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Moving on to the next day: Philanthropy Round! I'll have to be vague talking about this one 'cause obviously if I go into too much detail about the philanthropies it'll be easy to find what organization I'm talking about.
As I mentioned before, we could get invited back to 5 chapters. I woke up to find that three had invited me back. At first I was a little disappointed, but I had to remember that I was a junior and that this type of recruitment was new to all of us. AND, two of the chapters that invited me back were Red and Evermore! 2/3 of my dream houses! The other house that invited me back was Folklore.
If I can be honest, did I wish I had gotten invited back to 5 houses? Yes. But was I going to let that get me down? No! Three amazing groups of women were interested in talking philanthropy with me.
Folklore was the first group that I zoomed with. As I mentioned earlier, they were one of the groups whose philanthropy I wasn't super familiar with prior to rush. But as I got to talk to the sisters about it, as well as about the own philanthropy work I do (by myself, for completely different causes) I really grew to like this group a lot. They also asked me about what else I plan to get involved with on campus and we had a fun and brief - though slightly off topic - conversation about the environmental activist group I was planning to join. I will admit that there were a few awkward pauses and whatnot during the conversations, which had me feeling nervous.
But there was no time to beat myself up over it, because shortly after my conversation with Folklore, it was time to talk to Red! I couldn't wait to talk to this group about their philanthropy that was already dear to me. I'd worked for similar causes in the past and I had a great conversation with them about that. I really felt as if I was impressing them, and they also were impressing me!
Evermore was the last group that I talked to. I was pretty familiar with their philanthropy too, but not as much as I was with Red's philanthropy. So basically, with Red I was talking to them about something I already held dear to me and loved working with, and with Evermore I was talking to them about something that I didn't have much experience with, but it was something I DID want to gain experience with. Ha I don't know if that makes sense, but like I said, I'm trying hard to be vague.
We could get invited back to four houses for day three, sisterhood day. Since I only had three houses that day, it didn't impact me much.
Sure enough, I woke up the next day to invites from the same three houses. Awesome!
Red was my first house of the day. They started off by showing different photos of things like formals and sisterhood vacations/retreats. As I mentioned, they're a new sorority on campus, so they also talked about things that they do with their alumnae sisters, and a few women from the Alpha class talked about what it was like essentially building the chapter. They also showed videos of a couple of Big/Little reveals throughout the years. Overall it was a very cute and heartwarming round, and it solidified my love for this particular chapter even more. They then asked me about what I want in a sisterhood, why I'm rushing, etc - but in ways that were way more meaningful than the answers I gave during my Round One video. I got to talk about the friendships I already had, about how lonely I was during the lockdowns, about how I don't have any biological sisters and always wanted one. I talked about how I've been involved in women's groups since I was a kid - Girl Scouts, Girl Action Team in High School, a Women in STEM club at CC, etc. In addition to talking about their sisterhood as a whole, they also talked about other friendships they cultivate, and how they balance them with the sorority. A few of the women started up an intramural volleyball team at the school. Several women in the sorority were biological sisters or cousins (I don't mean that there, were, like, a dozen women all in the same blood family, but rather there were a handful of groups of two or three women who happened to share a bloodline). I had a great conversation with a woman whose older bio-sister was one of the original charter members, so they got to be both Sorority sisters AND familial sisters. (I know that legacies have become a bit of a controversial topic but it did warm my heart to hear that.)
Next, I had Evermore. I talked to one sister who had been a member of Evermore at a different school, then she transferred and joined this chapter. The other school actually isn't too far from the one I attend, and some of her sisters from each chapter got to know each other through her and became friends! There was another sister who designs artsy things (stickers, jewelry, etc) with letters and gives them to her sisters, and she showed off some of those things.
Last, I (virtually) headed over to Folklore. My school isn't the type of school that is known for doing sorority chants / songs, but Folklore opened this round with a song written by their Song Chair and some other sisters! It was really fun to listen to! Then, things got a bit more serious. Not, like, "serious" serious, but the conversation switched to topics such as how they kept their sisterhood strong when they couldn't see each other in person. Then things got more lighthearted again as they shared memories from when they WERE in person. I really liked them, but honestly I didn't connect to or relate to them as much as I did the other two.
We could only get invited back to two houses at Pref, so I ranked Red and Evermore as #1, although I still would've been happy with an invite from Folklore. But I'll admit - not near as happy as I would from the other two, since they were my favorite houses. Regardless, I could not wait for preference round, and virtual recruitment was going way better than I thought it would.
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