NGLA 2013: The Staff Side

Hi Friends!
I am so excited to be able to blog about my 2013 NGLA experience! This year I was given the oppurtunity to attend NGLA as a Student Staff Volunteer. I applied for the job back in Fall and I can not believe it is over. These past 5 days have been some of the most amazing/ eye-opening/ and rewarding days of my life :)
The weekend began when I arrived to Hartford on Wednesday afternoon. I was immediately introduced to my roommate Michele and we immediately started sharing our Greek Life stories and experiences. As the rest of our roommates began to arrive we all started bonding! We eventually were introduced to the rest of the staff, and I can honestly say that the rest of the staff were some of the most amazing people I have ever met. It was awesome to be able to get to know people who were both Undergraduate and Graduate College students who were all interested in Greek Life and all wanted to help better our schools, Greek Communities, Chapters, and ourselves as leaders. I think the whole groupd bonded when we were stuffing over 800 envelopes with Conference information, and we all got a lot of paper cuts :(
As the weekend continued we went through training, and Greeks from all of the Northeast began to arrive. I may have suffered from even more papercuts on Thursday when we were organizing all of the envelopes by school and by conference participant but it was worth it when all of conference attendees began to arrive. I was so excited when the BSU delegation arrived and got to see me in my spiffy vest :) The conference officially kicked off Thursday night with a presentation from Phired Up! I love seeing them present because they are a reminder of the importance of recruitment and everything that comes along with it :)
On Friday the rest of the keynote speakers began as well as the breakout sessions. I was excited because not only was I given the oppurtunities to introduce the session speakers and see speakers I was interested in, but I also got to see sessions that I otherwise would not have. Through the breakout sessions I learned a lot about multicultural organizations, which I previously knew nothing about. It was an eyeopening oppurtunity to see how even though these organizations may be different than what I know they are amazing organizations and bring something amazing to the Greek world.
Friday night was really fun because I got to go to dinner with BSU and there were plenty of laughs and bonding had by all! I'm just saying though, it's really cold in downtown Hartford at night!
Saturday kicked off the beginning of the end of NGLA 2013. The day was begun at roughly 1:00 AM when my alarm went off after my 1 hour nap for duty. After duty was over I got another few hours of sleep, and then the day was spent attending more keynote speakers, breakout sessions, and eventually the Awards Banquet. BSU was lucky enough to be recognized for as a Honorable Mention for Service and Philanthropy and our very own Jesslyn recieved the Greek Leader of Distinction Award!
This morning we had our goodbye brunch, and it was pretty hard to say goodbye to the people who became my family this past weekend. We bonded over our similarities, our differences, and all became better people and leaders together. I am so thankful to have met the NGLA 2013 staff and for all of our experiences these past few days. Also, thank you to everyone who has supported me through this experience, especially Maribeth and the rest of the BSU delegation :)

Greek Love,
Sadie