It's All Greek to me! : Tomorrow is the Day!!

So tomorrow is the first day of recruitment and I cannot wait to share this experience with you!! I am so excited to have a new home next Sunday! Recruitment at BGSU is split into 4 rounds. The first two rounds are this weekend and the next two, along with bid day, are next weekend. Now for everyone who is not familiar with Greek terms, bid day is the day where everyone finds out what sorority they are in. Afterwards there is a big party and celebration with your new chapter. I will explain more as it gets closer.

At BGSU there are 11 Panhellenic Chapters. Throughout recruitment I am going to name each sorority after a Disney Princess for privacy reasons and so I can express how I truly felt at each chapter during the rounds.

Belle
Ariel
Aurora
Jasmine
Snow White
Pocahontas
Cinderella
Tiana
Rapunzel
Merida
Mulan

            After I receive my bid I will reveal what sorority I join but the other names will not be revealed.

            The first two rounds of recruitment are: Meet the Greeks and Sisterhood round. The first round is split up into two days. I will visit 5 chapters tomorrow and 6 on Saturday. The first round starts at 6:30 pm and I believe ends at 9. I have to arrive at our Student Union, where recruitment takes place, at 5 pm L. Some of my friends and I are going to get dinner beforehand since there isn’t a break.

            For the first round we have to wear a shirt that they provide us with and then we can wear pants, appropriate shorts, and shoes of our choice. I am going to wear pants my first day and shorts for the second day of Round 1.

            At the end of Round 1 on Saturday is when I will do my first pref, list the houses in the order that I like. We can visit up to 8 houses for Round 2. So how preffing works is you will go and write down your top 8 choices and then you will list your bottom 3 choices in the order of which one you like the most to dislike.

            While you do this, all of the other chapters are ranking EVERY pnm (potential new member- what you are before you receive a bid) that they see. When you go through recruitment you hear the phrase “trust the system” A LOT. What they mean by that is where ever you get placed or whatever houses you get asked back to, you need to trust that there is a reason for it. If you get released from a house that was your absolute favorite, you need to trust that it there was a reason for it.

The system is a mutual selection process which means you pick the sororities and the sororities pick you. So if a sorority in your top 8 doesn’t have you on your invite list, you will be released from their house. But if I chapter from your bottom 3 list wants you back but you don’t want them back and all 8 of your top choices want you to come back, you won’t have the bottom 3 on your list anymore. But if some of your top 8 houses don’t invite you to come back, but your bottom 3 do, the bottom 3 houses will start filling in the spaces of the top 3 houses so you will have a full schedule. It is very complicated and confusing but it works!

            So on Round 2, which is Sunday- Sisterhood Round, I can have up to 8 chapters that I can go back to. If I get invited back to 8 house I will have a full schedule, but if I don’t then I will have gaps in my day. At the end of round 2, I will pref again and I can get invited back up to 6 houses. So I will write down my top 6 and bottom 2.

            Next Monday-Thursday is PNM week, and I will be doing fun events with my recruitment group every night. Then Friday and Saturday are rounds 3 and 4 and then Sunday is Bid Day!! I am so excited and can’t wait for everyone to read about my experience J

Survivors Teaching Students

I have been giving this amazing opportunity last week that helps support women with Ovarian Cancer. There is an organization called Survivors Teaching Students, (STS), and I have gotten in contact with them about coming in and speaking to medical students about my situation. They were so delighted and happy I reached out because a lot of the students in the Cleveland area wanted to talk with someone who was close in age so they could feel a better connection. At this moment, I knew I had to do this.

Ever since I was first diagnosed all I would say is how I wish there was someone who I could talk to, who was my age, so that I could relate to them. Cancer affects you in many different ways depending on what stage in life you are in. For me, I was 18 years old. Cancer didn’t affect my bills or my kids, husband and/or grandkids. I was too young to have any of those. Cancer affected my social life at school and with friends. That is pretty much it. I just started college and was beginning to make new friends and I was just plucked away from all of that. Everyone who I would talk to never really understood how hard that is for someone simply because they were way passed that chapter in life.

I am so excited to talk with these medical students because they will be able to relate and see how much cancer really affected me personally.

