Okay hello everyone thank you for joining to joining us for the power of her story um willard library’s second women’s panel i’m here with cheryl emanuel marissa harrington keanu roseman and battle creek’s very own lynn ward gray we’re here to give some information just you know have a talk and chit-chat about sororities
I will turn it over to tunisia yes so i would love for everyone to uh take some time brief to tell us a little bit about themselves and then we’ll go into the questions so cheryl you are the first person on my screen so could you
Just kind of tell us a little bit about you and your organization thank you and thank you for having me my name is sheryl emanuel i am the chapter president of the sci kappa omega chapter in battle creek and albion michigan of alpha kappa alpha sorority incorporated
I am a quality engineer i had attended western having a degree in industrial engineering and i have a master’s i’m from davenport university uh mba in strategic management uh the cycap omega chapter was founded in 2009 although the sorority was founded january 15 1908 at howard university um so
We are a small but mighty chapter uh within the battle creek and albion communities and um welcome thank you so much so lynn could you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your sorority sure my name is lynn ward gray i am the chapter president for the
Battle creek alumni chapter of delta sigma theta sorority incorporated we were chartered on january 12 1980 and um we were founded nationally on january 13 1913 and at howard university um myself i am a development officer here locally at the battle creek community foundation i am a former elected official
Serving as a city commissioner for ward 2 from 2009 to 2020 and i also um serve on several boards and committees throughout the community getting ready to celebrate juneteenth family day in the community so i know we have a wonderful partner in willard library we’re excited about that
And um i i will save the rest for later but thank you so much for having us and doing this um jade and nisha this is just amazing thank you thank you for your participation so marissa could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your sorority absolutely good evening everyone
My name is marissa harrington i am the first vice president for the road they to zeta chapter of zeta phi beta sorority incorporated um here in kalamazoo michigan um zeta phi beta was uh founded january 16 1920 also on the campus of howard university the road theta zeta chapter was founded
April 19 1999. i myself have been a member since 2015. i will be celebrating my seventh anniversary may 2nd so super excited to be here i am a local realtor here in kalamazoo i also serve on quite a few community boards i’m very passionate about the community
I serve on the civil rights board here um we didn’t write kalamazoo i run a theater company i have my fingers in a lot of different things i also have three beautiful children um and a wonderful husband and again i’m very excited to be here this evening
Thank you so much and kiana could you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your sorority all right well good evening everyone my name is kendall roseman i am a proud graduate of grand valley state university and i am currently the chief innovation officer at healthnet of west michigan and also
An executive director for fit kids 360 which is a childhood obesity organization that was started here in grand rapids in addition you know i’m a um excuse me a spoken word poet i published my first full-length text in 2017 called words in adhd which you can get on amazon and i’m also a
Political strategist and lead organizer for equity pac that is local as well so we you know help support local candidates of color and different campaign issues that impact communities of color i’m the current bacillus centennial bacillus actually because we turn 100 years old on november 12th um for super camera sorority
Incorporated for the ada pie sigma golden grand rapids chapter and i also will be celebrating my seven year anniversary on november 24th this year as well so in um my short time being part of the eight of pi sigma chapter we would be we were um uh chartered actually in 1993
And uh rechartered from kalamazoo to grand rapids in 2011. so since i became a member you know we had about eight members locally and now we are clocking in at 35 so growth locally has been a major focus of ours and i look forward to talking more about
Some of our chapter initiatives and goals nationally thank you so much as you all can see we have an amazing group of women on the panel tonight so we are going to go ahead and get started with our first question so the question is the four sororities within the mphc were founded
In the early 1900s why was it so important for those organizations to be established during this time period okay i’ll go ahead i um thank you thank you for the question i think well one of the major reasons i think is that stands out for me is support
You know um as traditional in the black family our sorority village is broad you know where today we have over 350 000 members across over you know 1 000 chapters all over the world and in the early 1900s there were so few black women attending college that sororities for that matter fraternities
Created a network and support system not only to get us through college but support the black community many times those black community members family members communities you know the church community etc were sending those young people to college and supporting them so you know if your daughter went to
Howard university often the neighbors the church members everybody was pulling for them and supporting them uh so that they could graduate and get through that process and uh if you were on a white majority campus in those days it was even more challenging to you know make it through
