Sure, we all hear the news and see how more and more often Greek Life has such a major stigma around it. We only ever hear about the bad, we rarely hear about the good.

When I first started the recruitment process in February of this year, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I didn’t know anything about any of our sororities on campus and I went into this process completely oblivious to anything that had been said by anyone about Delaware’s Greek Life.

I think that going in with an open mind like that truly helped me to find my home. Meeting so many girls throughout the recruitment process was eye opening; we are all so similar yet so different at the same time.

Now that I’ve joined a sorority, every sorority sister has one thing in common no matter who they are; we’re all sisters. This is a huge community on our campus and all of us support each other through both social and philanthropic events which is such an amazing thing for all of us to come together no matter which sorority we’re from.

We’ve all seen movies and television shows that depict sororities as this awful concept. There’s such a stigma around it that most girls come into college not even knowing if they want to rush based on what they’ve heard throughout their lives. When I got to Delaware, I really didn’t think that I was going to rush. I didn’t think that I would fit in with any of the sororities because according to movies and television shows that I had seen growing up, I wasn’t the “typical sorority girl”.

Let me clear something up for everyone, there is no “typical sorority girl”. Sure, we all have things in common, we’re all 18-23 year old girls. But you cannot simply group all of us into one personality type, we’re so much more than that.

Throughout middle school and high school, I played field hockey and that was what I did. When I got to college and field hockey wasn’t a part of my life anymore I felt lost. Field hockey was where all of my friends were growing up and I got to Delaware and I just didn’t have that team anymore.

So, second semester rolled around and I decided to go for it and rush. I have to say that will always be one of the best decisions of my entire life. From the minute I stepped into the first room on the first day of recruitment, I felt so comfortable and at home immediately. Little did I know, that sorority was where I would end up just two weeks later.

Alpha Epsilon Phi has given me so much in such a short amount of time. I have so many beautiful sisters, and being an only child this is all so new to me. I’ve never had so many people to lean on. I have a Big, a G-Big, and a GG-Big, who I could not be more in love with. If you know us, you know that my Big and I are absolutely inseparable when we’re together. I have so many new friends that I don’t know that I would have met if I wasn’t a sister of Alpha Epsilon Phi. We have an incredible sisterhood, and we have amazing philanthropic efforts as well.

This year, UDance here at Delaware raised over 2 million dollars for the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation and I am so proud to say that Alpha Epsilon Phi was the top fundraiser once again. The B+ Foundation consistently provides support to families of children with cancer and this organization is absolutely amazing. In addition to UDance, we have events for our two philanthropies, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation and Sharsheret. The events we put on bring our community here at Delaware together in support of two amazing causes.

I think that I’d be lost at Delaware if I didn’t have Alpha Epsilon Phi. I don’t know that I would be as happy here if I didn’t have my sorority and all of my sisters. I am so glad that I decided to rush and I am so thankful that I found my home in AEPhi. I found a Big sister who is more than I ever expected and I know that she will be there for everything in my life.

I found friends who mean the world to me and that I would not have met without my sorority. I think it’s time we end the stigma around Greek Life. We cannot let the actions of the few speak for everyone, and we should be supporting sorority sisters rather than creating movies and television shows that allow for a stigma of the “typical sorority girl”.