Thank you all for reading my story! While I appreciate the suggestion to post it all at once, I am very busy with school and everything right now and would prefer to post it in smaller chunks. No worries though, I promise it will all be posted soon enough (I'm shooting to have it done a week from today!). That said, here's my Round 2 story!

I went to pick up my invites with high hopes. I was pretty sure I was dropped from Jason Aldean, but I was pretty confident with all of the other houses. When I got my list, it read

Kacey Musgraves
Kenny Chesney
Keith Urban
Luke Bryan

I had to say I was a little surprised. I really loved Florida-Georgia Line and thought they liked me too. I replayed the conversation in my head. Maybe it was the fact that I mentioned going to Germany and visiting the Hofbrauhaus on a past trip while talking about my future plans to study abroad. I decided to look ahead. I still had four chapters that wanted me. I only needed one to call home. I had class until the very beginning of the first party, so I had to hurry to make it.

Kacey Musgraves- I felt like I neglected this chapter during my first round, so I tried to look a little more eager to meet the girls. Unfortunately, I was paired with a girl who seemed to have her heart set on this sorority. She had told me that not only was she a legacy, but she had 3 rec letters and had bonded with many of the sisters at the church retreat. I felt like a third wheel talking to the sister along with the other PNM. Their philanthropy presentation was nice, but not a cause I was very connected to. I felt panicked leaving because I felt I didn’t make a very good impression on the girl I talked to.
Kenny Chesney- I looked at the other girls in line to visit this house, and it was clear that none of them wanted to be there. I put a smile on my face and tried my best to look excited. The philanthropy was obscure and the presentation was weak. The girl I talked to rambled on about her entire life story and didn’t ask me any questions about myself. It took everything in me to stay engaged in the conversation. I left disappointed and very nervous about my next party.
Keith Urban- I was paired with another PNM and I took this as a bad sign. I talked with three girls, most of whom asked surface questions (What’s your major? Why did you pick this school? How did you like our philanthropy video?). I connected well with the philanthropy and tried my best to express that to the sisters. Again, I left the house uncertain of my fate.
Luke Bryan- I cried at the philanthropy video. Yep, I was that girl. I was paired with the same girl I talked to first the first night. Again, we struggled to start the conversation, but found a comfortable topic and seemed to connect well. Every single one of the sisters I had met at the “Meet the Sisters” night came up and said hello to me, two of them offering me hugs. Then I began talking with a new sister. When I asked her if she had a leadership position in the house, she got kind of awkward and told me that she was the new member coordinator. I felt like I had offended her and started to freak out inside. Was it a good sign that I was talking to a girl in charge of all of the new members or a bad sign that I could be getting cut? I ended the night talking to the same girl I talked to last the previous night. Again, we seemed to connect really well.

I ranked the houses 1. Luke Bryan, 2. Keith Urban, 3. Kacey Musgraves 4. Kenny Chesney and hoped for the best…

You were probably second guessing things a bit too much, but I think that's pretty typical in such a nerve-wracking situation!

Re Kenny's philanthropy, obscure as in you thought it was weird to have a philanthropy for that cause, or obscure as in you never heard of the organization supporting it before? I personally think it's kind of pointless when GLOs pick things for philanthropies that everyone knows about and donates to anyway.

Yes I most certainly was. Unfortunately, it's in my nature to over-analyze everything. There were too many sleepless nights during my recruitment process.
Well, I personally thought it was an obscure philanthropy because it was an issue I'd never really thought of as a huge issue and I personally didn't have any connections to it. I appreciated the girl's support though. Honestly, their event sounds like a lot of fun. I don't mean to bash their philanthropy at all, it just wasn't something I was particularly drawn to in comparison to the other sororities that had philanthropies I had personal connections to!

I can't think of an "obscure" philanthropy, for any of the 26 NPC chapters. But then I'm not filtering through an 18-19 year old's brain, where everything is related to the self.

Like I said, I don't mean to offend any philanthropy out there as I understand all of the causes are great. I had very personal connections with the other three philanthropies and this one did not resonate with me the way the others did. I felt more comfortable with a sorority with a philanthropy that I felt a personal connection to and may or may not have previously worked with. Maybe obscure was not the proper term to use. I am quite aware that there are bigger things in the world than myself...

Now that we have that cleared up...more story, please!!! :)

I don't think anyone is offended; I think we are all just racking our brains for what it could be.

Ours.
While I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE RMH, I can see why it may not "resonate" with 18-19 year olds unless they were personally affected with a childhood illness that required a stay at RMH.
I'm sure there are others that while we love as members of the sorority, wouldn't really resonate with 18-19 year olds.

See, I was thinking it was something more like eating disorders or the American Heart Association or something. I could be wrong, though.

ASUADPi - I'm thinking it's likely CASA.

I've watched actives struggle with how to explain this to PNMs. They don't have a clue about how to make it come alive. They aren't involved face to face with CASA children, for obvious reasons. They can't relate, it's so far outside their experience.

So how is a PNM going to "feel a connection" to that? Not like autism or breast cancer or heart disease, for sure.

^^^ That was my first thought, too. When my daughter met with her Theta rec writer a couple years ago, she said she was going to ask her to talk about CASA, because she really didn't know anything about it (and she was very curious).

Some of our chapters had a hard time presenting our former philanthropy of camping for girls, especially those chapters that didn't have a local camp connection. Our "rebranded" philanthropy, Building Strong Girls, still incorporates camping, but also includes Girls on the Run and a wider umbrella of building strength and resiliency in girls, which college women can relate to.

Oh, I thought it was DZ...school for the deaf?

I was thinking CASA, yet it is such an extraordinary and critically important service -- advocating for those who cannot effectively advocate for themselves. In the thread where posters identfy their favorite items from each NPC group, I look to highly distinctive elements, (such as a constellation for Alpha Phi, no crest for AOPi) and CASA for Theta. It is not one of the highly branded (sorry, I get brand fatigue) philanthropies.

I'm in the process of submitting an application to become a CASA volunteer. Our local CASA director is an Alpha Xi Delta alumna (no it isn't AZ-Alpha Xi!). However, the drawback for me is the transportation piece. I'm sure something will work out.

back to the story, OP!

ETA: DBB, I think the DZ philanthropy is well known, myself. We all have our thoughts on this, apparently.