So that support system is really really um important our first two chapters were chartered um of course the at hbcu’s howard university’s alpha chapter and beta chapter was wilberforce university and a series of those chartered after that though we’re at white majority schools so gamma chapter university of pennsylvania delta chapter
University of iowa and epsilon chapter at the ohio university so the sisterhood bond that you know you look you look out for one another was critical to our survival back then is an ability to really support ourselves get through to graduation scholarship is a really big part of our
Organizations and then to serve the communities where those white majority institutions and those hbcus resided through the public service that you know many of us all of us do for example my mother is a member of delta she was a member of delta she’s passed on
But she was the 11th child of the baby of the family and her brothers and sisters made sure that she had what she needed to attend college hbcu at tennessee state university where she was initiated into delta so i’m what they refer to as a legacy in in our organization
Does anyone else have anything to share as far as why do you think it was so important for those organizations to be you know established at that time marissa yes um you know you just so eloquently um i think laid out the historical perspective and and
The only thing that i’d like to add in in addition to that is um just the the sense of you know during that time needing that uh community of people uh to come together and support one another scholastically but also support uh what was important in the black communities
At that time uh just in general society in 1920 uh as a black person right so uh these organizations came together um not only on their campuses but also in the communities and that is something that is still very prevalent today for all of our organizations and so i just wanted
To lift that up i also want to add to being a member of an organization that was founded on a pwi campus in the midwest where the the largest organization at the time membership wise was the ku klux klan right in indianapolis you know it was very
Important for our founders you know to the points highlighter already in terms of support and you know scholarship but also looking at you know social justice and social action right you know a lot of the issues that we see now with you know the recent uprisings
Black lives matter you know say her name all those campaigns right like those have roots right in the united states because where we live and that’s part of our history and that’s ingrained and so i think you know a lot of the collective service that we all do is moving you
Know the needle forward for the black community of you know as a whole but particularly in the midwest again as was highlighted earlier you know starting chapters for support in those areas where you know there aren’t many black folks um you know in those you know particular
Locales was was very critical um and so i believe our founders were very instrumental in trying to you know pull up uh groups of women who wanted to you know focus on education be teachers etc and advanced in the field of education by creating that support system and that um
You know especially at a private university like butler it it you know it’s really impactful um to kind of set that standard and start something new in that way thank you cheryl do you have anything to add well my my greek sisters pretty much said it all um
It was just a time when you when you think about it that some of those students their their grandparents were were probably slaves and then to be able to come to a university to have to continue their education and be amongst other people like themselves it just is
An opportunity to find comfort within each other to um you know build a network of people that you can then spread out across the country to then teach those people everything that you have learned at your university so i mean it’s pretty much everything that everyone else has just said thank you
And i did want to add a little more to that because um i i just remembered as my fellow sister was speaking that the social action piece of it is like what we started doing two months later after we got started we’re marching in the suffrage march so um
That that is also a huge part of it now we were at the back and we didn’t you know we weren’t wanted there um but i think there’s two things you need to think about when when you talk about that time uh that we were bold all of these women
Are college educated women so when we talk about um you know uh adults making decisions and you know you’re too young to do this and to do that we really need to think about our young people and bringing them into the conversation and having them making the decisions as well because
We did some dynamic things as college-educated women founding all of these the four sororities and um making you know huge differences in our communities at a young age and so you know don’t sleep on the young people that’s all i’m saying that’s right yes i did want to ask you kiana
You used the acronym pwi could you explain to our listeners what that stands for uh predominantly white institution all right thank you so much all right so we are going to move on to the next question as you can see the sororities have colors if you look at the crest so
Does anyone anyone want to talk about what the colors of their sorority means so i will say for uh alpha kappa alpha all our colors were picked with intention they were intentional actually they were picked by one of founders beulah burke who also came up with our names so
