'Motivating Females' plan to take university by storm

After Norwich's nearly two centuries of male-controlled campus climate, a group of motivated females are ready to prove they can do anything a male can do, according to Be A Motivating Female (BAMF) club members.

BAMF is a brand new club at Norwich, recognized last month. The club's name is an acronym for "Be A Motivating Female," changed from last year's name, "Bad Ass Marine Females," according to Margo Smutnick, a 19-year-old sophomore international studies major from Pomfret, Conn.

"All the original founders were Marine Corps (ROTC), except for Shanoui Gunn, but then we realized we wanted to make it more than just Marine females because it could help a lot more people than Marine females," Smutnick said.

The idea of a group of motivated females conducting physical training, often referred to as PT, together came from Meghan Weppner, a 20-year-old junior criminal justice major from Buffalo, N.Y., according to BAMF members.

"I needed to improve on my PT so I figured I should get some PT buddies. I asked Marine Corps (ROTC) females, and asked if they were interested in doing Levy Challenge, and if they were willing to work and workout for it," Weppner said. The original workout buddies were on the women's rugby team, according to Weppner.

"I got a lot of BAMF girls, at that point called Bad Ass Marine Females, to go out for rugby; we had rugby practice, Levy challenge practice and Naval Battalion PT in the morning. We actually got an Air Force girl, Gunn, who became part of the Levy team," Weppner said.

Gunn, a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in criminal justice from Clifton, N.J., was the first non-Marine ROTC female in the club.

"After rugby practice I saw them running around the track in Plumley Armory. Weppner asked if I'd like to come work out with them. I decided to work out with them, and became an alternate for their Levy Challenge team. One of the girls wasn't able to do Levy so I replaced her," Gunn explained.

The Levy Challenge is a grueling physical event consisting of a 4-mile ruck run; 100 pull-ups accumulative as a group; six laps around the Upper Parade Ground of litter carries carrying a stretcher; swimming 1650 meters as a team; ammunition crate lifts, buddy carries and other exercises. The race ends with an 8-mile ruck march, which includes a sand bag, according to Gunn.

According to Ben Cottrell, a 20-year-old junior communications major from Annapolis, Md., the sand bags were extra heavy during this past year's Levy Challenge. He participated in the event two years ago, stating that some of the male sand bags were over 70 pounds. "That's an absurd amount of weight," Cottrell said.

"A lot of times in PT you have females in the same squad as males; the males with longer legs would go much faster than females, so the females would automatically fall out. We started by helping each other at PT and because our PT standards went up, our confidence went completely up," Smutnick said, "Everyone would see us in the gym working out together as females so we got a lot of face time, people knew we were bad-ass, hence the beginning name."

Many students saw these women training in the gym last year, including Mike McCarthy, a 22-year-old senior criminal justice major from Needham, Mass., and president of the Student Government Association.

"They're a pretty intense group of females, they're people to look up to, a tight-knit group and I think they represent more than just the physical training or physical attributes, they're a good team. The older members mentor the younger ones," McCarthy said.

The club went to the Bulldog Challenge at the Citadel, the military college in South Carolina, as a preparation for Levy Challenge, according to Gunn. The Marine Corps (ROTC), Air Force (ROTC), and the Mountain Cold Weather unit all sent teams to compete.

"We wanted to represent Norwich, particularly the females of Norwich because the other teams were all males. We wore corps of cadets T-shirts and went down to represent Norwich, as opposed to an ROTC branch," Gunn said.

"I came up with the idea about a week and a half before we'd have to go down to South Carolina. We made up a 10-page operations order with everything from logistics, to a budget, to points of contact, to where we would stop day by day. We brought it to Gen. Kelley, the commandant of cadets at that time, but we didn't have the money to do this, but we thought we should go because there are so many all-male teams going down from Norwich with no female representation from our school," Weppner said.

Maj. Kristine Seipel, housing officer and teacher of business classes, is the advisor for BAMF.

"The group of girls is just really motivated and determined; they went to Kelley on their own. I tried to give them some ideas but they're really self sufficient," Seipel said.

The women estimated they would need $2,000 "The school could match us, so if we could raise $1,000 the school would match us. We made $1,000 dollars in two days," Weppner said. The girls sold food from McDonalds, set up a Pay Pal account for their relatives, and walked around town asking for donations. "Every receipt had to be documented perfectly and we only spent $300 of the school's money so we returned the rest," Weppner said.

The experience allowed the BAMF members to meet females from other military schools, according to Gunn. "It was a really cool experience because we got to see a lot of cool things and compete against females from other military schools, for example, Texas A&M females. I was surprised when we came in third place," Gunn said.

