What’s good YouTube it’s Roderick Martez back again with another video if you’re new to this channel make sure you guys hit that subscribe button like this video and turn on the post notifications so you never miss when I post a video as you guys can see I got a new backdrop
And I just felt like investing in myself so I got some lights and I decided to put together a whole little sets so I moved around my whole bedroom put these lights up put the backdrop up and I really really liked it it’s a great decision it’s literally like right on
The side of my bed so yeah umm it makes things a ton easier if you guys can’t already tell what this video is about I’m gonna be giving you a little bit of advice if you have any interest in joining a black Greek letter organization the short version is B GL o
Or B Glo I guess I never really called it that but that’s what they’re saying online and if it wasn’t obvious from some of my previous videos where you guys saw a fire flag on my wall I’m a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity incorporated and I know I don’t need a
Credibility statement or anything but I would just go ahead and say that I’m credible to give you guys advice on this because I’ve been in my fraternity for over three years now I’m a brother who’s held pretty much every single leadership position there is to hold in this fraternity including the highest medical
Eejit member can since we’re not talking about just my fraternity I’m gonna go ahead and give you guys a little bit of general advice so let’s get into it okay so I’m gonna give you a little background information all of our fraternities and sororities fall under the National pan-hellenic Council this
Council is also known as the mph see the NPHC was formed as a permanent organization on the campus of Howard University in Washington DC on May 10th 1930 lastly the National pan-hellenic council also known as the NPHC is sometimes also known as the divine nine informally the organizations that are
Inside of the NPHC are Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity incorporated Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated Kappa Alpha side fraternity incorporated Omega sci-fi fraternity incorporated Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated Phi Beta Sigma fraternity incorporated Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated Sigma Gamma Rho sorority incorporated and iota Phi Theta fraternity
Incorporated so you want to be Greek my first piece of advice is to know why you want to do it everybody has their own reasons for wanting to go Greek whether that’s to be cooler or whether that’s to do more community service or get involved or just build a name for
Yourself on campus but you need to figure out what your reason is and that reason needs to stick with you no matter what a lot of times people will say well that’s not a good enough reason to be in my fraternity well it’s your reason and a lot of times
I find that a lot of people don’t tell you what their real reason for joining the fraternity is if we’re being quite honest my real reason for joining my fraternity was not only because a lot of the men who I looked up to were members about 5’4 but because I wanted to gain
More social stature at school and that’s just the honest truth of it it wasn’t until I became a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha that I realized that I really did enjoy putting into work for the fraternity and I took that to the highest level that it could go nonetheless
Everybody has a reason so you need to figure out what yours is make sure that it’s a good one and stick to it because if you don’t what’s the point and you’re not gonna make it because I can guarantee you this whatever process you go through if you don’t remember why you
Want to join the organization you’re gonna get dropped or you’re gonna drop then they’re gonna laugh at you and the whole campus will find out my second piece of advice is you need to do your research I’m sure you’ve heard this plenty of times but you really need to
Do your research if you don’t know my history if you don’t know my founders if you don’t know my aims and if you don’t know my mission statement and pretty much anything that you can find on Google about my fraternities there’s no reason for you to be trying to pursue
Membership and that goes for anything any organization I don’t know why you want to put your name on something if you don’t know when you think about it it just looks stupid and then you’re gonna embarrass yourself when they ask you a question and you can’t tell them
Anything because at that point you’re gonna be outed as a cloud chaser and you really don’t have a real reason for wanting it so it’s kind of pointless because you’re like embarrassing yourself like go away once you’ve decided that that’s the work that you
Want to be a part of you need to make sure that that’s the chapter that you want to be affiliated with a lot of times chapters on different campuses have different personalities and if you don’t mesh with the people in that chapter maybe that’s not the chapter for you
Maybe you may fit in better with the Sigma’s if you were originally trying to be a member of Kappa Alpha side you might like the Sigma’s better and then that might be the organization that you just are destined to be a part of however this is very very very important
If you do go about expressing interest to one organization and then hop to the next this is another example of the fact that they’re all going to laugh at you you’re embarrassing yourself you need to be sure about these things because people talk and one thing I’ve learned
About the Greek community I have never in my life met a group of individuals or community of people that talked more than Greeks you will be laughed at and you will be embarrassed and if you do become a member of organization everybody’s gonna talk about it forever
And nobody’s gonna forget it all and I’ll just be sure of what you want to do and keep it at that be sure of your reason be sure of the organization be sure of the chapter and if you say you want it then do it
My fourth piece of advice is to build a name for yourself you can do this by getting involved you can do this by just having talents on campus but nonetheless you need to build a name for yourself because when you come to the informational and you try and get to
Know the members and you try and pursue membership and express interest in all of that they’re gonna wonder who you are you need to build a name for yourself you need people to know who you are you need to have people knowing what you do what you can bring to their chapter and
If you don’t have that you’re probably not going to be accepted my fifth piece of advice is to bring something to the table and know what that is because if you’re just the same as everybody else there’s no reason for me to pick you I don’t want a chapter full of five people