The colors um you know they do have meaning to those that are in the sorority um you know that it’s something that you learn about you know when you join although i do believe it is public information in our history books which are out there in libraries but um they
Didn’t just go through a color wheel and to say oh i like that color and this comedy and so it was definitely some thought behind um our colors at least by alpha kappa alpha does anybody else want to talk about their sorority colors even if you don’t necessarily know the meaning what are
The colors so for yes and for zeta phi sorority our colors are royal blue and pure white um and we do like to emphasize the royal and emphasize the pure all right thank you listen and we are um similar to um my aka sister um there’s nothing that we can say
Publicly about the colors meanings but um uh crimson and cream are the official colors of delta sigma theta sorority incorporated uh although um you also might see red and white as well yeah kiana yes so is your colors our colors are currently royal blue and gold
They used to be royal blue and antique gold for a particular reason but from a branding standpoint royal blue and gold and of course as everybody else mentioned there’s reasons for that that you can learn should you become a member and i think so i forgot to mention that
Our colors are salmon pink and apple green i do want to let everyone who is watching know that if you have any questions you can go ahead and put them in the comments jade is going to be monitoring them so once we kind of get over the questions
We already have set we will open it up for questions from our audience but the third question is how do black greek letter sororities differ from other sororities i think um we’ve kind of already touched on that a little bit just in uh the history of why
We were founded in the first place right um none of that has changed in terms of needing space and community uh solidarity none of that has changed in fact i think it’s been amplified um as the years have gone by so you know i won’t disparage any uh other type of
Greek letter organizations but i will say that each of our organizations uh were were founded with a very specific intention um and those missions uh are still in effect today yeah and i think um and i think you know in a broad sense you know although we there’s certain things that
We you know can’t say in a broad sense i think the most obvious difference is you know black people weren’t allowed to join kind of uh organizations uh because well you know racial segregation segregation didn’t allow that so um so we created our own and i think we did very well
But traditionally you know white organizations and greek life don’t don’t show i at least i haven’t seen it like we have some strong brotherhood and sisterhood in our um national panhellenic council organizations um and that’s a strong part of our survival like how we are able to cope and you know persevere
White greek organizations also also seem more socially oriented as opposed to scholarship and community service and social action um unlike the black greek letter organizations and for us it’s not just um a collegiate experience either that’s a big difference so it doesn’t it doesn’t end until god calls us home right now
It’s a lie most of us are founded on christian principles so our faith is a strong part of who we are and how we persevere through all of this and then as a side note as something you probably notice if you’re on a college campus you know a lot of black
Sororities and fraternities um were denied permission to purchase houses um similar to their white counterparts they they do hence you know the reason some of the black sororities and fraternities don’t have houses on college campuses because we weren’t allowed we were denied the opportunity to purchase
Houses so a lot of people wonder you know why don’t y’all have a house or something like that when you’re on pwi campuses or different things yeah historically that has been difficult um and denied us uh and so you don’t see that many of them some do and i belong
That’s that’s a bold move um yeah i’m sorry i also know that keanu wanted to answer so i’m gonna give her some time yeah well i know you know our sister said you know a lot of the points i was going to touch on but you know to the purpose of those
Organizations were you know for prestige wealth kind of creating those networks and so their focus tends to be not only just social but philanthropy so you know they’re raising money they’re doing a lot of those types of activities whereas we are again to that point service
Oriented so a lot of work that we do you know we’re rolling up our sleeves and we’re in the community doing things because often we’re from the communities that we are you know serving in our part of one of the things that we were talking about before the the you know show
Actually started the panel was that you can join 30 years old 40 years old 50 years old and that’s one of the biggest difference to me you know i think some folks see you know african-american women or males joining at 30 40 years old and thinking like why
Are you trying to join a sorority so i think that is a big difference you know you could join a graduate chapter yeah and i don’t know if cheryl wants to add anything else but yeah so that’s a big uh common misconception sometimes with sororities because a lot of people have the
Knowledge let’s say of the white sororities and then once they graduate you they’re not in it well they’re in it but they’re not wearing their letters they don’t have you know the community service type aspect of that whereas as black greek letter organizations we still do
