Sisters of Sigma Kappa participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer's. (Photo courtesy of Ally Middleton).Ally Middleton - Opinions Writerallym95@uab.edu
I’m in a sorority, but I am not a party animal, stuck up or picture-perfect. I don’t pay for my friends, nor do I participate in hazing. I’m in a sorority, but some of my closest friends aren’t associated with fraternities and sororities at all. I’m not self-absorbed, crazy skinny, covered in monograms or unintelligent. In fact, my sorority and other chapters are actually the opposite.
We have a strong policy against hazing, we celebrate our extreme diversity and we place a huge emphasis on grades. As Vice President of Scholarship for my sorority, I witness first-hand the effort the members of my chapter make toward keeping their grades up. Fraternities and sororities have strict GPA requirements, and we all work together to promote the academic success of each member. We celebrate achievements and provide resources for those who are struggling.
In the spirit of Greek accomplishments, 2015 was an awesome year for chapters all across the country, and a recent article from “Total Sorority Move” highlights 15 of the top chapters who are constantly knocking down the stereotypes.
For example, several chapters have started stepping forward to fight against sexual assault by partnering with the It’s On Us campaign where students can take a pledge to do their part in preventing campus assaults. Similarly, chapters at the University of Maryland hosted the largest Out of the Darkness walk for suicide prevention.
In other parts of the country, chapters were making strides to improve their communities and help those around them to the best of their abilities. Iota Phi Theta bought land and built a home for a homeless family in their area. Kappa Alpha Theta collected over 200 prom dresses for teenage girls in foster care. My Sigma Kappa sisters in Arizona raised over $13,000 for a sister who was diagnosed with cancer, and the brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon at UCLA made it their mission to help a little girl with cancer by bringing gifts and visiting the girl as much as possible as well as by raising around $27,000 to help the family with hospital expenses.
These are just a few examples of fraternities and sororities going above and beyond, and while not all chapters are able to do extravagant things like this all the time, I firmly believe that people join these organizations to become a better version of themselves.
There will always be people who party too hard and forget to take off their letters while doing so. There will always be people who only rushed thinking it would grant them popularity, and there will always be questionable recruitment videos, but those few bad apples don’t change the fact that all our organizations are founded on values and principles that were intended to make their members better than who they were before they got their letters.
In Sigma Kappa, we strive to live our values out loud everyday, and my favorite has always been personal growth. Through my time in the sorority, even though it hasn’t even been a year, I can see myself developing into a stronger, more independent, more passionate individual, and I can thank my sisters for helping me realize the potential in myself.
I’m in a sorority, but I’m not a stereotype or a statistic. I prefer two Greek letters over the others, but I still treat everyone I meet with respect whether they fell in love with different letters or no letters at all. I’m in a sorority, but I’m also a leader, a student, a friend, a girlfriend, a daughter and a dreamer. I take pride in the accomplishments of so many different chapters across the nation because as a community, we’re making admirable progress to break down the negative perceptions of sororities and fraternities.
