Why did you join your fraternity or sorority?
 

I am interested in learning why you joined your fraternity or sorority. Obviously you are pleased with your choice or you would not be visiting this site.

I was an out-of-state student at a major university and knew no one. The idea of living with 40 guys (instead of hundreds) and a home cooked meal seemed appealing. When I discovered a group of 80 guys I felt comfortable with and realized I had a ready-made group to socialize and do things with, for me it was a "no-brainer." A bonus, I learned after pledging, was the personal and leadersahip development opportunities that came with membership. I admit that there was a rigorous pledge period and a six day "hell week" (and, at the risk of offending people, confess there were some positive aspects to it) involved in order to be initiated.

After graduation when I realized that the personal and leadership development, combined with the networking opportunities of a fraternity, were the most valuable assets for advancing my career, I became a life-long advocate of the fraternity cause...at least one that offered the opportunities I enjoyed.

Both schools I went to, I also knew no one and wanted to meet new people.

I was always a joiner of sorts, football and base ball in high school years and base ball in college.

I knew many members of different fraternities and pledged a local at my second school. They affiliated the following year with a large national and I then felt I did not fit with the new attitudes.

I t hen started a local as did not feel like I wanted to join any other current one on campus. Many joined for the same reason as I did when starting it. We were pitted against another local that was set up by a national fraternity and the school would only one to come on campus. Because of the friends I had made from other groups we had their backing and were chosen to come on campus.
The experience was of the greatest periods of my life. Through this, I made life long friends as we banded together to build something that is still functioning to this day, 43 years later.

Many times, we turn to our brothers when there is a need and do everything we can do to help each other. This is how strong a bond that has developed over the years among us.

Would I ever do it over again, that is a hard question to answer as everything just fell into place for us. Un housed for 1 semester, and a local for not even one school year before colonization and chartered 3 years later.

Could it ever happen again, who knows?:)

Was it worth it, absolutely yes!:D

I joined because I thought it would be cool to be in a sorority. My sister joined AOII the year before me, and she had a great time meeting new people and going to parties. I had no idea about leadership, philanthropy etc when I went through and joined. I was just looking for a group of girls to be friends with since I was so far from home. I knew I wanted to go to Med School, and little did I know that AOII would help me attain the leadership experience to help me get noticed during the med school app process. One of my interviewers actually circled my very full extra-curricular activities section and said," Really...you did this much in college and kept your grades up?!"

I joined because I had been in 8 zillion organizations in high school and after my first semester of my freshman year, I was BORED. I realized I was hanging out too much with people I had known before college and wanted to meet a lot more people. I selected Alpha Gamma Delta because the women in the chapter were friendly, fun, had great grades and were campus leaders.

I stay involved because the organization has become a part of who I am. Initially I volunteered because they needed me and I had a great role model whose footsteps I wanted to follow. Every year, Alpha Gamma Delta becomes more important to me and I want to be part of shaping the future of the organization to help ensure that it grows and prospers. The sisterhood I feel with some of the alumnae members I've met seals the deal. I love our Purpose. I love our Vision. I love where we have been and where we are headed.

i joined LPsiD because i really liked the multicultural aspect of it. i wasn't particularly interested in joining a sorority but after a year at my school i saw how badly racial diversity needed to be addressed on my campus. i joined a couple of different groups thinking i could use the manpower to make a difference and had some small successes, but didn't feel like i was changing how anyone thought. then a friend told me about lambda psi delta, a multicultural sorority devoted to cultural awareness and i loved it. i did some more reasearch and found that not only was the vision very similar to my own goals, but every sister i talked to shared my love of diversity in every sense. after a long hard road that i can truly say helped me discover strength and passion in me i never knew existed, i became a sister. although some days are really frustrating (chartering a multicultural sorority on a campus whose mascot was a confederate general up until 2 years ago is no easy task) i love my org and my sisters!

These are the best COB events. I keep trying to get that across to the girls I advise but I think they think that every event has to have tons of decorations and an elaborate theme. Then when they all realize that they've spent so much time planning, and so little time trying to get girls there, they complain that they are too busy and are having to spend too much time recruiting.

Ughh... sorry for the hijack, I've just been so frustrated with this lately and When Doves Cry's post totally validates my frustration.

To get the thread back on track...

I joined for many reasons, none of which I think I was conscious of at the time:

(1) When I was in Junior High we moved cross-country and I left a really close best friend behind. I never really felt that close to the friends I met in high school and really longed for that kind of friendship with a girlfriend, again.

(2) I had a disasterous break-up in the spring of my senior year with a "first love." Honestly, I'm talking about one of the worst break ups ever. This made me much more interested in friendships than in the college dating scene for my freshman year.

(3) My parents got divorced the summer right before college started and I think I unconsciously was looking for a stable support group that I could count on (because my parents were hit and miss on providing support at the time).

I think that there were also some minor superficial reasons too, if I'm being totally honest about it. I remember thinking at the time that I wanted to be a leader on campus and didn't want to be out-of-the-loop on social events and thought being in a sorority would be a good way to do that.

I joined my sorority to be a part of something greater then myself. I'm glad that my friend kept talking me through it. I think If she wasn't there by my side I would not have completed the process. She was an inspiration to not only me but our Pledge class as a whole. I'm glad she and I did this together because now we're closer then ever. There are many more reasons why I chose my sorority and I'm glad I stuck with Kappa Phi Chi =).