So people say oh well i can still join after i graduated and it’s like yes you can because we still exist we have graduate chapters you know beyond college so that’s another thing that um a lot of people might not know when when you’re in college that there are opportunities after you graduate
And as was mentioned before the reach is worldwide so we have hundreds of thousands of members all of us across the globe yeah and um so i know that uh so i went to a small catholic university in pennsylvania and we did not have any sororities or
Fraternities at all so a couple of uh black students went over to state colleges and became members there while still attending our little small catholic organization but they they went to other universities where they could um apply and everything i thought that was in my head i’m like i thought you had to
Attend the school that you want to be at you know i think it’s also dependent on the organization i know there are some organizations that there’s a college really close to a main college that does have a chapter and they do allow those other students to go to another chapter
Or go to the chapter at that college that has the chapter or there’s opportunities where you can charter a a chapter at the university if there’s not one there of course you would have to have the help of the local chapter and your uh for us our corporate office
To be able to do that but there’s there’s many ways to um to get a chapter or to join in undergrad and i’ll lift that up too because we were speaking about this that i i did not um due to a lot of reasons um i did not participate in my undergraduate
Experience but i was able to in the graduate chapter and so that’s something with graduate chapters and alumni chapters uh within uh our black greek organizations that you could have gone to any college as long as you have a college degree right um you can find that graduate or
Alumni a chapter or a graduate chapter for us so um that i think that opens up a lot of possibilities to people who may not have been able to have the experience in undergrad the school itself doesn’t allow greek life so for example there’s university here davenport university doesn’t um you
Know sanction greek organizations in our organization we have a designation that is a regional undergraduate so those students you know if there’s a graduate chapter within a certain proximity to various um universities that don’t have chapters they can join a graduate chapter and function you know at the
Undergraduate level through us so there are a lot of different ways that folks can be involved in and seek membership if they so just if they so choose thank you so much some of the when i listen to your answers it seems like this theme of community service
Continues to pop up so i wanted to hear a little bit more about some of the things that you all do in the community in your community service initiative so i will start with uh let’s start with kiana okay all right so right now um one of the initiatives
That we are in the midst of planning um for our local community is uh initiative entitles 1 1922. um it’s a partnership with usa swim and what that entails is you know teaching water safety and providing swim lessons and opportunities to kind of get comfortable in the water
To prevent incidents of drowning so we know in the black community and other communities of color you know access to pools you know that knowledge of you know knowing how to swim again predates who we are right now right historically the access to the public pools and all that you know we
Were barred from and so um we see the outcomes today with a lot of those incidents and so the initiative was created to really um impact and address some of those things and really get the knowledge base to save lives essentially and so we typically have that event every summer
Where we do water safety clinics at one of the parks and rec pools in one of our neighborhood parks that surrounds a predominantly black area and just invite everybody to come out and just get comfortable with the water and get comfortable with that particular park in that pool so that they can you
Know expand that knowledge base um another initiative we do um regarding you know just some of our youth affiliates and and those sorts of things is around our youth symposium so we have historically partnered with grand valley state university and um you know done some different workshops around you know leadership development
Mental health topics um really things to kind of move move the youth forward in terms of you know being self-sufficient and learning more about things that are important to them so the the topic um this past year was you know around mental health and like surviving coving and promoting resiliency and so it’s
Really kind of you know drilling down that piece to to get our young people and our you know future generations to start thinking about these things you know more we’re having hearing conversations now about like generational trauma and breaking those curses and and those sorts of things so really getting people more comfortable
Um and protecting their mind around you know certain things especially you know being on social media a lot and seeing a lot of the the um the filth i’ll say that comes out um you know across the globe it’s just it’s good to be able to have situations where you can center and
You can surround yourself with other adults who are goal oriented who are positive role models to be able to create those those networking experiences my favorite initiative though is our project reassurance project and so that is looking at you know healthy bodies healthy minds and focusing on
Women’s health and so we do a lot of initiatives around that you know from breast cancer awareness to heart healthy activities really looking at you know knowing your numbers and then um focusing on prenatal and family care and so um are born on november 12th initiative that we do
