“The enemy hates community. If God is in a relationship and he created us for relations, then guess who hates it?” — Jenny Allen, Find Your People
From “Mondays with the Ladies” to “Her Circle.”
According to Erica Vonk, one of the leaders behind the transition, the group needed a reset.
“We had been doing Mondays with the Ladies, and we saw that it’s kind of gotten to a point where new people weren’t really coming,” Vonk explained. “It got to be the same group all the time, which there is good and bad to that. We were enjoying the Bible, but we weren’t getting relationships with people.”
Shifts in leadership, including coaching transitions, also played a role. Vonk and others recognized the need to re-center their efforts on intentional community, which had been the original reason for investing time in the group.
“All the female athletic staff – women from GAs to head chicanes, assistants, whoever’s around – got together and asked, how do we work on first taking care of us as leaders? How do we feed each other well?” Vonk said.
The new name, “Her Circle”, reflects this shift in focus. “We decided to shift it to just Her Circle, again trying to get back to that relationship piece of just coming full circle, of everything around us in our life,” Vonk said.
This fall, the group of female athletic staff, along with campus ministry leader Natalie Wheeler, has been meeting weekly to go through the book “Find Your People” by Jenny Allen. NW provides access to Allen’s video series and leader’s guide through RightNow Media, making the study a practical and structured choice.
The book’s central theme, building authentic community, mirrors the mission of Her Circle. Each week, one of the women leads the discussion as they strengthen their own relations and think about ways to extend that sense of community to students across campus.
While the leaders meet weekly, students will see Her Circle take shape through monthly events designed to create space for connection.
“Our goal is to once a month have a fun event for our female students on campus,” Vonk said.
The first event will be pickleball on September 22 at 7:00 p.m. in the RSC. The come-and-go format allows students to play, socialize, or simply stop by to meet others.
Kayla Tindall, another leader in the group, shared her excitement about what is ahead: “We are so excited to get Her Circle up and running.” Tindall says “Her Circle was created to build a community of women who can connect through their faith while at Northwestern. We hope to create a fun environment where meaningful connections and friendships develop and grow. We have so many fun events planned over the course of the year and are excited to see how God works through Her Circle.”
Some future events that are still being finalized, include pumpkin painting and coloring nights. The activities are simple and create a low-pressure environment for women to relax, meet new people, and build friendships.
Vonk emphasizes that participation is open to all women on campus, not just athletes. Communication about events goes out to every undergraduate female student through campus email lists, with additional reminders for athletes through their teamworks program.
For Vonk, the goal of Her Circle is more than just events. It is about women discovering the strength of community in both giving and receiving support.
“There are two types of villages,” Vonk says “The people who need me and the people I need. I hope people build both of those villages for themselves, really leaning into who needs me on this campus, but also being vulnerable and saying ‘I need other women in my life.’ ”
The leaders also see Her Circle as complementing other groups on campus, not replacing them. Some students find deep community in discipleship groups, commuter groups, or residence hall events. Her Circle simply offers another opportunity for women to connect, especially with faculty and staff who can walk alongside them during college and beyond.
“We don’t want to take away from any of those things,” Vonk said. “But I think there’s also students on this campus that I do not know that I have not met yet. Even relationships with coaches or staff can be healthy as you’re looking for jobs, careers, or marriage, or all those things too.”
As the group moves forward, Vonk hopes the framework they have started with, drawn from their study of Find Your People, will shape how students experience Her Circle.
That structure emphasizes closeness, transparency, accountability, shared purpose, and consistency. For Vonk, consistency stands out as especially important.
“Some generations aren’t very consistent in what they commit to or what they do,” she said. “How do we create a culture of consistency for each other that we can count on?” It is a question that Her Circle hopes to answer by showing up, month after month, with space for women to grow together.
