Kate Nash never expected her college career to involve wearing crop tops and sports bras for her classmates and campus to see. She now spends time posting Instagram photos in PINK apparel for her roughly five-thousand followers to see.

A senior studying corporate marketing from Lexington, Nash is a representative for the WKU PINK chapter. She started as a team member during her sophomore year, then became a representative for the clothing line owned by Victoria’s Secret her junior year and will continue in that role during her senior year. 

From sponsored social media posts to free brand items, many students at WKU have become involved in ambassador programs. It’s an opportunity for a brand to gain attention from their target audience while their ambassadors are able to receive different perks. 

Looking to expand their reach, large brands such as Victoria’s Secret created their PINK Campus Reps program to promote their products to college students.

“I am a huge YouTube watcher, so I had seen all these girls at bigger schools, like Alabama LSU doing this thing called a PINK campus rep,” Nash said. “I was like ‘Oh my gosh that was literally so cool.’  I had no idea that you could reach out and bring it to your campus so that’s where the first two reps at school brought the program to Western.”

Nash said as a representative, she is responsible for hiring five team members, which are volunteer positions.

“We like to be super diverse,” Nash said. “We had a pretty diverse team this year but we try to get girls that represent every area of the campus, like athletes, RAs, or someone in a sorority.”

As a representative, Nash handles social media analytics, and plans events for the program. Team members are able to attend events, and wear clothes provided by PINK to post on social media.

“Since the program is completely volunteer, what you put in is what you get out of it. Alexis (the other WKU PINK rep) and I are obviously very invested into it,” Nash said. “We love it a lot but we’ve actually been super blessed to finally find some amazing team members that put their heart and soul into it.”

While pursuing the goal of working in marketing, Nash started her own boutique called Shop Fearless, which she said she uses her skills from her classes and her experiences as a PINK representative. 

“I just wanted to create a platform that everyone felt 100 percent welcome to shop at,” Nash said. “That’s why I called it Shop Fearless, because you should feel empowered and confident in every aspect of what you do. Honestly, it ties hand in hand with Victoria’s Secret as well.”

Nash has used her excitement from her own experience to engage others to join the Shop Fearless ambassador program.

“I actually have girls at like 27 different schools across the nation that represent Shop Fearless,” Nash said. “It’s unpaid ambassadorships but you get incentives and perks. It’s pretty similar to what Victoria’s Secrets does. [It’s] just not the grand scale because we are small, but it’s been such an amazing journey getting to meet and work with these girls.”

Digital News Editor Debra Murray can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @debramurrayy