Skyler Phillips: She Really is the First

Walking around the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee’s campus, you see thousands of faces of those that you know nothing about. To everyone, everybody is just another person going to class and trying to graduate and get their degree, but no one really realizes the back story to these faces they see or know the things they have done.

Skyler Phillips is one of the thousands of students to attend UW-Milwaukee, but just as everybody has a story, her upbringing is different compared to everyone else’s. Phillips is now in her second year of college and has a record of accomplishments under her belt, that scale from starting her own women empowerment organization here at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee called She’s the First to being able to work with the Wisconsin Senate when only in high school.

When Phillips was a child, her and her older sister Piper weren’t up watching TV, sitting on their phones, or playing video games. Their parents were strict and didn’t allow the girls to have electronics.

“I always resented them for that when I was younger, but it forced me to become a global citizen,” said Phillips. “My mom would always take us to museums, and on the off chance we did get to watch TV, she would put on PBS or a historical show or movie.”

But now, Phillips give all the credit to her parents for shaping her into who she is today. She described that her parents brought her up in nature and it has really helped with her interaction with people.

“My parents always encouraged us to seek information if we were curious,” Phillips stated, “and I think that’s what made me who I am today.”

Fast forward into the future, the one of her many accomplishments started when she was only in high school. Phillips had the opportunity to be the Wisconsin State Senate’s first high school Page for a Day. Here she was selected to work in the Wisconsin Capitol Building in Madison where she did tasks such as taking memos for Senators and she was able to even fly a flag on the top of the building.

When Phillips came to UWM campus she felt the need to implement change immediately.

“One of my biggest accomplishments is starting my club on campus,” Phillips said. “I saw a flyer for this organization called ‘She’s the First’ at the first college I attended and thought that my new school would benefit from this.”

Phillips began the process to bring this organization to campus in order to give back to the community. She’s the First is a national 501 (c)(3) that raises money for lower income schools and neighborhood.

To begin the search of members and empowered women, Phillips began reaching out to her friends she had already made here in Milwaukee. Phillips reached out to her new best friend Brianna Winter’s with the opportunity to become the secretary for She’s the First.

“I was definitely a little hesitant when Skyler asked me to join,” Winters expressed. “I just joined another women’s organization on campus, but I realized that She’s the First is another way for me to continue empowering women around the world.”

According to the She’s the First’s website their vision is a world where every girl chooses her own future. They understand that the challenges that are holding girls back from an education or schooling worldwide are complex, but they can at least try to teach girls to speak up and hope the world listens.

 “I saw the volunteer potential in the city of Milwaukee and wanted to reach out to local low-income schools and neighborhoods in order to help inspire young girls to realize the importance of education,” Phillips shared.

Now that all the paperwork has gone through and the last chartered meeting is happening, Phillips is excited to hold her first real meeting at the beginning of the 2020 spring semester with a hope of at least 50 girls who have already signed interest forms. As the organization goes further into the future the goal is to have a large impact over an even larger community.

“Skyler is honestly an amazing leader,” Winters said. “She just makes it easy. There are very few people who could take on the role Skyler plays.”

Phillips transferred to UWM in Spring 2019 as a pre-nursing student, but realized nursing was not the place for her. Phillips is now a Political Science major with an emphasis in Law Studies in hope to go to law school to practice Constitutional Law or go to grad school to pursue International Relations then a possible career in Counterterrorism. She also has interest in joining the Air Force to become a pilot like her father, but eventually she would like to work her way to Washing D.C. to do defense contracting or working on campaigns and congressional staff.

As for now, other than being President of She’s the First, Phillips holds a spot on her sororities executive board as the Public Relations Vice President, where she was elected as a new initiate, and she also holds a spot on the student appropriations committee which is a branch of UWM’s student government.