Our Greek Community

Class last Friday was very entertaining. It was a great experience for a number of reasons.

1. This assignment allowed us to go outside of the classroom, on  a figurative level, go outside of our friendship boundaries and create stronger bonds. It was a good time running around campus with the women on my panel trying to think of all the Greek friends we've ever had.

2. Unfortunately, the friends we have at Ohio State were mainly PHA and IFC. This bothered me a little bit. I've met tons of people from the other councils but I didn't have any of the their phone numbers or even emails to contact them. This made me realize that although maybe I think I have all of these friends, do I? I couldn't call one NPHC or MCGC member and honestly that embarrassed me. Now that this has come to my attention, it is my job to change it.

3. Some of the answers we received from individuals was very eye opening. When asked what three things their chapter spends most time on, some people asked, "Will I get in trouble for answering this?" We responded that no, it was for a simple survey. Perhaps they asked this because for one answer someone said, "Sex, drugs, and frateroll". I believe the term "frateroll" is a mix for frattying and adderoll, but what do I know? Hm, okay, sex drugs and frateroll, maybe we should be working on breaking our stereotype by answering more appropriately but at least they were being honest. On the other hand, the same men corrected their answer a little but later in the questioning. They responded with answers such as: brotherhood, social, philanthropy, and bettering their house (physically). These men also recited their Creed to us. From beginning to end and seriously  without taking a breathe. Crazy. We also found these men at the local pub, The O, enough said.

4. Lastly, some chapters really did know what they were talking about. We were very grateful for these answers yet not as well entertained. The answers included: sisterhood, philanthropy, service, honesty, integrity, community and so on. When we asked what Ritual meant to them they answered honestly (so we think). They responded that each chapter's individual Ritual is a set of written guidelines. Guidelines that remind people to live a better life, to carry out certain things that represent that chapter. This to me was a great answer. 

Ritual is something that is unique to every chapter (Well is it? Thats a blog for another day). Either way it is a binding book that allows each Greek individual to live to his or her fullest potential and to always live that way. For the people who aren't in this class and recognize that? Two thumbs up! Now we need to spread that to every other person in our community and outside of it. THIS is what sets us apart! Every other organization can have service opportunities and member development, but we, the Greeks of the world have something more. We have secrets, subjective word, that allow us to push each other and strive to do great things. 

Main point of today: we do rock just some people aren't aware of it... yet. 

FRATTING.

I hope that got everybody's attention! Its officially mid-week and for some including myself that means the middle of midterm week one. Now here is the controversial issue of the day. What is the term Fratting? Fratty? Why is it so popular? And who is responsible for keeping these terms around?

I googled imaged the words "fratty" and "fratting" and wasn't happy with the images that appeared. I then urbandictionary.com - ed the terms and was APPALLED by the definitions that were listed. What got me thinking about these terms and ideas was my transition meeting with Erin Ferlet. She told me how she believes that the Fraternities and Sororities who don't meet the requirements of the Standards or Excellence and/or who behave in ways that are harmful or lets just say, not beneficial to the Greek Community really undermine her and now my position. Putting that idea into retrospect, it perhaps undermines all of our positions. Julie posted the other day about how a young woman is nervous about her commitment to the Greek Community. The  young women is questioning whether or not the Greek system really prides itself on Philanthropy and Service and not partying every night with different chapters. Who are we to tell her what we really take in as important when she's the one walking around campus and witnessing men and women drinking on front lawns and loud music playing. 

I think it is safe to say that everybody who is in our class and may or may not be reading this blog understands. It is also safe to say that the men and women who attend retreats such as BGLI or the diversity retreat also understand what is going on. It is the people who don't realize the importance of our organizations. I truly think that we need more programs to represent the GOOD of Greek Life. 

Even in individual chapters, our Nationals look at the bad things we do and hardly compliment the good. Is that why some people who aren't Greek don't believe in our good side? They may be blinded by all of the dressing up on Thursday nights and the beer drinking games on Saturday to realize that yes, we do amazing things for this campus?

Last Saturday night I was spending some time at the O Patio&Pub on 15th. This is the conversation I overheard:

Woman 1: OMG he is so cute! That one in the Polo over there!

Woman 2: Ugh him? Too fratty, I always see him with different girls. 

Woman 1: Ugh okay... whatever. 

Then I stopped listening and almost punched someone (but I didn't). I'm sorry but was he coined the term "fratty" because we was wearing a Polo?! Because where I'm from, Polos are very fashionable and look good on most men. 

The point is, I want to know what you all of think of this. Why are we looked down upon in so many ways? More importantly, how can we change this?! How can we explain first to people in our organizations that what we do really is special? And then pass that message on to the rest of the Community at Ohio State?

How can WE extinct the poor cognition of the terms fratting and fratty?

P.S. Not all Fraternities and Sororities are like this, I love you all! I just wanted to raise the heat a little.

blogging, values, and leadership?