Every year with our local hospital system is very very key because you know the first babies that are born on november 12th our founding day we provide those families um you know supplies in terms of diapers and formula and et cetera and nice little baskets and that you know goes to families who
You know qualify for medicaid or some of the aid programs at the hospitals to really kind of help um give them some tools to start that journey and so you know that’s something near and dear to me because that’s an initiative that i helped start in our chapter and we have
Since continued to do that since i’ve been a part of the local chapter here so you know just some of our key programs that we tend to do on an annual basis but those are the three that you know because i’ll be here talking all night but i want to give up
All right marissa tell us about zeta phi beta’s community service initiative absolutely so i i um i chuckle at we’d be here all night talking about i think each one of us everything that our organizations do and represent and uh prioritize right um so um i’ll try and truncate it a little bit
Um so for zeta we um in 2008 um adopted a uh sort of holistic national uh service program called z-hope um zeta’s helping other people excel um and that was in response to uh wanting to um address the issues um that are prevalent in the black community in a lot of
Different areas um and so just quick overview we have an elder care initiative we have uh a stork’s nest um initiative and i will talk about uh march of dimes here in a second um we have a zeta premature prematurity awareness program uh adopt a school program um uh world abuse world elder
Abuse awareness day we recognize international women of color we have initiatives around that and again breast cancer awareness as well so we have taken these different areas that uh are to address uh men women children um and especially uh in certain uh demographics where uh they need they
Need more support um and so we have done that on on an international level but um i do want to lift up because this is very close and personal to my heart and also uh with our chapter that uh we have partnered uh zeta phi beta sorority incorporated as partnered with uh march
Of dimes for 50 plus years now this has always been one of our main initiatives and community service programs and our local chapter has always been very very um active uh with the local march of dimes um until the pandemic when the pandemic happened everything just kind of got wonky
You know didn’t have a we now at this point in 2022 we no longer have like a local march of dimes we used to have a board and everything and we’d have a local walk here um but that has not stopped us and our work because i
Actually had a premature baby in 2019 and so all of this work that zeta has done and this money that we have raised over time uh to support uh march of dimes in their efforts for research um uh to promote um awareness about premature birth uh premature birth defects um infant mortality especially
Now in the past several years as it pertains to uh women of color um and how our outcomes are much different um than other demographics um it has hit home for me in a really real way like i uh had my had my baby um four weeks
Early and she was in the nicu and um the march of dimes the local march of dimes at that time had a nicu dinner uh for all of the families that have babies there and i was so out of it i didn’t even realize that’s when the event was and
When you talk about um zeta and all the work that we’ve done and then your personal life kind of gliding at the same time because i ended up going to the dinner as a as a family of a baby that was in the nicu and it was such a
Special special time uh because of the fact that um we have been doing the work already so when you talk about the initiatives for all of us at the organizations of our organizations that we do these really do impact people um on a personal level it’s not just for
Show um for any of us right it’s really really impacting people in a real way thank you so much uh cheryl we would love to hear about some of your uh community service initiatives so um for alpha kappa alpha we do have a national or international platform right now our platform is
Exemplifying excellence through timeless service so we usually have these programs that last for four years and when we get a new administration it will change so currently we have five targets where our first target is uh hbcu for life and with this target uh we were tasked
With raising a million dollars in one day which we have successfully done all four years with this last year we’ve raised two thousand dollars in one day and the money is donated to hbcus we do have proud graduates of hbcus currently in um in the side capital make a chapter
Our second target is um women’s heart health and wellness where we mainly focus on american red cross and we that’s the day where pink goes red and we you know celebrate women and heart health our target three is building our economic legacy and this one’s very
Special because we look at the 365 black dollars so we try to support black businesses we keep track of any time we are supporting a black business or if we are supporting a chapter member or a member of alpha kappa alpha and their black business we keep track of information like that um
Because that is one of the initiatives for our target three then our target for is the arts where we’re saluting the harlem renaissance and then our target five is global impact and this will probably be my favorite target because this target allows us to make little dresses and shirts for um
Children in africa out of pillowcases so some of our members get very creative um when you have to make a shirt out of a pillowcase you like how can it like be but they’re really cute and then you know we do souls for souls uh so we donate shoes as well and then
