When current Gallatin senior Lauren Franco held a dorm room meeting as a first-year for women looking for community in the city, she only expected a few people to show up. But when 30 girls turned up, Franco realized how many women desired stronger connections to others who struggled to find a home base of friends in the city.   

“A lot of the girls I talked to had the same stories about moving into this big city and struggling to find community,” Franco said. “I wasn’t seeing a lot of girls get together in natural conversation.” 

Thus, Franco decided to take action and create [gather], a women’s organization dedicated to cultivating community, encouraging leadership and providing empowerment. Every couple of weeks, Franco and her [gather] team host meetings where women come and talk about topics ranging across faith, relationships, growth and more. [gather] would eventually expand from Franco’s Third North dorm to places like Chicago, Mexico, Paris and Italy.  

“I feel connected with girls I’ve never met, because even though I’ve never met them, they are involved with [gather] and we are in it together,” Franco said.

One of the most rewarding parts of founding [gather] has been learning the positive effects that the community has had on women’s lives.

“When we first launched our Instagram, we received emails from people all over the world, from places like Switzerland, about how [gather] had impacted them,” Franco said.

“There is something about building things like this from the ground-up that connects you in ways you can’t imagine,” Franco said. 

While [gather] has three full-time teams in New York City; Orange County, California; and High Point, North Carolina, Franco hopes [gather] expands to having more full-time groups in other places across the country. 

At the moment, [gather] is conducting a series called wild with the goal of helping women dive into the unknown, whether it be moving to a new city, starting a new job or navigating relationships. 

[gather]’s success stems from allowing women to meet in an intimate setting and dive into topics that aren’t easily talked about, Franco surmises. It’s given women the chance to be vulnerable and learn from each other’s experiences. Through conversation, they lift each other up. 

Franco expressed her vision for the organization succinctly.

“[It’s] to see all women brought into strong community with other women, built up in leadership and empowered to change the world,” Franco said.

Email Andrea Pineda-Salgado at [email protected].