Earlier this month, ETSU’s Panhellenic sororities recruited new members to their five chapters.
In the fall, the Panhellenic does a primary recruitment process so that there is a fair opportunity for each chapter. These chapters are: Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Xi Delta, Kappa Delta and Sigma Kappa.
The women who are interested in joining a sorority sign up and then go through a brief recruitment process with the hopes of ultimately being invited to join an organization on Bid-Day.
The goal of recruitment is to match unaffiliated women to sororities. This fall was a success because 500 women were matched with one of the five sororities.
According to Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Maggie Darden, women who are generally interested in pledging to a sorority are interested in the values they offer.
“They are value-based organizations, and they are acting on those values to grow as young adults,” Darden said.
Some of the main values of each chapter are academics, community service, social awareness and leadership development.
Each chapter has a focus on academic development. This focus comes with the expectation of members to have and remain a high GPA until graduation. Members of each chapter also complete community services hours that relate with the specific philanthropy goal of the sorority. Members will gain social awareness from communicating commons goals to the organization.
“It’s an opportunity for women to strengthen their communication skills through leadership positions,” Darden said.
When one joins a sorority, they are presented with opportunities to develop leadership skills.
Chapters are run by undergraduate officers, and they are trained to be in those positions. This training can be from local alumni or advisers met at national conventions and conferences.
While joining a sorority helps young women gain important values, it also prepares them for the future, according to Darden,
“They get ready for graduation and for the workforce after college,” she said.
Although most recruitment has ended, there are some chapters that continue to offer bids throughout the rest of the semester.
For more information about sorority life and future recruitment opportunities at ETSU, go to https://www.etsu.edu/students/sorc/fsl/panhellenicassociation.php.