Eyeglasses as far as our chapter we probably donated maybe about a hundred dresses and shirts maybe about the same as shoes we are very heavily in scholarships we’ve given away about 28 000 in scholarships to graduating seniors that are going to continue their education in college in the fall
And um so we do a lot of our international platform we try to see what we can do within our communities covet has you know hindered us a little bit not being able to go out into the communities but there are times we can make a financial donation or um
We can donate things to shelters women’s shelters and things like that so we we plan now that the the covert restrictions have lifted a little bit we’re excited to get back out there in the community so they can see our faces because it’s not the same you know
Writing a check you want to be able to interact with the people and you know see the smiles on their face and how excited they are you know that we’re out there trying to help the community yes i love hearing the creativity you know of the programs and the initiatives
That you all are putting on so that is very you know heartwarming to hear about the things that are going on but miss lane i didn’t forget about you we would love you to tell us about the community initiative as my sister saw said uh we could talk all day
So many things um i invite everyone to uh go to our facebook page if they want to see some of the programming coming up or some of the previous programming i guess the joy of covet if there’s a bright light in anything is that you know a lot of us
Have done zoom and facebook live now so those live forever and and a lot of the great initiatives march of dimes and the different initiatives we’re doing you can still go back and get that great information so that that’s really nice um the uh local programming that we do uh is also
Based on a national uh platform um we call it our five point programmatic thrust and so i’ll just go through each thrust and let you know kind of the highlights that we’re working on here locally under those thrusts the first one is economic development we have um initiated a minority-owned business listing here
And we did that back in 2016. uh we were excited to be so close it’s gonna you know i keep saying it’s coming but literally it is really coming a digital version of that directory for our community and i think um a lot of the uh
You know companies here who want to do business with black businesses don’t know where to turn don’t know where to look um our directory provides that answer for them and just had a really great response so hey anybody who owns a business out there we are certainly wanting to
Support our black businesses as our fellow sororities have said please let us know because we want to make sure you’re in that listing we also did a midwest day of service that focused on our black businesses so we traveled all the way all around the community uh did
Facebook lives from all those locations and uh it really lifted their spirits especially coming out of covet and those businesses offered some new discounts and uh they have new customers because of our efforts and and that’s really what it was all about we have a couple of events coming up as
Well about estate planning so look for that on our facebook page and also how to avoid frauds and scams uh which is helping a lot especially in the cyber attacks in the cyber world so we’re really trying to give people information uh to stay safe in this digital age
Under educational development our next one um we’ve had a scholarship for um delta since our founding practically in the mid-80s we started we give out anywhere from 500 to 3 000 a year since then several different awardees that’s administered through the battle creek community foundation and we’re really proud of that program
And then we have a couple of mentoring programs delta gyms and delta academy uh we also have international awareness and involvement and i’m just really digging the cute outfits i’m sorry this president was talking about um we really focus on our world aids day and we also have um several different
Initiatives in different countries um in africa and i think i hear thunder just now yes so what so we support them financially and uh certainly um are excited about those opportunities as well under physical and mental health we’ve heard it the theme as well a lot of anxieties uh trauma
Over time uh not only for um you know the murder of george floyd and but you know how we have to educate today uh the remote learning and what what that did and um these uh shootings in our community all of that and so we brought in a couple of individuals that really
Could speak to that centering our mind meditation breath work and those live on our web our facebook page too and i really highly suggest you go look at them because they’re very relaxing i just go back and and do my breath work amazing and then political awareness and
Involvement man we have been busy um one of the things i’ll just lift this one up in in that we’re really trying to do we had get on board one two and three um and we really want to try and encourage and people of color but specifically black
People to go uh and get familiar with how to not only serve on local city county and state boards committees and commissions but to run for office and so um we have several elected officials within our sorority chapter um we are a chapter of about 40 women
With all different skills but uh five of us are elected officials and we’re really proud of that and we and we need more we don’t see many of us and so i really appreciate the day job that my sore sister has in trying to get um more uh women and more african-americans
