International members?
 

Hiya!
I have been a 'lurker' here for some time, reading all about what ''being greek' is about. I have never been a member of any GLO, unfortunately. I live in Europe, in Holland, and although my country has a fairly established 'Greek' system (although it is very different from yours) I have never felt the need to join, basically because rather than trying to get away from all the negative stereotypes, which most of you guys seem to do, over here, most of them seem be be interested only in reinforcing the stereotypes (drinking, drinking etc....)
I did go to school in America (exchange program with my university) but it was for one semester only so not enough time to rush and pledge (or whatever it is called these days) but I did learn a bit about the greek system because I have a friend (who I call my American 'sister') who was in a sorority and I dated a guy who was in a fraternity. It was really cool, I got to go to a bunch of parties, including a formal, which was really neat, and I helped out with some of their philantropy stuff. Maybe I should join this Internet fraternity you are all so excited about. It may be my only chance to get a t-shirt.. :p
Anyway, what I was wondering about: How many chapter actually have 'foreigners', exchange students and such and how do they fit in? Do they totally become Americanized or do they try to contribute a bit of their own culture to the fraternity/sorority.
Just curious here, hope someone can answer this for me.

Re: International members?
 

Honestly, it kind of depends on where you are. Most of our California chapters, and many New England chapters have LOTS of "foreigners." Most chapters are significantly more diverse than they were when I was in school 12 years ago. I think you'd likley find a chapter on any given campus where you'd feel at home.

Brad

My chapter has a Japanese member. He is actually gone right now, he was one of the 35 people chosen by his country to be a Japanese Student Ambassador (an honor that is shared by people like Henry Kissinger and the former PM of Japan (not sure what his real title was) during WWII). Anyhow, it's a REAL honor. This guy brought with him a very different way of looking at things (it's not every member that can stand up in meetings and quote Confucious). He was also very involved around campus, ate dinner with the President of the University every week.. He's actually one of the founding fathers of our chapter. I think ATO has a Morroccan student at our school. We're VERY open to international students and are actually targetting that as one of the groups we want to go after during Fall Recruitment.

I can't promise that anything, but what I have seen from international students getting involved in the Greek system in the US is purely positive. For our member he made a tremendous effort to get involved in the US culture. This was great! I think he taught us a lot about diversity and the world in general and we taught him about ourselves. He is truly 'one of us', as he put it he's a Japanese Oklahoman in Tokyo.

LHT
Kevin
MT #5
University of Central Oklahoma

I'd like to see more "foreigners" in my chapter, but unfortunately I haven't seen any going through rush here. I think most chapters would be really open to the opportunity of having international members, definitely. My boyfriend is an international student and didn't even rush, but one fraternity didn't hesitate to offer him a bid (he declined it, though), so if that's any indication I think most organizations would be thrilled to have brothers/sisters from other countries.

My chapter has had sisters from Hong Kong, Africa, Malaysia, the Phillipines, and Australia just to name a few. They totally kept their cultures but in Canada that is generally encouraged - cultural mosiac. For my chapter it is an awesome things as we pride ourselves on being ethnically diverse so we also embrace when a new culture joins us and don't try to Canadianize them, unless they want to.

On my campus very few international students rushed GLOs. (Although, students involved in greek life on my campus was under 10% of the entire student body, so it reflected the entire campus I think).

During my tenure with my chapter we had 2 international students; 1 was from Africa (if I remember correctly Mozambique :confused: ), although she had also spent loads of time in the UK. The other was from the Bahamas (I forget which island).

Like most international students I interacted with (greek or not), they were interested in emerging themselves in American culture. But at the same time, were very open about sharing their own cultures (religion, customs, etc.) They actually got our chapter pretty involved with the "World Week" events on our campus every spring that celebrate world cultures. So it was a positive learning experience on both sides.

Iowa State
 

Kewl topic ...

I am an International Student affiliated in GLO ... which is a rare case at Iowa State (only one of the two International Student I know joined the Greek System).
Originally from Indonesia, I joined Theta Delta Chi three years ago after had spent one *horrible* semester at dorm. I really ENJOY all about our house and our community, and surely good things and bad things happen.

