When people think of Greek life, there are many stereotypes that pop into their heads. The movies have conveyed an image of drinking and partying to the public and have given us a bad name. We are much more than this. We spend our academic year not only receiving good grades, but also raising a large amount of money for our philanthropies, and helping support one another through the stressful four years we are together.
In movies, all the girls that are in sororities are very cookie-cutter. Tall, skinny, tan, and has the most expensive and cutest clothes out there. Washington State University’s Greek row is very diverse. My house prides itself on this. We all come from different backgrounds, have different hobbies, and all came to college for different reasons. While we have many things that set us apart from one another, there are many things that connect us to one another. We all have similar values. We all value friendship, leadership, optimism among many other things. Even though we may look different on the outside, we all have a special bond when it comes to our chapter that brings us all together.
One bond that every Tri Delta women shares is their love for our philanthropy, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. We spend all year helping raise money by putting on events such as our annual Tri-Hop pancake bash or even helping in smaller ways like sending out letters to our friends and family to donate. Every year, our chapter raises a record-breaking amount of money on our campus and we are happy to show it! St. Jude even has made a living wing off the hospital and named it after us, Tri Delta’s Place. You can walk onto any college campus that has a Delta Delta Delta and see us wearing St. Jude gear. We are all proud to be a part of an organization that gives back in such a big way. This is how every sorority is. They are proud to see the results and how much money they raise every year after all the hard work is done. They are proud to be a small part of something bigger and being able to give back to people who need it. We all understand being in a sorority is a privilege, so being able to use this to help give back in a big way is always a great feeling.
We not only give back to our philanthropies, we also have a set amount of volunteer hours we must complete every semester. Being in a small college town, we like to take care of the community that takes care of us. We have all helped in many ways whether that be putting on food drives or cleaning the streets of Greek row from garbage, there are little things people in the community are doing every day to keep the small town we live in nice. Doing eight to twelve hours of community service a semester may not seem like a lot. But times that by every student that is in a Greek chapter, that is many hours that we can use to make a difference in our community.
Over everything else, we all came to school to better our education and be able to graduate. People see us as all joining a chapter to be able to go out and party and we fail all our classes. This is far from the truth. Each sorority holds its members to a specific GPA requirement. When dropping below this mark, you no longer are in good standing with the chapter and must adhere to rules put in place by your chapter. This might involve having proctored study hours or having to go to weekly tutoring sessions. Fraternities also follow this same standard. This proves that the stereotype that we all have bad grades isn’t true. People involved in Greek life have shown to produce better grades than non-Greeks because of the fact we are held to a standard. In my chapter, we have many women that have achieved a 4.0 each semester. Being in a sorority has pushed me to do better in school if anything. We also do many workshops throughout the year on studying techniques and how to use our resources here on campus for help.
All in all, we are all here as a support system to one another. We want to watch each other grow and develop. This isn’t just happening in my chapter either. WSU’s Greek chapters have put differences aside and really come together in times of need. Recently, we have had many deaths and people critically injured from our Greek community. For example, we had a member of our chapter pass away last November in a car accident on the way home from Thanksgiving break. The community rallied together to support our chapter. They helped us raise money to donate to her family. They even helped our chapter raise money to build a memorial in memory of her. Feeling everybody come together for something like this is a feeling you can’t explain. When a chapter is in a time of need, every other chapter will drop what they are doing and come to support one another.
Not a single member of Washington State University's Greek community is just here to party. We are all here to better ourselves. Whether that be through academics, volunteer work, or in showing love and support for one another. We all have different reasons for coming to school, but when it comes to becoming a part of this community we all have similar goals. No matter what people think about going Greek, I will always stand with my head held high and wear my letters loud and proud. I have become a better person because of what I have done so far as a sorority woman and it has opened so many doors to me that I wouldn’t have had.