Elected to office that’s really important i do want to say uh thank you delta sigma theta i am one of the awardees of the scholarship 1998. thank you so much you have done well thank you so much so thank you all for your wonderful community initiatives it benefited me
And it has benefited so many people in our communities so that is greatly appreciated now we are i feel like we have to do a part two because we are not going to be able to get through all of the content tonight so i am going to turn it over to jade i
Know i have one more question but really i think we need to do a part two so we can get all this information out there well i’m going to see which one i want so much come on it’s a good problem to have yes
So i want to ask so you don’t really see many um youth chapters or youth involved in sororities so my question is um how did youth chapters come about and why are they so important i’m going to start with marissa around that way i don’t even know in what order we’re showing up
Um you know one of the things that is really special to me um about all of our black greek organizations um is the the focus on um not stopping at where we are now and and looking behind us and and bringing in the next generation uh behind us and so
Um zeta has uh three different um youth organizations and they’re um segmented based on age right um and the importance of these organizations um i think is obvious you know if we’re if we’re saying that we want to promote scholarship we want to promote um activism
We want to be examples right um to uh for us on this call young women in the community um that looked like us uh to be able to see that they can indeed follow in our footsteps you know the youth organizations are are sort of um
It’s mentorship and it’s it’s a it’s a training ground right um you know i i was raised in this america and um i did i was not um exposed to greek organizations growing up i personally was not and i look back on that time and some of the challenges
That i had uh seeking uh mentorship and and wanting to see uh women that look like me doing what i wanted to do i wanted that so badly um and so i i understand on a visceral level the importance of um all of our organizations having some aspect of youth
Youth organizations within our organizations okay yeah so i’m also in that same realm where i didn’t really hear much of anything about greek life growing up aside from my mom wanting to attend one but that was about it so and i didn’t know that youth chapters were a thing until this year
So i’m going to move around to cake to kiana yes um so we also have youth affiliates um broken out by age as well so we have our aurora club uh for young ladies 12 to 17 and then our rosebuds those are our younger girls um around seven to about eleven
And you know like my sister greek said it’s about you know youth development character development leadership development mentorship and really you know preparing them for opportunities to to lead um you know in at the university level and then preparing them essentially for memberships if they you
Know choose to seek it at the university level and then at the university level right we’re training them for membership at the graduate and alumni alumni level so really you know to that point it is a lifespan uh you are a member until you die and we want to make sure that you
Are prepared at each level of membership and so i think what is you know my favorite thing to see um with our aurora club in particular um you know those are young ladies who are kind of at that um what they call the awkward stage of development you’re talking about like a
Lot of tweens and middle school kids you know high schoolers and such and so they’re really trying to find their own way so it’s very important um for our chapter and for us to really pour into those young ladies um and again provide them opportunities in real time to lead and
Serve so one of the initiatives of aurora club is helping to plan the girls of color summit at grand valley state university and so you know that is a very real and terrible opportunity for those young ladies to you know reach out to community leaders help with the the grant
Application process um the management of those dollars and then you know essentially the utilization and implementation of those programs um for you know youth that look like them that um you know have similar issues and stories and so it’s it’s very encouraging to see that next generation of leadership being cultivated and grown
In that way and then seeing them you know matriculate into universities and become sores and continue on and so i feel like that is important to note for all of us is that you know while we all wear different colors we’re really you know all about uplifting and advancing
Our community and particularly our young ladies and growing that capacity in them thank you lynn did you have anything yeah she she hit on a lot of it for sure both of them did i appreciate that uh i think just to kind of summarize a
Little bit of that is you know our young our young people one need to know that they are enough that their dreams and their aspirations are possible and that there are people that look like them who are successful so that they can see throughout our organizations we have
Doctors we have lawyers we have educators we have engineers we have business owners we have astronauts we have vice presidents of the united states you can do it too and so i think with everything else everybody’s saying i think it’s really nice that um there’s examples of leadership um that
They can gravitate to and see and then and they’re doing it early on as well i do have to say we don’t have necessarily youth chapters but we do have youth programs and i mentioned you know the educational youth programs before their delta gyms uh which is our age 14 to 18
