scholarship program ideas
 

I'm vp scholarship on panhellenic council and I have to put on a program for our sororities on campus. I was wondering if anybody had any programs that have worked for your group that might work for me. We're pretty small sororities and there are only two of us on campus so if anyone can help I would greatly appreciate it! :)

We have a program where we leave a few sign-in binders in the most popular campus libraries. When ladies come in, they sign in (and out when they leave). We always reward the ladies/sorority who/that logs the most hours.

My chapter just started doing this in the spring... and it worked really well. The girls who logged the most hours got Starbucks gift cards I think... something like that.

Grades became really important to my chapter last year. We actually have the 2nd highest panhell GPA (3.16).
We have a certain amount of study hours for each level of GPA. if you have a 2.6 - 3.5 you have 4 hours, 2.3 - 2.59 you have 6, if you have below that you have 8 and are on probation from social events. Our new members come in with 3 hours (thats a week).
We also announce who got A's and B's on test and quizes in chapter (with a drawing for a prize after) and get prizes for "sisters caught studying." it really makes you want to get hours done and get A's and B's. it made a huge difference in our chapter in just a semester!

My chapter does something similar to this. Each sister has to log 2 study hours per week. If they don't, they owe a dollar to the chapter.

They also owe a dollar if they skipped any classes during the week (1 dollar per class missed without a legitimate excuse)

Also, A's for major tests, quizzes and papers are recorded throughout the semester for each sister.

The sister who receives the most A's for the semester receives all of the money.

And just this semester, they started a program where the sister that has the most improved GPA each semester receives $50 from the chapter.

p.s. I love the library log idea. I had never heard of that before. Where is the log kept?

Our log is kept near the circulation desk at two of our major libraries (which is right by the entrance, so you pass it going in and out). The librarians just leave it out on a little table with a pen. There's a section in it for each sorority.

I love the "sisters caught studying" and the idea of a scholarship pot.

We made a scholarship calendar for the chapter - they'd pass it around and we'd write whatever tests and quizzes and papers we had for that time period (that we already knew of) so the sisters could A. Give support when you had a test, B. Stay out of your way if you had a nasty paper to write, and C. help study if you needed it. It was a good way to keep track of who had what going on.

Our VP Scholarship also gave tips and tricks for studying at chapter, and we did this thing where we passed around a paper squirrel, and if you skipped class you had to punch a hole in him. Since we often had classes together (except me - I think I had one class in all four years of undergrad that had sisters in it but I think that was because I was the only foreign language major in my chapter), they kept track of each other and didn't let anyone not punch Skiouros when they had, in fact, skipped. Which made everyone feel really really bad about punching him (Why would you want to punch a cute little squirrel?) so the number of punches every week kept going down until basically he only got one or two punches a month.

thanks for the sugguestions. I like the binder one and the punching the hole in the squirrel one...that would go great with our chapter and school since we have so many squirrels everywhere!

I'm not trying to sound mean, here, but... oh heck. We picked a squirrel because he's Alpha Gamma Delta's mascot.

Pick YOUR animal. Not ours, haha! The message comes across a lot stronger when it's something that's near and dear to your heart (but NOT a picture of your badge, or crest, or other very very very important things. We love Skiouros, but he's not as symbolic as our crest or badge or strand of pearls ;))

Handle of Whiskey for whoever gets the most study hall hours.

I'm the Academic Excellence Chair in my chapter (Gamma Delta Phi Mu at American University!) and I started a program called "The Pride" (our animal is a Lion..) and girls who get higher than a 3.6 for the semester get to enjoy things like Pizza Party study breaks and other fun activities :) In our chapter of about 70ish girls this ends up being about 20 ladies which is a good sized group.

Our CPH used to put on study breaks in the library during midterms and finals. We had a room set up with snacks, coffee, etc.

We also try to work networking into our scholarship activities. So we'd have panels with panhellenic alumnae who were now successful in different fields. Or we help put on seminars about applying to graduate/professional school.