Community service has always been something important to me and I knew that I wanted to get more involved in college than I was in high school. I didn't take advantage of all of the extracurricular activities at my disposal in high school, so I knew college would be the perfect opportunity to get more involved.

I joined a sorority hoping I would get a large dose of community service and philanthropy thrown at me, but after a semester, I realized I wanted to do even more and more for the State College community, the nation, my organization, and my school. I love my sorority, but my sorority offers me different experiences than a service fraternity does, so during the spring semester of my freshman year, I decided to pledge a co-ed service fraternity. Let me just say that it has been one of the greatest experiences of my college career thus far.

I wanted to meet friends who had the same interests as me. We all have the same mindset that doing service for our community is a worthwhile experience that makes us feel like we are making a difference in the world. It’s actually pretty amazing when a group of your best friends comes together for a specific service event and you all participate in an activity together where you are all having fun.

This is going to sound pretty stupid, but the reason I joined my fraternity is because of their recruitment theme. This past winter, I became an avid fan of Star Wars (I’m cool guys, I promise) and their flyer asked, “Do You Want to Become a Jedi Knight?” Heck yeah I wanted to become a Jedi Knight! (I promise I’m still cool guys.) I was interested in joining a co-ed fraternity because a sorority is a much different experience than this organization. I wanted to be able to make guy friends and I wanted to be involved in an organization that was much smaller than my sorority. To put size into perspective, my sorority has about 200 active sisters and my fraternity has maybe 60 active brothers. It’s a small, close-knit organization. This fraternity was offering me everything I wanted out of another organization.

I’ve participated in a variety of different service projects which is something that makes my fraternity so amazing. We have certain events that we participate in routinely but we also like to try new things. There are a wide variety of events that we can sign up for, so we can always partake in something new. This wide range of events has allowed me to work at an environmental center, knit for the homeless, work with children, help out veterans, and so much more. I am forever grateful that I am able to help out so many different individuals because of this organization.

I love my sorority and my fraternity for different reasons. Each organization offers me something the other organization does not. I don’t know where I’d be in my college career right now if I didn’t have my brothers by my side. Joining this fraternity has gifted me with some of my closest friends, the opportunity to do service, and allowing me to do something for my community with my best friends. If community service is something you like to do, consider joining a co-ed service fraternity. You will meet some of your best friends, build relationships with all of the brothers (if your organization is smaller like mine), and you will feel amazing after you do service for those in need.