#13

You Say I Pay For My Friends? I Don’t Think I Pay Enough.
My Fight Against Sorority Misconceptions

When I walk around in public wearing my Greek letters I can’t help but feel that people are constantly passing judgment. Unfortunately, it’s an upsetting position most sorority girls encounter. Many people believe that Greek life’s only focuses are only to party and get drunk but sorority life is not what many people think of it. It is sad that sorority girls have been standing up against certain stereotype for years. Instead of being seen as smart, academically focused, and friendly, our letters give people the idea that we are airheads, slackers and bitches. If you are one of those people who judge us but don’t truly understand us here is a chance to open your mind.

Allow me to start by verifying that I am far from the sorority stereotype. Since being at Kean University, I have been freshmen and sophomore class president of student council, been on the deans list, a member of the English national honor society and have won many honors such as the Volunteer of the Year Award. Like myself, each one of my thirty sorority sisters are driven young women who despite being apart of a “clique” have different majors of study, belong to different groups on campus, and all have unique personalities.

Being that Kean University is a commuter school, it is hard to not only meet many people but find things to do especially on the weekends. Melissa Ziomeck, a former graduate of Kean and former sister of Nu Theta Chi says, “Being apart of a sorority I had people to hang out with and places to go all of the time. If I didn’t join one at Kean I probably would have transferred”.

Amanda Fizz, a member of Nu Sigma Tau, a local sorority on the KU campus also tells what she benefits from being a sister, “I am constantly asked why I joined a sorority and I tell them one main reason is because we do so many community service acts throughout the year, all great experiences I probably would never have been apart if I hadn’t joined”.

Some examples of these community service acts that our sorority is apart of is Breast Cancer Walk, working at the Somerset Hills Food Bank, raising money at Up Till Dawn, an event for St. Judes Children’s Hospital, and our philanthropy which is an yearly event that not only commemorates a sister who passed away from Lou Gehrigs Disease but raises scholarship money for students.

Not only are these girls benefiting from doing these community service acts by becoming better people but their résumés are enhanced as well which will allow them to have a impressive advantage over many college students when they begin to get out into the interview process for jobs.

Although there are seventeen different sororities on campus with girls who all saw the benefits of joining, there are still a large amount of girls who never cross into the Greek life. Nicole Franchino, a senior at Kean, says, “My parents had an issue with me joining because of the partying with frats and the environment of drugs and alcohol”. In my four years of being in a sorority, I have seen many girls, similar to Nicole, who thought about joining but were being swayed by the false information that their parents had.

If parents only knew that sororities surprisingly do not follow the motto “no work and all play” and that their daughters could be apart of weekly business meetings, then they might alter their perspective. These meetings are run by sisters who hold both executive board positions and other positions such as fund raiser chair, sisterhood chair and the historian. By taking on these positions, girls not only gain confidence in them and learn responsibility but most importantly acquire leadership skills.

At these meetings, each girl who holds a position speaks and when it comes down to making decisions it is an environment where every girl’s opinion matters. For shy girls who have never spoken up, it is at place where these girls gain a stronger voice and more self-assurance. Also at these meetings, is where our dues are given to the treasurer, which pays for various things such as monthly sisterhood events, birthday and sister of the month presents, tee shirt money, our date party and our end of the year formal. Not only do we pay for these things but we pay various fines if we do anything inappropriate such as talking while someone else is speaking at a meeting or coming late to meetings or events. Kate Illiacheva, vice president of Omega Sigma Psi, states “The fines are meant to reinforce not only the respect level that every one deserves but also emphasizes that everyone has to pull their weight in order for us to succeed and honestly once these girls continue to rack up numerous fines, their manner eventually changes for the better.”

In the end, joining a sorority gave me the opportunity to find a second family away from home and allowed me to find a close group of friends that I wasn’t able to find in high school. By becoming a sister, I have learned how to work as a team, how valuable it is to volunteer, how to hold a position and be dependable and most importantly I have learned that the stereotypes that society gives sorority girls and Greek like as a whole are not only embellished but they are wrong.