I would like to preface by saying that I don't save all my blogging for Fridays like it seems. I read everyone's all week and thoroughly enjoy them. I think of comments in my head and I tell all the girls in my house all the funny or intellectual things that you guys write about. So I do enjoy blogging! I'm just trying to get my blogging down to a science here. I vented to Julie and Tyler for a little, I can't really tell if they feel my pain or not. But now that Sorority Recruitment is over I can kind of, maybe say that I am back to being a normal person. That being said, AEPhi has formal a week from tomorrow so the whole house is upside down scurrying for dates. Anyone down? I'll let the girls know.

I am officially done venting and I apologize! Now that all of that is behind us, we can get down to business. My values are something that define me. Throughout a lot of my classes and leadership work shops I am asked to define my top values. I can honestly say that I am lucky. I am lucky that instructors ask me to do this. It allows me to explore myself and really enable me to dig down and figure out what is really important to me and me only (for now). 

This is an important concept for everyone, not just the men and women who hold leadership positions. Everyone is a leader in their own way. When women in my chapter look to the executive board and me for the answers because we are the "leaders", I often tell them to ask themselves and ask each other. Everyone leads how they want to lead. Just being a member in a Greek house and sharing a bond with people all over the country is leadership in itself. Instead of looking to other people, you can look for the answers within yourself.

I say this because most people don't think about their values unless they are asked about it. Before I was ever asked to complete an exercise such as this one, all of my values were just a subconscious thought that I figured was only important to me. After I met with the other members of the PanHell Board we saw that most of our values overlapped. That doesn't mean we are all the same and that we will 100 percent agree with everything the other says. It simply means that our values define us and believe it or not, we are all pretty similar. We all love our families and friends and strive for growth and integrity but enjoyment as well. Its who we are and now we will all have parts of us represented to our community. Everyone in our community is a leader whether they realize it or not. Once you put Greek letters on to sit in the front row of class to raise your hand about everything the teacher says, or just to go to coffee with a new member, we are all leaders. All of our values define us and who we are. 

Lastly, I think its special that we were asked to do an exercise such as this. It will help in future, allow us to understand why one thinks the way he or she does. It will allow us to mold and change to fit our values as well other members' and the communities. It has made us aware that we are all different to some extent but at the same time we are similar in so many ways. 

Paying it Forward.

It took me some time to figure out what this all meant. In class last Friday was my first time seeing clips from the movie but I trusted Zac's opinion when he said, "You've never seen it?! Its a great movie!" over peanut butter and jelly sandwich making. 

When I got home and throughout this past week I have been receiving tons of emails about new service opportunities. I found myself opening every single one and actually reading them instead of skimming through them to send them over to the VP of Philanthropy for AEPhi. I realized what it all meant. I knew why I wanted to read the emails and respond back, "YES!" more now than ever before. I can blame this on our class discussions from last Friday. 

Through out high school I never really participated in community service unless a class or an extracurricular required it. When I became a member of a PHA sorority it all changed. I was doing service hours every week. I was tutoring and going to the Boys & Girls Club, I became very involved in our sorority's philanthropies. I realize now I do this because I can. I never really put it into perspective until the other week. 

I have the resources and the ability to help myself and help others. Now is time to take advantage of that well-being. We are all college students, we are all members of an organization that prides itself on service and helping others who are less fortunate. We are paying it forward everyday. If we are doing it via our organization or through BuckeyeThon, or just volunteering at the hospital. We all have the abilities to do so many things to help other people, it would be selfish if we didn't.

The reason we watched those clips and made sandwiches wasn't to take up time and leave us hungry and craving peanut butter and jelly, it was to teach why our four councils work together to do the things we do. To teach us that we do this to be selfless so that we can use our resources to help others who don't have them. We do this so we can help people, who in turn can help other people. We want to start a chain of people helping other people who are less fortunate than them. We learned these things last Friday so we can teach the people in our chapters and our councils and they can teach the rest of the University, essentially we could all be helping each other. 

My First Blog Entry EVER.

My name is Samantha Feiden, my friends usually call me Sam. I am currently a junior at The Ohio State University and plan to be a physical therapist at some point after my education is complete. My urge to join a sorority all started when I was a freshman in high school. My best friend's older sister (basically my older sister as well) came home for a break from Syracuse University as part of an organization called a "sorority". She wore really fun t-shirts and wouldn't let us borrow any. When we went to visit her, we stayed in her sorority house and fell in love. When my best friend and I split up to go to separate schools four years later we both ended up Greek. Ariel joined the same house, Sigma Delta Tau, as her sister and is currently living in her room. I knew I would rush right away and now I am a sister of Alpha Epsilon Phi. For the three years I have been at Ohio State, I've changed my major three times, lived in three different housing types on or near campus, and lived with different women each time. Everything I have accomplished here has been a decision I, myself made. Joining the Greek Life on campus has been my best but also my most important decision. It has given me sisterhood, friendship, and leadership opportunities I've never dreamt of having. I absolutely love it. 

Now that I am enrolled in a class that doesn't use the usual syllabus to inform the students of the quarterly guide, I am excited. I like to believe that I am up to speed on the new internet advances, I recently got a kindle, an electronic book, and I Facebook on the regular. I do not Twitter and I never thought I would blog, but here I am. So now that I am blogging I can officially say that I'm okay with doing a lot of new things this quarter and I'm pretty excited.