Looking at colleges, Greek life never seemed to be of great importance to me. Being the youngest of three, I have learned a great deal from my older siblings. After spending a year and a half at a college where I was completely dissatisfied I felt transferring was my best option. Deciding that with all the praise my brother and sister gave of being in Greek life organizations, I would love to attend a school that had Greek Life on campus. They raved of how they relate to their brothers and sisters and how welcoming it was to have this outlet at their colleges. Finally, West Chester accepted me and I loved the campus and academics. It was a wonderful plus that they had a Greek life. Transferring into the Spring semester 2007 made it difficult to make friends. Everyone had meet people from the beginning of the school year and were retuning to their friends from dorm, the sports teams or prior classes. I was returning to no one. A good friend of mine from high school, who is in a fraternity on campus, introduced me to a few girls he knew in a number of sororities. Without hesitation, all of these girls embraced me as a friend and left with me no doubt that I really would love to get involved in Greek Life.
Being involved with Greek life has allowed me to open my doors to so many opportunities. Opening the doors to meet girls and boys, leaders and people behind the scenes, as well students and advisors. Sitting down to put together an application for a group on campus, a list of activities including community service and organization was included. After listing all the different things I have participate in, I noticed about 75 percent of the activities were some how linked to Greek life. Greek life opens a large amount of doors for me. It helped break me out of my shell and become a leader. Taking the role of community service chair in my sorority, raising money for philanthropies, and supporting my fellow Greek members has helped to network my life and become a more confident person.
With around 25 to 26 fraternities and sororities, three honorary fraternities, honors fraternities, as well as fraternities for individual departments within the college, these men and women not only contribute to West Chester’s brilliant minds, but amazing hearts and strong hands working with their brothers and sisters. National Kidney Foundation, American Heart Association, and Children’s Miracle Network are just a few of the philanthropies of which Greek life fundraises for on West Chester Campus.
Have you ever walked by Main Hall and passed a group of girls selling pretzels for one dollar or walked down Church Street to hear the husky voices of the guys in a fraternity yelling to raise money for Camping in for Camp Dream catcher? Hopefully yes, because those have been known to be pretty loud. You cannot miss some of the guyssitting on toilets for 24 hours or a number of girls see-sawing for hours on end. These are some of the fun and crazy ideas that students have done to get the student bodies’ attention in order to raise money for their individual philanthropies.
Camp Dream Catcher is a camp that is held every summer for kids infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. Every school year, greek organizations camp out for 24-48 hours to raise money to send kids to this camp. There is also an opportunity for our brothers and sisters to become camp counselors at the summer camp, which many do. There are a number of greek students who have graduated and are working within the camp to help these kids get away from their every day life.
Suzanne Brady is a West Chester student. She can be reached at SB619873@wcupa.edu.