Tuesday, November 25th, 2014 | TechNews

  

   

OPINION 3

Five things I learned by being Greek at IIT

Miriam Schmid
B.S. BIOCHEMISTRY / MATH AND SCIENCE
EDUCATION ‘14

When I arrived at IIT, my 18—year
old self was offered a bid to join the Greek
community. More than ﬁve years later, my 23—
year old self wishes I could thank that over-
whelmed but excited young girl for making a
decision that has shaped every day of my fu-
ture since then. She thought she was ﬁnding
some women who would be her friends dur—
ing college, but had no idea she would ﬁnd and
learn so much more. I would like to share ﬁve
life lessons that I learned as a member of the
Greek community.

Choosing the people you surround
yourself with will shape your future.

While many people do not realize
the importance of the people they surround
themselves with until much later in life, this
lesson is very real for the Greeks. Each year, in
order to make sure our chapter survives and
thrives in the future we must meet, recruit, and
bid new members. Contrary to popular belief,
Greeks do not bid as many people as possible
in order to collect dues or have a large chap-
ter; instead, we need to ﬁnd women (or men)
who share our beliefs, will be dedicated, and to
whom we can entrust the future of our chapter.
As I became a senior and super-senior, this be-
came more real; I was leaving and needed to
ﬁnd amazing women who could care for the
chapter and make it better.

This ability to ﬁnd and recruit peo-
ple of similar values and dedication proves an
invaluable skill later in life. This not only ap-
plies for ﬁnding a good signiﬁcant other and
friends, but also in the workplace. Greeks make
great recruiters and interviewers because we
have spent years talking to new people, start—
ing speciﬁc conversations and asking the right
questions to learn about a person’s values, and
getting a feel for when people are being real
and when they are putting on a front. As I meet
coworkers, I can very quickly determine what
values we share and how committed they are
because I have practiced recruiting, and when
I am in a position to hire new people to trust
with my company or organization, I already
have years of experience on reading people
and ﬁnding talent and leadership they may not
even recognize yet.

Stepping out of your comfort zone
is the only way to grow.

According to the current President
of ASA, Nicolette Lewis, “Part of stepping out
of your comfort zone is being surrounded by

people who you know will support you no
matter what. You can never get that in the resi—
dence halls because you do not choose to be
with those people and you do not necessarily
share the same values.” Greek chapters pro-
vide this support when members step up and
hold their ﬁrst leadership position, join a new
athletic team, run a marathon, start a new job,
etc. We not only support each other as we step
out of our comfort zones, we challenge each
other to do so. Several years ago, ASA hosted
a yoga event for our physical aim. I was so un-
comfortable doing yoga, but all of my sisters
were there and we made fools of ourselves as
we tried to do yoga. Even though I was way out
of my comfort zone and could in no way do a
“downward dog”, I loved how I felt afterwards
and immediately bought myself a yoga work-
out video. In any other setting, I would not
have attempted yoga because I didn’t think I
would enjoy it and I would make a fool of my—
self, but because my sisters were doing it with
me, I would have tried almost anything.

Accountability is key to being suc-
cessful.

When you commit to being in a
Greek chapter, you also agree to live up to the
agreed-upon standards and be held account—
able when you do not. While standards reﬂect
your treatment of others, violation of house
standing rules, and academics, I would like to
focus on academic accountability.

The role of the scholarship chair
is to provide encouragement, accountability,
and resources to members who are struggling.
Because the relationships in a fraternity or so-
rority are life-long dedication to one another,
members are more receptive to this help and
accountability than they would be otherwise.
RAs at IIT have for many years done “earl -
warning” check-ins to students who are miss-
ing excessive classes or failing—basically,
the same function that the scholarship chair
serves. However, the scholarship system in
Greek chapters is everything that RGL hopes
that the RAs or REDS could provide in terms
of academic support. Unfortunately, they will
never have the effectiveness that a family of
brothers and sisters can have. At a Bible study
at ASA last year (yes, we have those in many
chapters), over half of our group agreed that
they would have left IIT for academic reasons
had they not had a sisterhood like ASA. The
fact is that Greek life increases the probability
of retaining our members more than IIT could
ever do. If our organizations did not exist,
many students would not ﬁnd a place to belong
or people to provide academic accountability

and support.

