Society has teamed up with Whitney Polich ’19, the founder of Dickinson’s One Love chapter, to host training and workshops. Polich will primarily work with female athletes to teach about and raise awareness of abuse and harassment. 

Killian Kueny ’19, a member of The Hera Society, said “We are excited to help bring a national organization, One Love, to Dickinson and assist in educating the women’s teams on campus about domestic abuse and unhealthy relationships in a college setting.” 

One Love is a national organization that educates young people about healthy and unhealthy relationships, sexual assault, harassment and abuse. It is named in honor of Yeardley Love, a University of Virginia lacrosse player and a victim of abuse who was killed her senior year.

“I think this group has tons of potential to positively influence other female student athletes on campus,” said Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach Kim Masimore, who serves as The Hera’s advisor, “I think they have a lot of really great ideas and have the potential to really empower all of our female student athletes.” 

The Hera Society participated in the office of LGBTQ+ services’ “Out on Britton” event on Oct. 10, in honor of National Coming Out Day. The Hera Society organized one of the many educational tables on Britton Plaza. They invited community members to participate by answering the prompt: “the future is…” Hera member Killian Donohue ’19 explained. People stopped by to finish the sentence, providing answers like “the future is female.” 

Kueny said “We host and participate in events that try and bring together both the college and the larger Carlisle community. Usually they are revolving around sports and athletics, but we are planning on having events that touch on identity, gender, structures within society as well.” 

The Hera Society will host “National Women and Girls in Sports Day” in February and are trying to team up with the You Can Play Project, an organization that promotes gender and LGBTQ equality in sports. 

Kueny said “I think that as our events continue throughout the year we will draw more attention towards what we’re doing as a society.”

“We want to leave a lasting effect on Dickinson instead of just saying we are going to do these things,” Donohue said, “We hope that we influence grades below to continue these efforts.” 

The Hera Society is currently in its third year. Kueny said the society hopes to “establish ourselves and create an atmosphere where women can know that they will be recognized and celebrated for their achievements both on and off the field.” 

Each year, The Hera Society group members nominate eight senior female athletes to join the society. This year the members are Samantha Marmo ’19 (lacrosse), Kueny (softball), Donohue (soccer), Alanis Perez ’19 (squash), Olivia Lyman ’19 (swimming), Naji Thompson ’19 (track and field), Grace Stromberg ’19 (volleyball), and Kayla Bendinelli ’19 (field hockey).