Just a General Question
 

I was just wondering ... is it out of the ordinary for someone who's a sophomore in college to be President of their sorority?

That's all. Thanks everyone!

Well generally speaking from what I've seen presidents tend to be juniors.

My chapter elected a sister president for her second half of her sophomore year and first half of her junior year. Her faults were not related to her being a sophomore.

Usually, our presidents are second half of junior year/first half of senior year.

I know another chapter at my alma mater tends to have younger presidents.

IMO, class year is less important than leadership ability and maturity.

^^^ Can I just say that I LOVE when organizations have January to December terms? The summers are great times for leadership development and recharging. And it also provides an entire semester of transition time before seniors graduate.

Well that's exactly how my chapter does it. Our new officers begin to hold their positions in January and go through December of that year. So if a Sophomore were President, she'd spend half the time as a Sophomore, and half the time as a Junior.

When I was Chapter Advisor, there just wasn't anyone with the amount of common sense as one of the sophmores when we were slating. She ended up being a great president for two years.

We had one like that when I was an active. She was fabulous!

IIRC, I think we have an eligibility requirement that says she must be a current member of the Junior class (in addition to past service on EC)?

When you think of the past service requirement, time-wise Juniors would seem most likely to be eligible.

As long as they're the right person for the job, I don't see what the problem is.

But it isn't very common.

That is something that differs from campus to campus. At my undergrad chapter, the Presidential term usually went from second semester junior year to first semester senior year. At the campus where I advised, the trend had become for the term to be held second semester sophomore year to first semester junior year. The only requirement for the office of President is that she previously hold an office on the Chapter Council.

I think some sophomores can be effective presidents but it depends greatly on their individual personalities and how much training they're given.

Sure..for NPHC. But in NPC sororities, almost all of us get back to school (or even before school starts in August!) to face immediate recruitment. You do NOT want someone who is completely untried in the 'easy' semester (winter) handling that.

January to December terms make that possible. As opposed to terms that start at the beginning of the school year. When everyone is insane from Work Week and Rush! :)

I thought that the fall classes were generally the "major" classes in NPC sororities? Wouldn't that Jan-May semester help to prepare an officer for recruitment in the Fall?

Our elections for new officer positions were held a few weeks before the end of Spring semester. We'd get the new VP Recruitment then.

When I was a collegian, our Rush Training School (Rush Boot Camp, as I fondly remember it) was held in the summer a few weeks before Fall Semester.

I wasn't speaking for or even about the NPHC. My APO chapter functions this way.