Sweetmagnolia's recruitment story! - Page 4

rococobaby · #1 08-16-2010, 01:56 AM

I'm so happy to hear that your parents are going to support you!!

PhoenixAzul · #2 08-16-2010, 07:45 AM

< lane swerve >

Also, and correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most NPHC orgs discourage first semester (year?) freshmen from pursuing membership? So why not take a spin through NPC recruitment? Who knows, you may find a wonderful sisterhood to call your own...or you may decide that the NPHC would fit better for you. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

sweetmagnolia · #3 08-16-2010, 03:54 PM

rococobaby: Me too! My dad is still kind of 'meh' about it, but he's not opposed. Full steam ahead!

PhoenixAzul: I'm not certain, but I don't think first semester membership is even possible. That's exactly how I feel, and I told my mom that and she understood completely. Not coming from a GLO background, I think she just needed more information to be okay with it.

Drolefille · #4 08-16-2010, 06:54 PM

Good luck again!

sweetmagnolia · #5 08-22-2010, 01:56 PM

Thanks so much!

It feels like it's been forever since I posted here, but I've been busy moving in! I've had the chance to meet a couple sorority members since I've been here- quite a few of them have been helping out with orientation. Recruitment doesn't start until the first, but they are hosting a little get together before a school-wide event this week, as well as the info night, so I'm excited to go to those events!!

sweetmagnolia · #6 08-29-2010, 12:50 PM

I hate to double post again, but

I'm meeting my Pi Chi group tonight! I'm very excited- I still have a few days until recruitment starts, but I'm already getting pretty giddy!

Blue Skies · #7 08-29-2010, 05:57 PM

Post as much as you want to, Sweetmagnolia! No worries. We're all excited for you!

twinkle555 · #8 08-29-2010, 06:00 PM

Woohoo!! Good luck sweetmagnolia!

Drolefille · #9 08-29-2010, 05:55 PM

Double post all you want!

IrishLake · #10 08-29-2010, 06:03 PM

good luck SM, can't wait to hear about your experience!!!!

sweetmagnolia · #11 09-02-2010, 02:45 AM

Since I go to a small school with only 6 groups, we visited all of them in one night. We walked over, had dinner with our Pi Chi groups, and then proceeded to visit our groups.

NYC This was the last chapter my Pi Chi group visited, and we were all tired- the PNMs and the actives. I had a fun time talking to all of them though- I talked to three girls total and they all said very different but great things about their chapter. This chapter, for whatever reason, had the biggest room but some of the sparsest decorations. They couldn't tell me much about the fundraisers they do for their philanthropy, but they seemed very committed to it. I really enjoyed myself, but I felt bad because I yawned a couple times.
Chicago I. Loved. This chapter. It was the first chapter I visited and when I left I couldn't stop smiling- my cheeks hurt! I talked to four different actives and we had a lot of fun. I regret not talking more about their chapter and their events and philanthropy, but I felt like I was just talking with a group of old friends about who-knows-what. Also, all the girls from my HS that go to this school are in this sorority, and it was nice to see them!
Los Angeles I felt very hot and cold with this group. I loved the first two girls I talked to, but the third one just left me feeling kinda meh. She would say something was really cool, but then be like 'well, it's kinda silly' or 'it shouldn't be that big of a deal'. She also said her favorite thing about being in the chapter were the parties with the different campus fraternities- that was a huge turn off. I did, however, talk to an active who is in charge of programming and she was much more eloquent and passionate about what their group does. After that, the actives all sang and did a ceremonial candle pass, which was great. One active commented about how their chapter usually does it for things like getting into grad school and not getting engaged 'like a lot of other chapters'. I wasn't sure how to react to that. Overall, I did enjoy my time visiting with these women.
Denver This was the only other group that I left with a smile on my face. Their philanthropy is something very near and dear to me and I had been quivering with excitement to get to talk to them. All the women I talked to were smart, funny, and seemed very knowledgeable. This was also the only chapter where I noticed actives from my own ethnic group- they were no where to be found in the other chapters. The decorations here were probably my favorite, and I really enjoyed how they set up the room- if you walked around, they had a little booth dedicated to each aspect of their group- their sisterhood, their philanthropy, etc. I would love to return to this chapter.
Miami Visiting this chapter was like getting teeth pulled. I know that I'm being a little dramatic, but talking to these girls was painful. It was two PNMs to each active and I found the conversation to be very awkward- I think it may have been more the other PNM than the woman we were talking to, but still. Then, when another member came over, the conversation got worse. I tried to talk about what her favorite thing about Greek Life was or what she enjoys about their philanthropy but she just kept saying things like 'your shoes are really cute' or asking about the movies we saw over the summer. I thought I was going to love this chapter but I was unimpressed.
Boston I really really liked visiting this chapter. You could tell the second you walked in the kind of effort these women put into the night. My conversations here were nothing out of the ordinary- we didn't spend much time talking about their philanthropy, but I did hear about other things they do around the school and within the chapter- how they maintain their GPAs, etc. A girl I knew came over and we talked for a while and that was really nice because seeing her there eased my jitters. I was so impressed that all the women were still wearing their heels- they had been standing around in them for at least 4 hours at this point! I can't even imagine. This was my second to last group and I started yawning here and felt so bad. I don't think anyone took it personally, but I was embarrassed.