Aww boggzz I love you <3. I didn't Know I had that much of an influence on you pushing through. Now I'm glad I made us all stick through it =) To the Phi*s who came as 6.

I think I've been on GreekChat too long because the last two posts look suspicious to me.

I'm trying to decide what is more suspicious... the fact that they have the same graphic and similar alternating color scheme in their sigs... or the fact that within 7 or less posts you would find someone (also with very few posts) that you know.

The Men that were already in the chapter and the non-secrecy aspect. I liked that my parents could come to my initiation.

It took me a second to realize this was an answer to oldu's original topic. :o

Red and white are our sorority colors, boggz is my pledge sister, and I told her about GC. When u click new posts it shows you all posts of the day and who the last person to post was. I saw boggzz so I read it to see if it was my boggzz and also the fact that her and I are in constant contact via im and phone I know when she's online. So if u want to say me and my best friend are suspicious sure go ahead.

Why Did You Decide to Join ...That?

Honestly:why did you join a GLO,why is it special and are you still glad you did?

Why did you join?

Why did you join?

Why did you become greek/choose the org you did?

Why did you choose your TYPE of GLO?

Why did you choose your sorority/fraternity?

But to answer the question, I pledged the fraternity that we exactly the right fit for me, where I could see the guys as my brothers and where what the fraternity stood for attracted me.

OMFG, THE KAPPA PHI CHI MASCOT IS ARIEL, THE LITTLE MERMAID. TEARS.

http://www.kappaphichi.com/

yeah our page hasn't been updates yet though so the upsilons and the phi's aren't on there =( or at least not since I checked.

I think this might be the school where pretty much all the local sororities have Disney characters or other similar things (like the Pink Panther) as mascots.

The main bad thing about it is the copyright infringement lawsuit potential.

My major gripe with the site is that it doesn't say what school this is at!!

You really don't want to say things like this in a public forum.

It's darling. Don't change it.

I meant to say I had to write the paper. But I changedit anyways just in case. Thnx for the heads up =)

Poor oldu...try to start a decent thread and then this happens. :rolleyes:

GreekPages to the rescue.

And apparently Gamma Beta Delta at that school uses Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes).

I hope Disney and Bill Watterson don't find out.

Some ZTA chapters use Ariel because of the thing about our symbols being hidden in the Little Mermaid. But definitely has a high potential for copyright infringement. There's some other things I have to say about it but I think I'll leave that business to PMs ;)

On the other hand, don't a lot of DG chapters use Raggedy Ann - I'm sure the copyright argument could be used there as well...

Whoa, Greek Pages back up???!!! :)

ETA: Wrong site :(

DG's official mascot is named Hannah, and is usually depicted as being similar to Raggedy Ann, but is not Raggedy Ann for copyright purposes. For this same reason, many ASA chapters stopped using the Raggedy Ann as our mascot.

did you mean Gamma Beta Delta not Gamma Phi Beta? One of my close friends and ex-co-worker is a sister in that sorority

But the difference is that the NPC sororities typically say Raggedy Ann is an "unofficial" mascot (ASA uses her too, don't they?). This group (Brooklyn College, btw, thanks, MC ;)) says that its mascot IS Ariel. I do wonder how the licensing people at Disney would view its unauthorized use for the last 17 years...

I did. Thanks.

We still do, but just not as much as we used to.

Probably not a blip on their screen. I'm no expert, but it seems to me that, in the past, organizations ran into trouble when they became large enough to be "commercial" in the sense that paraphernalia companies make lots of money off them and, thus, the trademarks.

I watched the sorority grow and the type of people who joined before deciding. I knew a couple of non-chapter alum and a few of the alum from our chapter before making the decision to rush. I'm very glad I did. I wouldn't trade my sisters for anyone in the world.

I don't know about that. Historically, Disney has been very protective of any unauthorized use of any its characters.

I would think after 17 years of being in existence, Disney would have noticed it though. Unless the symbol was added recently...

Which brings me to the point I just can't hold in any longer - what kind of sorority can take itself seriously with a cartoon character as its symbol? I mean, really??? Sounds like the clubs I used to start in my backyard when I was in middle school...

This made me laugh.

I don't get why people feel that it's necessary to take someone else's symbol and claim it as theirs, you know?

It felt kinda harsh to say, but I felt a little better knowing I probably wasn't the only one who felt this way :o And yeah, I agree - not to say Ariel is Zeta's or anything, but the fact that it's copyrighted should have been enough to say, let's choose something else girls. How about an object or something else NOT most likely copyrighted like the other sororities do?

Not necessarily, given that this is a local sorority.

LOL. I had that same question.

But seriously . . . middle school? I would have thought you'd leave Disney Princesses at elementary school. :p

And I'm also guessing the website hasn't been up all these years, either. Other than the internets, how would Disney have known?

.

LOL. Even The Mouse can't be everywhere. That's why The Mouse needs help.

http://icanhascheezburger.files.word...er-monitor.jpg

Well thank the lord for wonderful infringement rights. Like school plays that are based on grease or romeo and juliet and all those fun storylines. We pay the company to allow us to promote their product and in turn we get benefits.