SL 101

Joining A SORORITY!!

If you are in college and you have come cross the thought about joining a sorority but haven’t been fully convinced, keep on reading. Joining a sorority is an experience that you will be getting in college. You’ll think about the reasons for joining and the ones about not joining and if you think that being in a sorority is not for you that is okay. There have been situations where many young women go through the rush process and later on find out that it is not for them and they leave. 

As you enter the second week of school you will be seeing a lot of the sororities out on campus with their tables set up and seeing people talk to them. Take that chance to get to know them and who they are as an organization. Believe me when I say this but a lot of the times, their newest members are always going to be the ones that approach you or want to talk to you because they are also learning the ropes of how to recruit. They are also shy and scared that you will be rejecting them before they get to introduced themselves. 

Talking to the sororities during their tabling week is the perfect opportunity to get to know every organization. Ask them questions about their sorority and what has their experience been like, how has their experience in the sorority helped them, and what sources do they have to help everyone stay on track with their academics. These are a few questions that I would get asked meeting women who were interested in joining. 

Joining a sorority can bring you many different opportunities. There are leadership opportunities that you can apply for, scholarships, connections, career search, study groups/buddies, and the obvious thing that you will hear, lifelong friendships. A lot of these sororities take their academics serious in order to have you be the best student that you can. Don’t think that because you are in a sorority your grades won’t matter because they do. 

You might ask the people around you about joining a sorority or might have seen on social media about the negatives about joining a sorority. Some of the common ones are:

"You are paying for friends": If you are joining just to make friends, then you are going into this for the wrong reasons. A lot of the women who join are going to find a sisterhood, a second home, network, and gain connections to help them out when they graduate. Believe me when I say this, your chances of talking to everyone is going to be difficult. There are going to be members that you are not going to click with and that is fine. 

 "All they do is party": Not every sorority girl is a party girl. That is the stereotype that society has put on these women. One thing that I have stood by and have told the young woman who have joined after me is "You get to experience the sorority life the way you want to. If all you want to do is party, that is fine but that is the image you are painting for yourself".  

"There is so much drama": Yes. Unfortunately that is given. No matter where you go and when there is a group full of women, there is going to be drama. Every women is going to go through something. If you are always getting caught up in drama, you are going to want to step back and give yourself the time that you need. Surrounding yourself with individuals who start or love to see drama happening, you are going to want to step back.

SL 101

 

sorority talk!!

Entering college is all about experiences. What you give in college, you will get back. That is something that I like to live up to no matter where I am at. Especially when I joined a sorority. If you are thinking of joining one, do it. You are going to be hearing a lot of reasons as to why you should and shouldn't join one but I am here to talk to you about my experience of being in one. Everyone's experience is different when being in one but there are a couple of things you get to learn more about and skills that you get to practice. 

SororitY History & What is a Sorority?

A little bit of sorority history, they began to be known in the mid 19th century. Women started to create these organizations to provide support networks for higher education. The very first sorority was Alpha Delta Pi which was founded in 1851 and it was firstly introduced as a secret society for women. A lot of the sororities that you see on TikTok and Instagram are obviously not a secret society for women but a support system and each sorority has its own core purpose. A lot of them having those purposes be sisterhood, academics, service/philanthropies, and leadership. Most sororities now are categorized into different national networks/councils (connections to a larger organizations). There are 4 different councils:

1. Panhellenic Council: Traditional governing, social sororities that manages structured recruitment and live in missions that provide philanthropic support to different causes (including women empowerment, domestic violence, breast cancer awareness, court appointed special advocates for children) and so much more. Made up of 26 women's-only inter/national member organizations.

2. National Pan-Hellenic Council: Governs a lot of the historically African American fraternities and sororities. Established to provide unified voices and platform for cooperation. This is most commonly known as the "Divine Nine" (4 sororities & 5 fraternities). Highly focused on community service, leadership, and academic excellence.

3. Multicultural Greek Council: governs cultural based sororities and fraternities (Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, & Lantix as examples). Promotes diversity, heritages and education. Raise funds for education, social justice causes, and charity work.

4. Professional/Special Interest Councils: Governs academic based sororities and fraternities. Most common seen in college are STEM or professional focused.

The most common sororities that you see on social media such as Alpha Phi, Pi Beta Phi, Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Alpha Theta, Chi Omega, Phi Mu, Alpha Chi Omega (to name a few) are under the Panhellenic Council. Sororities under this council tend to be the most known, do not let that stop you from getting to know the other sororities under the other councils!!

My reasons for joining

Before I started college, I knew I wanted to join a sorority. Well mostly towards the end of my senior year of high school. I didn't really have a preference as to where I wanted to join but all I knew was that I was joining one. I remember getting a video of a "Sorority House Room Tour" on YouTube and clicking on it to see what it was like to live in a sorority house. Little by little I started to watch more videos regarding room tours, big and little week, and lastly a day in my in xyz sorority. Watching these videos got me excited to joining an organization that would support a campaign and raise funds for what they support. As soon as I entered college, I had forgotten about joining a sorority and in my spring semester is when I decided to officially join a Panhellenic sorority. When I joined I had a little bit of knowledge of what I was getting myself into and thought that I was going to get haze but lucky for me, the sorority that I joined has a no hazing policy. Really happy for that as the women that I joined with didn't go through any of that process. 

Is it worth joining?

This is a question that is very debatable and honestly it really depends on the person and their reasons for joining. There are some women who want to join a sisterhood for support and advice, some are transfers and are starting life somewhere new, growing connections and networking. There is a variety of reasons for joining but it all comes down to your reasons. I have met women who want to join a sorority to go to frat parties and a lot of the times these women get rejected but that is a topic for another blog post. I personally think it was worth joining as I got the opportunity to work alongside other women who do things differently and it really helps when you collaborate with a bigger group. But lets be real, there is going to be drama. No matter where you go or what you plan on joining, any club or organization that is mostly women based, there will be drama and it is normal. Do not expect this is to be perfect with no drama whatsoever because that does not exists.