The sorority experience is a hub for all things sisterhood and friendship, but it offers so much more beyond that! In my own years in my chapter, while I found fast and forever relationships and closeness to many of my sorority sisters, I also found immense access to external opportunities for leadership, getting involved in my community and plugging in to my college campus as a whole!
Through membership in sorority life, I’ve been encouraged and pushed to get involved in my university on a larger scale. The women I’ve interacted with, not just in my chapter, but in our College Panhellenic community, led me to get involved in so many other campus outlets that have left a substantial impact on me. A few girls in varying Panhellenic chapters approached me during my Freshman year, regarding joining an organization that they were a part of called Red Wolves for St. Jude, a nonprofit fundraising group that supports St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. Growing up outside of Memphis, St. Jude is a place that I’ve always known and loved, and this was a perfect way for me to plug into something outside of my sorority but also to not be alone in.
Now, I am serving on Red Wolves for St. Jude’s Executive Board for the second year, beside my best friend, Susie, who is an Alpha Gamma Delta. We both get to work on a smaller team of seven students putting on events and activities to raise money for the childhood cancer patients of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, working to engage not just college students, but the greater Northeast Arkansas Community in supporting this incredible charity.
So much of what we each found in our chapter’s sense of philanthropy, service and community, we’ve gotten to find in serving our college campus together. Serving on the Exectuive Board has allowed me to grow relationships with other sorority women who aren’t in my chapter. Through the encouragement of the older members who came before us in our respective chapters, we’ve been challenged to find what we love about sorority life in all walks of our college journeys.
Beyond that, the encouragement from sorority women has led me to get involved in so many other campus programs and opportunities. This past summer specifically, I served as a New Student Orientation (NSO) Leader on my college campus, helping direct and support new freshmen on their first days on campus as an official Arkansas State Student. The support of my sorority sisters encouraged me to take a leap of faith, and apply for this incredible program, which I got to enjoy beside some of my Panhellenic sisters from down sorority row. It is just another example of how sorority life has brought me so many more opportunities and connections outside of my chapter.
Sorority life has pushed me to find a more confident version of myself, one that is capable of going out on a limb to try for something greater, and take advantage of the opportunities life has to offer me outside of my chapter experience.