At the night, we had to do our rankings for tomorrow's Philanthropy Night. I didn't find the process particularly hard. Here's what I put:

1.NYC
1.Chicago
1.Los Angeles
1.Denver
1.Boston
2.Miami

FSUZeta · #12 09-02-2010, 08:36 AM

yay sweetmagnolia!

perfectinpurple · #13 09-02-2010, 10:21 AM

I can't wait to hear about Philanthropy Round!

Drolefille · #14 09-02-2010, 08:00 PM

Yay! I'm dying to know who's who, but I'm mostly glad you had so much fun at (almost) all the chapters.

(And I hope you meet different girls in Miami so that you get another feel for them and see whether it's the chapter as a whole or the women you met)

sweetmagnolia · #15 09-03-2010, 02:33 AM

Today was the philanthropy round! I felt pretty good after last night, and me and my Pi Chi group were all feeling pretty good when we met this evening. When I got my list of parties, however, I was little disappointed. I had three:

Chicago
Los Angeles
Miami

I was very disappointed that Denver didn't invite me back- maybe it wasn't meant to be, but their philanthropy is so important to me I would have just loved to do the crafts. I found myself a little frustrated that I was invited back to Miami, but, like Drolefille said, they deserved another chance.

Chicago was the first chapter I went to tonight- I was so excited. I honestly loved these girls yesterday and I was so so so so so so so thrilled to be invited back. Their room set up was really nice and it was great to be around them with less girls- I could hear myself think! The set up of the tables was really cute, and there was another girl from my Pi Chi group sitting there, which was nice. The video they showed about their philanthropy was so nice- I found myself tearing up. We had a nice conversation while we did our projects, and I just felt like the party ended too soon! At the end of the nights, these women were still my favorites.

Miami was the second chapter I went to. Even though there were less girls this night they still did the two PNMS : 1 active ratio, and it didn't go much smoother. After visiting Chicago, I felt really unimpressed by their philanthropy- their video had nothing to do with their chapter or what their chapter does for the organization, which left me kind of miffed. The project was cute, but it took about 3 or 4 minutes to do, which left the door open for a lot of awkward pauses and conversations- even when I tried my hardest to talk to the actives who came to our table, it was very uncomfortable. None of them had anything to say about their sisterhood, and one of the actives was so focused on the chest size of a woman in their philanthropy video that it made me uncomfortable- her remarks were very offputting. I left this night still feeling cold towards this chapter.

Los Angeles was a chapter I was thrilled to be asked back to. I wasn't in love with them yesterday, but I did really like them. Since our conversations yesterday didn't touch much on their philanthropy, I was very excited to learn more today. I was very impressed to see that they had brought a representative from their philanthropic organization to talk to us. Their table set up was adorable and relevant not only to their organization but their primary fundraiser of the year. Their project was probably the most fun, but conversation was a little awkward. Their project required focus enough so it was hard to talk at the same time. When we finished, though, we had a fun time. The active I thought I was paired up with and I had some fun adding on to my project and talking about school- but I actually paired up with a different active for the processing out of the room. All the women at the table I had talked to the night before, so it was nice to not have to go over the 'my name is, my major is, i live...' again. My opinion of these girls had not changed- I think they're really wonderful.

Since I was only invited back to 3 chapter (of the possible five), I ranked them all 1. If I was going to actually rank them tonight, though, this is how I feel about them:

1. Chicago
2. Los Angeles
3. Miami

Tomorrow night is skit night! I'm making a quick run to target after classes to get a more casual dress- what they had in their brochure was much more specific (guidelines wise), than what they had on their facebook page. I'll keep you guys posted!