Who all have the same talents I don’t want a chapter full of five people who love to party yeah we need somebody who likes to party because we need somebody to host it but we don’t need five people running around doing the same things we also need somebody that’s gonna be
Handling business we need somebody that’s going to be building connections with organizations on campus we need somebody that’s connected to administrators on campus we need somebody who is willing to do all of the work and not complain there just needs to be different types of people and each
Chapter to make sure that everything gets done efficiently and if you’re the same as somebody else chances are I’m taking the one with the highest GPA and there’s no chance that I’m gonna pick every single one of you because big lines look stupid anyway unless if you ever heard of the
Statement quality over quantity this is a prime example I don’t need a line of a hundred people when I had have a line of ten people and each of these different things that my chapter needs are hit with those ten I don’t need a hundred people to do it because chances are
You’re at a predominantly white institution anyway so you don’t need a hundred members in one organization you just need the ones that are gonna do what needs to be done for example I was super involved in college I was very involved I had connections with administrators I knew everybody so I
Think I was one of those people that was what I would call a divergent because I pretty much could do everything but there are people who are really good at throwing parties and you need that you need clout on campus you need juice on campus if you don’t have juice on campus
Nobody’s coming to your parties and that’s one of the biggest moneymakers for our fraternities parties um you need that brother or that sister who everybody likes so you can bring people to the events you need to hit every single point and if you don’t your organization is not gonna be efficient
You need somebody who’s gonna be business savvy you need somebody who’s super professional and you need you just be one of those people my sixth piece of advice is to build relationships with the people who you want to call brother or sister there’s nothing more embarrassing than not knowing the people
In your chapter and that’s after you cross they’re still gonna laugh at you before you get there but you need to know who you’re literally becoming sisters with or who you’re becoming brothers with if you don’t know them then the Brotherhood or the sisterhood
Is fake and one thing I can say for sure about my organization and other organizations at the NPHC is we are very petty so you need to do your research on everybody that’s in our chapter even if they don’t even if those aren’t your favorite people you need to do your
Research on everybody because if i axe you a question about my line brother or i ask you a question about my profile happens not to go to the school anymore and you don’t know not anything to me that looks like you don’t care about my chapter because if you don’t care about
My chapter and you haven’t taken the time to get to know the people that reside within the chat then why should I let you in you’re supposed to want to be my brother someday so if you don’t know anything about all of the people who are in this
Chapter or have some type of background with the lineage of this chapter then you don’t need to be a part of it and that goes hand in hand with doing your research my seventh piece of advice is to save your money if you are blessed enough to get into the organization of
Your choice it’s going to cost something and it’s gonna cost something around $1,000 I don’t know the exact numbers but when I joined Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity incorporated I paying twelve hundred and seventy-six dollars that was because when I joined I was a freshman so I had to pay the highest amount
Because I was going to be in school for the longest time I’ve heard of some people paying initiation fees of anywhere up to twenty-five hundred dollars so you need to save your money and at the end of the day you need to recognize that not only are these organizations
Fun and social but there are also businesses not only are you gonna have to pay an initiation fee but you also have to pay dues depending on your organization those dues may come monthly bimonthly weeklies annually by annually I don’t know but you’re gonna have to
Come out of some money to join these organizations and with that being said you need to know if it’s the right thing for you my 8th piece of advice is professionalism professionalism professionalism if you don’t have professionalism you’re not gonna make it into these organizations you need to
Have professional clothes you need to conduct yourself in a professional manner when it’s called for you need to have some type of professional background in order to be a good member of this fraternity or sorority we don’t want you if you don’t know how to go to
An interview and conduct yourself in a professional manner we don’t want you really if you don’t know how to dress professionally because an alpha man is always dressed impeccably so I know for sure you’re not getting into alpha you also need to be able to conduct yourself professionally because if you don’t have
A good reputation chances are our organizations don’t want to bring you into the picture this goes for my guys and my girls if you’re known as a home on campus because you might be a home on campus chances are the sorority is not gonna want you if you’re a guy who’s a
Well-known pothead or druggie or somebody who does despicable things chances are the fraternities aren’t gonna want you because you’re gonna bring down the prestige of their organization and it’s just a really bad look to have somebody who you call brother who’s doing all these bad things because I don’t want to
Have to defend somebody who I know is wrong so to avoid all of that I’m just not even gonna give you the chance to get into my organization so have a professional reputation know when to cut it on and cut it off my nice piece of advice and arguably the most important
Piece of advice is know how to be discreet discretion is literally key and I repeat discretion is key there should not be a moment in time when somebody knows your plans if you want to be a part of my organization you shouldn’t be telling all of your friends that you
Want to be a part of my organization because it’s a little pretentious not only are you talking too much but you telling your friend that you’re gonna pledge this and that you don’t even know if I like you and like I said before our organizations can be very petty just
Because I DAP you up in the common area or talk to you or have lunch with you or become your friend doesn’t mean that I want to be your brother and when you are pursuing membership into these organizations you shouldn’t be talking about it if you are a confirmed
