After developing the app PULLATracker, Rowan MBA student Siena Rampulla has reimagined the safety resource platform as Hot Girl Safe.

This new initiative serves as a personalized public speaking program that encourages students to find safety and resilience within themselves before they attend high school and university in the United States and abroad.

While studying abroad in Florence, Italy in 2022, Rampulla, who spoke Italian fluently, realized that her friends without language skills encountered safety concerns. While on Rowan’s campus and abroad, Rampulla found that students were not fully aware of their environmental surroundings.

“One of my girlfriends…was waiting for her taxi and a guy took the phone out of her hand and literally fought her for it and she had scars up and down her arms,” said Rampulla. “I know so many people that study abroad that are like, ‘Oh well, it’s safer than America so I can do whatever I want.’ I’m like, no, there’s still precautions you have to take because as an American you are a target.”

Rampulla’s goal was to create Hot Girl Safe, targeting Gen Z. She aimed to use a play on words to catch the attention of young women and convey that safety is not a women’s issue, but an environmental issue that affects all.

“Live the hot girl life while being hot girl safe, that’s my thing,” said Rampulla. “We should be going out, we should be living in our 20’s. We should just be a little more situationally aware.”

Rowan MBA student Sylent Michaels is Hot Girl Safe’s journalism intern who met Rampulla in a Digital Journalism I class in undergrad. Michaels has followed Rampulla’s ventures since her original PULLATracker pitch, before winning the 2023 Rohrer New Venture Competition.

“I followed Siena throughout her entire journey with everything. Anything she needs, I’m here,” said Michaels.

Hot Girl Safe is made up of three marketing interns, two public relations interns, one tech intern, and one journalism intern. The team generally holds their general meetings on Wednesdays and Rampulla checks in on the interns to see if they need assistance on individual meeting calls. The spring 2025 team works on recording content, pitching ideas, setting up seminars, and more.

“The internship program that Siena’s created, it’s really just a beautiful collection of women working together for outreach for Hot Girl Safe to get the word out,” said Michaels.

Going into Rampulla’s freshman year of college, a recurring saying that parents in her town would tell their teenagers was, “You send boys to college with condoms and girls to college with pepper spray.” The Safe Not Sorry program was also offered for female high school juniors and seniors to attend before college to learn self-defense. With these ideas in mind, Rampulla aimed to create Hot Girl Safe to aid students in not feeling intimidated by experiencing university life.

“You are placing the blame on the female student when the male student’s basically able to do whatever he wants and has that freedom,” said Rampulla. “I don’t want female students to feel scared going into college because I know a lot of female students who are nervous. We don’t know what intent these people may have for us and there are still dangers to male students too.”

Michaels is taking the lead on a new project for the resource team by creating safety seminars which will be promoted as “Baddie Self Defense.” The seminar dates will come out within the next few months.

“We wanna teach girls with nails or rings that they can still look cute going out and they don’t have to be like, ‘I’m a target even more,’ because people may see you as a target but you are not. You are the security that you need,” said Rampulla.

For some students, the privacy and safety tips provided by Hot Girl Safe can be valuable in helping them stay informed of the potential dangers related to social media use and sharing car rides, as highlighted by the Hot Girl Safe Instagram.

“I think Hot Girl Safe is a really cool idea for the safety of women everywhere,” said senior marketing major, Alex McDowell. “It looks to be a great way to educate girls on ways to keep themselves and their friends safe both outside and within school grounds because you should always be on the lookout for yourself and friends.”

Audrianna Krall, a sophomore elementary education major, finds the platform to be a beneficial resource for spreading awareness about campus safety. This program is designed to be personalized to fit the needs of students and the school they attend.

“I love how it is positively geared towards women’s safety and how it gives tips and insight on how to be safe in a college setting, all while lifting up women,” said Krall.

As the eldest of her siblings, Rampulla intends to be the older sister figure for others. She aspires to have genuine conversations with students and for them to feel security within themselves.

“I’m the oldest sister, so it’s kind of like being the older sister for other people. I was able to tell my sisters like…this is the reality of college and I don’t want you to be blindsided,” said Rampulla. “I want you to know what’s going on and what’s out there so you’re not kind of mad at me for not telling you. Right, like, I would be mad at my older sister for something obvious that was out there and she didn’t tell me.”

Hot Girl Safe plans to release an app in the future and work with high school seniors, college freshmen, sororities, and organizations that are interested in self-defense. Rampulla hopes this initiative will promote practicing safety awareness instead of safety paranoia. She aims for this platform to encourage students to know the resources their schools and hometowns offer.

“I think it’s a positive page to inform, support, and uplift all women alike. Plus the page is incredibly cute,” said freshman theatre arts major, Nyana Valentine-Harris.

Following Rampulla’s spring graduation, the Hot Girl Safe team hopes to continue the internship program next school year. Moving forward, Rampulla hopes that students will feel more prepared when entering college and the study abroad scene.

“I want the students to get out that they are able to live their lives,” said Rampulla. ”They don’t have to be scared to go anywhere and just practice safety awareness.”

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