The trophy the girls won can be found in Jackman Hall, according to club members. Next year Weppner plans to do better than third. "Now we know how to train for it so we plan to go back and win it all," Weppner said.

Even while competing at the Citadel, the women said they faced animosity from their male Norwich peers. "While competing on the Citadel's version of the UP we had M-16's and a M-240 Bravo (machine gun). As we were rounding a corner we saw a guy we recognized from Norwich as we were going to pass the Spec Ops team to finish, so we thought it'd be cool to run with a Norwich guy. One Spec Opps guy goes down with an injury, a twisted ankle or something. We stopped and offered to carry their rifles and they could carry him so we could both finish together, the guy on the ground said, ‘I don't want to be helped by a (explicit) girl' and we finished before them," Smutnick said.

"I think it's great they went down to Bulldog Challenge and kicked some butt. They're representing the school in a great way across the country especially with other senior military colleges. I like to stay competitive," McCarthy said.

The women continued their dominance as they won first place in Levy Challenge for the female division, according to Smutnick. The group had the attention of more of the campus community, showing women can do well in a military environment.

It is much harder to be a female in a military environment, says Smutnick. "It's a lot easier for a rumor to get started about a female and then her reputation to go down the drain, for her years at Norwich, for her entire career. Basically what gets you through in the military is word of mouth," Smutnick stated.

As a Norwich graduate, Seiple understood the struggle women face in the military. "I'm an alumni of Norwich and I went through the corps as a female, and I wanted to give back because when I was here I wish there were more females that said, ‘Hey yes, there's a lot of males here, and females get pushed around, but you'll make it, too.' And yes, there were a few people like that, but there wasn't a group or organization that you could go to and vent your frustrations. It's definitely a lot different in the corps being a female than a male and I can say that from experience," Seipel said.

BAMF helped its members in many ways.

"I was in the best shape of my life, my GPA was the highest, I went from no star on my uniform (less than a 3.0) to a gold star (over a 3.5). It also tremendously helped with my confidence when I nailed my interview before the NCO board because of my confidence which helped me get my platoon sergeant job this year," Weppner said.

Weppner explained that at the end of last year all the women decided to spread BAMF to more people. She began writing a constitution over the summer, and originally thought it could be a special unit. She met with the new commandant of cadets, Col. Rick Van Arnam.

"Van Arnam shot down the idea of us being a special unit so we had to become a club. We knew a club status would be way more official, especially for freshmen with things such as DS (Detached Services) slips. Three weeks ago I went down to SGA and the meeting went on 45 minutes and they were half and half in support of us until we were shot down," Weppner said.

McCarthy, who felt the women should be a club all along, says they were shot down because a lot of civilian senators felt the club wouldn't be comfortable to all students because it was geared towards the corps of cadets.

Several senators, particularly civilians, were upset that the proposed club was directed to the corps, even if it was open to all accredited students, according to McCarthy. "One female senator even said, ‘You're not making it comfortable to civilian or commuter students because you're wearing ACU's, and it's a very pro-corps atmosphere.' I was disappointed they voted in that matter because clubs aren't obligated to make people feel comfortable. If that's the culture of the club that's the culture of the club. It goes for any other club, if you go out for club hockey, you get cut, that's that," McCarthy said.

Weppner revised the constitution and reapplied for status.

"They fixed the constitution and made it more appealing to civilian and commuter students and brought over 30 people in front of the Student Senate club's committee, had a committee hearing and the second time they passed with flying colors," McCarthy said.

Now that BAMF is an official club it can recruit new members, according to Gunn. At the informational meeting, the female rooks said they want to be more confident, and be better at PT and maintain high grade point averages, according to Gunn. "A lot of special units like Rangers and Artillery don't have a lot of females; we are here to give the girls the support they need to succeed at Norwich," Gunn said.

Caitlin Stange, an 18-year-old freshman psychology major from Herndon, Va., is one of the freshmen who signed up. "The first meeting was just motivating," Stange said who found out about BAMF through her cadet 1st Sgt.

"1st Sgt. Buckles is also in my platoon for PT in the naval battalion. We were talking about improving my running and she suggested joining the club. She was the best female who tested for the Naval PFT, she maxed (maximized) the arm hang, the female equivalent to pull-ups, and I know a lot of guys didn't max their pull-ups," Stange said.

Stange says she already notices the support system BAMF provides. "There was one girl who was last and struggling with her last lap around the UP and all of us, about 15 girls, all ran the last lap with her and because we were all there to push her, she made it. So, a support system like that is something you don't want to miss out on here," Stange said.

Seipel supports the club. "The last few years I've been getting involved with clubs or activities, and some of them I've gotten out of because I didn't want to be involved with the politics," Seipel said, "This one is different for me; it has a personal touch to it."