Candidate of an organization you just that’s not something to talk about with somebody else because it’s actually none of their business it’s only your business and the people whose business you’re doing it with I’ve seen on so many occasions people who don’t know how to be discreet get let go from the
Process because they talk too much I know for a fact that your parents have told you stop talking so much like it’s just the simple fact that what you’re telling somebody may or may not be detrimental to them the chapter or the organization but if you can’t keep your
Mouth shut what makes me think that you know how to keep issues that happen within the chapter in the chapter I don’t trust you at that point if you don’t know how to keep your mouth shut why would I trust you to be in our organization why would I trust you to
Hold the secrets of our organization is dear to your heart and you can’t even keep your mouth shut about getting in you can’t even keep your mouth shut about which organization you want to be a part of honestly if you want to pursue membership in a black Greek letter
Organization the first thing you need to know is discretion is key if you have to tell your best friends about it so be it but make sure when you tell them you know that they’re not running around tell other people because your business has no business on the street your business
Is your business so leave it your business my tenth piece of advice is to keep your grades up to be quite honest you didn’t come to college to join a fraternity or sorority you came to college to graduate and get a career and live your life happily a fraternity and
Sorority is extracurricular you can do it while you’re in college or you can do it after but the main goal is to graduate so you should be keeping your grades up if you’re on the cusp of the minimum GPA that we’re looking for chances are I don’t want you because
Once you join the organization and you start having fun your GPA is probably gonna go down and then you’re probably gonna bring the chapter GPA down and at that point what was the point again what was the point you got in the organization just to us up also one
Of the saddest things I see is when a person who had so much promise and so much potential joins organization and they literally drop everything dropped their grades drop their social status drops they lose friends they literally become a nobody because they’re so consumed with all the perks that come
With being Greek it’s sad because at the end of the day when you join that organization you did become Roderick the Alpha but you don’t need to be the Alpha Roderick at the end of the day you need to be yourself and continue being a greater version of yourself your
Organization is supposed to be an extension of who you are not the whole version of who you are my 11th piece of advice is to be yourself and this is probably the most important piece of advice under discretion I can guarantee you this your organization is going to
Respect you more if you’re genuinely being yourself there’s no reason to try and put on a front for somebody because at the end of the day you’re trying to be this person’s brother you’re supposed to bare your soul to these guys or these girls who you’re going through this process with and
These are supposed to be your friends and your sisters and your brothers until the end of time until you dot if you’re not being yourself the whole thing was for nothing if you didn’t know I’m bisexual openly LGBTQ and I’ve always been myself when I
Decided that I wanted to be a member of Alpha Phi Alpha I was in the closet but I knew that when I decided to come out the people around me would support me my lion brothers that’s exactly what they did they supported me my chapter supported me if they don’t support you
Then they’re not really your brothers or your sisters anyway but all in all being yourself is more important you should not be willing to give up or forego who you are to join an organization because that shows how weak you are and if you’re that weak minded why would we
Want you anyway at some point you need to know when to say no and you need to know what your value is as a person and if you don’t have value in who you are and what you stand for that’s another reason why we shouldn’t accept you my
Last piece of advice is don’t do anything you don’t want to do and you can take this any way you want to we all have heard those horror stories about hazing it would be stupid of me to say that it doesn’t have it very well does
Happen and we’ve all seen it on the news people literally lose their life over this people people have literally lost their lives from being hazed I’m not gonna go into detail but look it up people have lost their livelihoods from hazing people go to jail for years
Hazing in most states I want to say is a felony there’s no way in hell at this point of my life am i risking my livelihood to give somebody some letters that I already have no way and that’s really all I’m gonna touch on as far as
Hazing if you do it that’s your decision and know that it’s your decision I’m not condoning doing it because I honestly think it’s I honestly think the hazing is the dumbest thing that anybody can subject themselves to knowing that people have been dying from hazing for years it’s stupid now I’m very well
Aware that when you go through a process that involves hazing you are given respect amongst your chapter members amongst people on campus and amongst people in your general area all I can say is like I said before that’s a decision that you have to make but you
Also need to know the risks of it it’s illegal if you’re caught you probably will go to jail you’ll most definitely lose your letters and you have to assess if that’s really worth it for you and on the more grave side of things you could possibly lose your life so okay guys so
I think that that’s all that I have for you um let me know what you guys think comment section below let me know if this was helpful let me know if it wasn’t as I always say I really enjoy hearing from you guys again make sure this is the first video that you’ve
Watched on my channel hit that subscribe button like this video and turn on the post notifications so you don’t miss another on a brighter note I’m looking for a team of creative minds to literally help me guide the narrative of my channel I know where I want my
Channel to go but I need ideas I need feedback and I just need a team to help me with stuff of course this isn’t gonna be paid but I would greatly appreciate it if you want something to put on your resume hit me up my business email is in the
Description box below okay guys that’s pretty much it that’s all I have to say that’s it I promise make sure you guys follow me on all my social media accounts everything is Roderick Martez just like my channel name and with that being said have a good night
Or a good day depending on when I post this but anyway peace be unto you
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