Zonta Club, university partner for women's empowerment organization

The Zonta Club of Cape Girardeau has created a new organization at Southeast Missouri State University called the Golden Z Club.

The Cape Girardeau chapter is a member of Zonta International, a global organization dedicated to empowering women through service and advocacy.

Zonta International is comprised of more than 30,000 members in 66 countries worldwide.

The Zonta Club of Cape Girardeau has been around since 1976 and its main focus has been to take the mission of empowering women from the international level to the local level, according to Casey Crowell, president of the local club.

"Our mission is about service and advocacy, and specifically empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy -- that's global perspective, then we look at local impact," Crowell said.

This year marks the club's 40th anniversary, and in honor of that milestone, Crowell said there was no better time to start a club at Southeast.

"We have always talked about the idea of partnering with Southeast Missouri State. It just makes sense -- we are a club with longevity in our community and we are so fortunate to have a university in our backyard," Crowell said. "It had to be the right timing with the right members for the right reasons in order to be able to officially charter our Golden Z Club, and we could think of no better way than this year to honor our 40th anniversary as a club."

The Golden Z Club was chartered in late summer/early fall this year and was a collaborative effort by the university and Zonta Club of Cape Girardeau.

"We worked closely with professors and advisers on campus to help make sure they thought that it made sense for us to be on campus and be involved with the students," Crowell said. "They also helped us identify who they thought would be the pioneers of college students that would help us start our club on campus."

Being involved in the club as a college student offers benefits that go beyond the primary mission of service and advocacy.

"We simply want to help them advance the status of women worldwide, but also it will give them leadership and communication skills. It's going to help these college students understand global issues and how that affects all of us," Crowell said.

"Also, it gives you a network of professional women to tap into. It is our mission to help educate, empower and mentor these college students that share the same values and beliefs that we do as a club. It helps provide a bigger personal and professional network for college students."

Shannon Hoff-Valleroy, a graduate student at Southeast and president of the Little Black Book organization for women in business, said she was interested in Golden Z Club because empowering women is of great importance to her.

"Getting our women involved in this community is a big thing for me," she said. "I think this is a great opportunity not only for us to help other women, but also for us to get to know other successful women in the community through the Zonta chapter."

She said there is interest in service and advocacy among college students at Southeast, which may add to the interest in Golden Z Club.

"I think the students at Southeast are a very service-oriented group as a whole, so I think it is a great opportunity to focus on this giving back portion at a more international level," Hoff-Valleroy said. "I think it's a great opportunity to get more connected with the Zonta chapter. That's also something that can take you to other places in the future because Zonta exists all over."

Crowell said she is excited to see what the future holds for Golden Z and hopes the club will continue to grow and evolve.

"Do I think we found that right group of women to start our club? I do, because these women are amazing, and for the future I really see them making it their own," she said. "As a college student, that's what you want to do; you don't want someone to tell you what to do or how to do it. ... It's my hope that we can give them those tools and educate them, and then they're going to run with it. Â… I think the best is yet to come."