A title is nice, but true leadership
is about people looking up to and following
you.

One of my favorite times of year as
an ASA was always the beginning of Novem-
ber—chapter elections. This was the time of
year when members think about what impact
they want to have and what positions they
could run for. As an upperclassman, I loved
talking to younger members and challenging
them to step up, embrace their strengths, and
increase their conﬁdence to lead and serve our
chapter. However, I also enjoyed the week af—
ter the elections because I could reach out to
members who had not been elected. What I
could share with them is that being a leader is
not about actually having a title; it’s about serv—
ing others and having others look up to you.

As a new member, my goal was to be President ’

of ASA. However, I had the opportunity to be
an RA, and I needed the ﬁnancial stability this
would bring. Because I was not living in the
house, I never did get to serve on the executive
board. However, I found other ways to serve,
and I always felt like a leader in the house even
though I only held positions of Parliamentar-
ian and Sports Chair.

Greek leadership is seen throughout
campus in nearly EVERY organization. There
is a reason why the Leadership Academy has
always been around 50 percent Greek even
though only 10 to 15 percent of the under-
graduate population is Greek. We attract those
who are leaders or would like to become lead-
ers, and we give people the opportunity and
support to grow into the leader they may not
even have known they could be.

What other people think of you
doesn’t matter; what your family does can
change your life.

Each year during recruitment, there
is at least one young woman who we meet who
we decide that not only does she need the so-
cial aspect of our chapter, but we recognize her

potential to gFow Into a strong leader fshe ﬁas i 1 ' ‘

a group of women who believe in her. Many
times during recruitment meetings, we’ll say,
“I loved meeting so-and so. She had so many
qualities that I think are going to make her a
great VP Recruitment or Sunshine Chair or
Scholarship Chair.” Before these members
even join our chapter we see the potential in
them to become something more than they
see in themselves. While others may have told
them they cannot, we know that with our sup-
port, they can, because all of us were once that
young man or woman who just needed some-

one to believe in us.

So what does all of this mean? There
are mountains of evidence on the beneﬁts of
Greek Life on an undergraduate education.
Retention and graduation rates are higher;
job placement increases because of network- '
ing; connection to your alma mater increases;
and success in a future career is increased im-
mensely. Other efforts to do this like the RAs
in the residence halls can only attempt to do
half the job that the Greek system can do. Your
RA will not follow you for four years and con-
tinuously challenge you to grow; your Greek
family will.

Because of this, I have been, and

continue to be bafﬂed why much of the ad-
ministration, especially the Deau of Students
and Provost, continue to pursue agendas that
adversely affect our Greek community, which
is continuously recognized as one of the best in
the country, instead of supporting us. Chapters
are struggling to keep chapter houses full be-
cause freshmen are no longer allowed to move
in, and the sororities are trying to negotiate
housing contracts that are going to make it
difﬁcult for our chapters to survive. Adminis—
trators are quick to jump to conclusions when
something goes wrong because “what else
could you expect from the Greeks?” instead of
helping us learn from those mistakes and help-
ing us grow. When one person makes a mis-
take in one of our chapters, it reﬂects on all of
us; when a non-Greek student makes a mistake
it only reﬂects on them. We put on hundreds
of philanthropy, sports, leadership, intellectu-
al, and social events a year, but administrators
only focus on the one or two where something
goes wrong. I challenge the Greek community
to be continually better socially, academically,
and in leadership. Greeks should be held to a
higher standard because we strive to be just
that, but we need administrators to understand
that we will still make mistakes because we are
still young adults trying to ﬁnd out who we are
and who we can be.
‘ ' When the Greek community sees
support from the school, IIT will see the full
impact of what this community can be to the
retention, student leadership, and reputation
of the school. We are vocal about the chap-
ters we love because they have shaped us and
continue to support us. The question now be-
comes: What could IIT be if all Greeks were
vocal about how much IIT has supported our
community in our efforts to shape men and
women of leadership, courage, siblinghood,
philanthropy, and academics?

 

 

NAGWE

 

 

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