Lauren Myers, a senior philosophy major, has had a wide variety of experience during her time at Simpson. She’s created numerous organizations, traveled abroad and became a sorority sister.

Last year, she experienced health complications that changed from periodically to daily. When she went to health care providers she was told things like, “It’s all in your head.”

“I have some health care providers that were not the best, and it motivated me to find out what is wrong with me, but also to have a voice for other people who think it is just OK to listen to what their providers says,” Myers said.

When Myers was faced with providers who were not helpful to her, she sought out those who would. She finally found one who took her seriously and ended up getting surgery that helped discover that she had endometriosis and internal bleeding.

“I educated myself more about endometriosis, and I found out that it affects a lot of women. It is not curable, but I can try and manage it. There is not a lot of focus on it in the media or from other people. I came back to Simpson and just decided to tell people about it,” Myers said.

On top of being trying to educate others about endometriosis, Myers is passionate about a few topics such as educating people and supporting people in recovery from eating disorders and women’s health.

These passions motivated Myers to create two organizations, College Advocates for Reproductive Education and Strong Educated Loving Fearless.

CARE is an organization that partners with Planned Parenthood, the Women’s Resource Center on campus and various other organizations to educate men and women about their health, rights and educational freedoms.

SELF hosts mental health activities and collaborates with other groups on campus. Because of her work through SELF, she was picked as the body image coordinator for a year for her sorority, Delta Delta Delta.

Myers is a SARA and an MVP and a for few years, spearheaded project Not Asking For It.

Myers is heavily involved on Simpson campus, with her sorority, the organizations she created and she is part of, and supporting organizations that she isn’t part of. One thing that Myers thinks that others should know as they continue their education is that it’s OK to ask for help.

“Be yourself and take things as you come. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, it’s normal to be confused and stressed out, but if you get to a point where you can’t function, reach out for help. It’s helpful to tell someone what is going on,” Myers said.

Myers laughed when she mentioned that changing is natural and said that her mentor often comments about the change she has undergone since starting her time at Simpson.

“Who would have thought that this Lauren, the anxious little freshman coming in would get so involved and go on her own to a different country?” she said.