Live Your Ritual Everyday

Hello Everyone!!!

Today was definitely an inspiring day. We started off the day with a great opening speaker, Josh Orendi. It was a very interesting way to start our day. We did a test to see where people stood about risk management things that are happening on our campus. It was interesting to see the reactions to when he asked us if hazing was a problem on our campuses. It really annoyed me to see how many people felt that hazing is not a problem and has potential to positively influence members. The prominent message that came from Josh was a famous quote from Ghandi: "Be the change we desire to see in others." Basically telling us that if we want things to change within our organization, community, or even on a larger scale we need to start within change ourselves and our actions before we expect other to do so.

After the opening speaker we broke into small groups to do Project Drivefoward. A new program NGLA started this year. I thought this was an interesting session. It gave student leaders the opportunity to tackle the tough subjects that we as a community should be addressing more frequently and on our campuses. I really enjoyed how we were able to share problems and bounce ideas on how to better ourselves with other student leaders.

One thing that I did that was really exciting was that I reached out to a sorority woman who voiced a concern that all her sorority worried about was hazing and the "fun" aspect of Greek life. I gave her my contact information and shared with her what my chapter has done and offered any help or resources I could.

My first official educational session was called Pioneering Change: How to Lead a Culture Shift on Your Campus. This session was presented by two IFC presidents from Cornell University. I tip my hat to these two gentlemen. They were able to see a huge problem on their campus: hazing, alcohol and drug abuse, and address it even with all of the negative backlash from their community. These men told us the numerous problems that had occurred on their campus in the past four years and how they were able to shift from a culture where they felt it was necessary to have alcohol and drugs present in their events in order to recruit members to a culture that is taking baby steps to a completely dry and drug free community. I wish these men the best of luck and hope that they inspired others to make such monumental changes on their campuses as well ... anyone can make a change they just need to step up and do it!

The next session I went to was called Connecting the "Majorities" to the Multicultural Community. This session was really about taking the focus off of trying to include the "minority" students and realizing that we have more that connects us than separates us. This was an interesting session because we always judge, or stereotype, or shall we say ... put someone in a "box". What we need to do is take a step back, look more than what is on the outside, find what ties us together, and use that to enhance our community.

My final session of the day was definitely my favorite. It was a CampusSpeaks presenter and we tackled the topic of values. He challenged us to look at a list of values that our community, as Greeks, share and pick one single value that means the most to us. We then had to share it with a complete stranger. We repeated this a few times. It was interesting to see how other people live their values and which ones they found most important. I think one of the most valuable things we talked about during this sessions was how we are all value-based organization and we should be having value-based recruitment rather than just making recruitment a numbers game. He also challenged us to think about our ritual and whether we knew what it really meant or if we just went through the motions. I will definitely be having a conversation on this subject within my own chapter but also with other leaders in the community.

After our sessions we had the AMAZING opportunity to share dinner with the Greek Leaders from Quinnipiac. We had a ball taking the bus and going to the Black Bear Saloon. Chris, Aubree, Murray, and myself shared a delightful dinner that made Norman (my food baby) EXTREMELY happy. We share delicious cheese fries, amazing chicken parm, and scrumptious brownie cobbler. It was so much fun, especially since the Quinnipiac delegates were just as enthusiastic as we were. We got to play songs we requested through the DJ and MB even celebrated her belated birthday!!! Overall it was a nice dinner :) While waiting for the bus we got to shake our tail-feathers, the favorite was the Dougie. :)

After dinner MB, myself, and the fraternity men had some great conversations about our community on our campus and some of the things we wanted to execute. It was great to be sharing our love for the community with each other. It is one of my favorite things about this opportunity we have here. The people we share this experience with also share the same love and passion for their chapters and our community. Nothing can top how inspiring it is to see that same love and passion in other people.

After our chat, I came to the lobby to blog and meet new friends with John, Erika, and Chris Zymroz. We had tons of fun meeting other student leaders and creating memories with new friends!!!!

I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store!!!

TTFN <3
Sarah