One good thing, like everybody mentioned, is that I opened so many eyes in the Greek Community toward the rest of the world.
I am lucky enough to 'educate' some Iowan farmers that the world includes somewhere else outside the midwest and the continent. They, before, saw the "third world country" as villages full with straw huts, and people half naked running around in the street :rolleyes:
As right now, I succesfully confinced some of my brothers to go home with me this Christmas, and I am excited to show them my hometown, my culture and my history. Also I will bring them over Bali (next island of Java Island, my island) to experience the diversity the world can offer. Then we're planning of visiting Australia (which is 3 hrs flying south of Indonesia) and Singapore (1 hr flying north of Indonesia)
At my side, I am lucky enough to learn about the American culture at my pledge son's farm in South East Iowa. NEVER in my life I imagined to live in a farm like his ... really cool place to live in.
Also I've been learning so much English in general, especially the American slangs that most people will get hard time to learn. :D
So far, I believe that joining the house is the best decision I've ever made in my life.

:cool:

Tri Sigma is the only NPC sorority to have a chapter Overseas. We have a chapter in Germany. It's very interesting, yes, it's at an American branch of a University, but a very different culture indeed.

A year before I pledged, an exchange student from England joined my house. She stayed the whole year, and from what everyone says was a great addition to the house!

Alpha Gamma Delta has several chapters in Canada so we stretch from the University of Hawaii (only NPC sorority on campus) to Ontario and Nova Scotia (sorry, I'm not up on my Canadian geography so I don't know which is fartherest NE).

I do know of AGD's from other countries that are going to schools in the U.S.

As for becoming "Americanized", that could happen almost anywhere, college or not..., even going from Northern U.S. to Southern U.S. and start saying "y'all" and loving barbeque. Also for example, perhaps I would go to a school in Germany and become "Germanized", lol!:D Probably sound funnier with my "Southern accent".

Our chapter had a student from Israel pledge in the Spring after I was initiated. She's great... and we ended up roomies for a year. She has since graduated and moved back to Israel. Two of our sisters (now alums) went out to Israel last July for her wedding, and we all keep in touch via e-mail.

Aloha,
Mai Ly

Thanks for your responses guys!
I was just curious about your thoughts and opinions on the subject.
OK, I'll retreat back into 'lurkdom' now, reading about all that's greek (and being just a teeny weeny bit jealous that I'll never get to experience being part of a GLO).
So... HAVE FUN!!

My chapter didn't have any international students, but it wasn't because we didn't want them. It's just that none of them were interested in rushing.

My college boyfriend lived with a French exchange student who was rushed by Kappa Sigma. The guys were really interested in him, but he chose not to join. So, I would have to say that the groups at my school were definitely open to the idea of international students joining their organizations, but the interest simply wasn't a two-way street. :( Hopefully, that will change in the coming years.

Were a bit international..
 

We have two members who are not US citizens. One NM is from Lagos, Nigeria. He is awesome and everyone on campus loves him. Funny Guy. Then we have a brother who is from San Luis Potosi, in deep Mexico. His family came to the US about 8 years ago, and he is working on his citizenship. He has to raise $800 to pay for it and I think we decided at retreat we were going to raise the money to buy him his citizenship. How cool would that be? To say his fraternity brothers bought him his citizenship. With a 60+ man chapter, it shouldnt be too hard to come up with the $$. We could also have the fundraiser party. To me thats what brotherhood is about.

We definately welcome all walks in my chapter, and I will PROUDLY claim the difference between us and another chapter in our conclave who proudly toted as proof of their diversity, a Catholic as a brother. :eek: Seriously. :rolleyes:

Thats what I love about college. I never knew I could know so many people from SO many places and yet have so much in common with them. DIG the diversity.

Why don't you check out our new virtual GLO... Gamma Chi... ?

Take a look at the thread titled... An Idea...

We're having all sorts of fun over there!

Aloha,
Mai Ly