            “Welcome to Survivors Teaching Students: Saving Women’s Lives®, a program of the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance! You are joining an innovative and critical effort to educate students in health professional programs nationwide about ovarian cancer. Our goal is to increase the number of health care providers who recognize the risk factors and symptoms of ovarian cancer so that the disease is detected earlier.” This is a piece straight from their handbook that I have to read, which describes what exactly this organization does. STS is so important because many women don’t realize they have cancer until it is too late. Causing their diagnosis to go unnoticed for months to years. By sharing with people in the medical field we will be able to provide them with knowledge so they know what to look for in women. The symptoms are so common that ovarian cancer is overlooked immensely. It was overlooked for me 3 times before it was caught.

            I have to write my whole journey so that it will be 5-7 minutes and then send it to the people in charge of the organization for the greater Cleveland area. I then will go and talk with partnering schools, as of right now they have done a class at Lake Erie, and share my story and answer questions.

            I am so excited for this opportunity and I know it will open up so many doors for me. I always wanted to get involved with cancer in some way and I am happy that I found this opportunity. I will definitely keep everyone updated on what is going on and when my first class will be!

It's all Greek to Me

I have decided to go Greek my sophomore year and I am so happy about it! I signed up to do formal rush my freshman year of high school because my friend talked me into it, but I couldn’t really see myself being in Greek Life. A lot of things happened and I decided not to go through with it. A little bit after I found out I was sick, one of my friends I made who was in a sorority really helped me out the two weeks I went back to school. Her whole sorority was nice and kind to me. They decorated my door with this big sign that read “Don’t let Ovarian Cancer Dull Your Sparkle”. They also teamed up with a fraternity and they through me a surprise party. They made signs and letters that read Hope. The fraternity also sang the song Just the Way You Are to me. It was very nice and made me feel amazing. I just remember thinking after that day how those girls treated me so well and I wasn’t even one of their sisters. Just imagine if I was. I knew at that moment I had to Go Greek. I wanted to be a part of this amazing organization that does things like this all of the time. I wanted to be a part of the sisterhood and gain the everlasting friendships. I also was only at school for a month my freshman year so I don’t really know anyone and this is an excellent way to get involved.

            Formal Recruitment is the first two weekends of school it has 5 rounds. The first round is split up into 2 days and it is where you meet the Greeks. I believe there are 13 sororities so over the first two days you go and meet with each chapter and talk to them and get to know what they are all about. The second round, which is the third day, is called sisterhood round. I do not know exactly what this round is all about, but I am assuming you get to learn what the chapters do together for fun and out in the community. Also how they bound. The third round, fourth day, is called Philanthropy Round. Every sorority has a national, and sometimes local, Philanthropy that they raise money and donate too. Some of the examples on campus are: Service for Sight, Autism Awareness, Make a Wish Foundation…just to name a few. So for this round you get to see what each chapters Philanthropy is and how they raise money and get involved to help support it. The fourth round, fifth day, is called Preference round which is also known as Pref Parties. This day is a lot more serious and formal. You need to dress nice and look presentable. This is where you meet with the chapters and have a more in depth conversation with the girls and their chapter. I am not too sure about the specifics, this is just stuff I have read online. The Fifth round and final day is called Bid Day. This is where you get a bid from a chapter and you get to meet your new sisters. All of these rounds lead up to this day and it is very exciting. I am going to blog about my experience so I will make sure to write about every single day!

Normally, you would go through each round inside the chapter’s house on campus, however all of our Greek Houses got torn down last year. We are in the process of getting brand new houses built and they will be ready by next fall. Fall recruitment next year will be held inside the sorority houses. This year, they’re inside our Student Union on campus.

New Greek Houses

            The girls who are going through recruitment are called PNMs (Potential New Members). Every PNM has a group of ladies called Rho Gammas. Rho Gammas could be called something different depending on your school. At BGSU, you have 3-4 Rho Gammas. A Rho Gamma is someone who disaffiliates with their sorority to help others find their new home (sorority). It takes a lot to be a Rho Gamma because you can’t talk or do anything with your sorority until Recruitment is over. I LOVE my RGs and already can tell they are going to help me out a lot. They have already given us a guide on what to wear for each night of recruitment and have helped answer some of my questions I have had about the whole process. Rho Gammas are also not allowed to be biased so when you go through recruitment, you will be able to talk to them if you are having trouble picking out what sorority you want to join.

I am so excited for this process to start and I can’t wait to find my new home in a few month