And our delta academy which starts out before that like more middle school 11 to 14. and um they have a curriculum and leadership and leadership programming that is similar to a lot of the ones you’ve heard described here okay cheryl do you have anything to add
Um the only thing that that i would add is for alpha kappa alpha usually within our program initiatives we usually focus on a set demographic of students currently right now we’re looking we’re working with high school students typically juniors and seniors with filling out scholarship applications applying to college things like that
Previous years we’ve had emerging young leaders where we work the sixth and seventh and sixth seventh and eighth grade girls and i think it’s important to have these type of um youth programs to help students that one maybe might not have this type of information at home
Even if they do it can help strengthen some things that um maybe they want to know more about maybe they you know feel more comfortable talking to somebody else other than at home you learn things like etiquette if it’s a um a male organization they learn how to tie a tie
You know things like that as far as alpha kappa alpha there are chapters that still have aka teens um although not all chapters have those i actually wasn’t aka teen in high school so but usually with every um administration we we tend to focus on a different set of students
Okay and now my last question is kind of s segwaying off of everything that you mentioned or answered um why should members or why should people want to join your organizations um what advice do you have for people looking to or women looking to join your organizations
And i will post that at the bottom too um i guess since we’re low on time anyone can chime in and answer if you have a ready-made answer so i’ll speak to that so what i would say is that it’s a personal choice you know you can say
Well one organization is better than the other you can get on the university and have every intention to join one organization and you can change your mind after you meet the people um at that university so you know to say oh we’re better than another one it’s you know
Hard to say because we all have the principles of sisterhood scholarship and service at the end of the day you know it comes down to researching the organization their initiatives what they stand for and just where you fit in um you know i’m with all my stitch
Degrees we all think that we are just fabulous because we are so you know it’s just about your personal preference and what’s in your heart um you know you you don’t want to just do something because everyone else is doing what what do you feel where you
Belong best in what organization and you have to just do what’s best for you and i will say for my experience in particular um you know there was somebody who i looked up to in high school that came back and she had just crossed sigma gamma rho
And she just wore it so well that it made me want to go research because where i came from all we saw were deltas and akas and so you know when i got to college it was something that you know i researched and i was seeking for myself and now in this space
I’m trying to just be the sigma light for other people who don’t often see it right so i am in our space um the first you know out queer um bacillus in our region and so for that and for me you know what what that means in a centennial year
Is is very significant um to my communities that i belong to as well as how visible i choose to make myself and then the impact i know that has for other young people who see me in those spaces and say oh there is a place for me in the divine
Line there is a place for me maybe in sigma and so you know we all you know in our spaces are you know walking our walk and being impactful we never know who’s looking at us i mean you know it’s just very important that i’m representing my organization the way
My founders would be proud of and i carry that with me every time i put on the shield and crest and so i know that’s not your question but that’s my answer to everybody who you know wants to join an organization it’s more than just strolling and
Stepping and going to parties is more than just you know doing the call and wearing the t-shirts right you’re gonna roll up your sleeves and you’re gonna do the work and if you’re about to work then and it’s in your heart then you do what you need to do to to
Make it happen for yourself and you took the words right out of my mouth and that was the answer yeah yeah i mean for me you know and i know for all of us as already been stated on this call you know there there’s a higher purpose right um
If you want to if you’re seeking impact if you’re seeking community um for us also if you’re seeking sisterhood right um i i have the pleasure of being the membership chair um for my chapter and i have i’m in my third going in my third year now and um
It is such a pleasure to sit down and talk to women and get to know them and their wants and their needs and their desires and their dreams and their aspirations and knowing that um in any in my opinion any black greek sorority that they choose
Um they’re they’re going to be in good hands right because that’s why we exist that’s why we exist so that for me um is is what gives that’s my driving motivation for continuing the work that i do and especially in the capacity that i do in my chapter thank you
Um well what is left to be said y’all get me back cause i’m the oldest on this group yeah i have a cute story to tell um just how wonderful it is whichever one you select they’re all powerful and are doing amazing things in their community across the world
And i agree with that but y’all know i had just become a member back on april 9th 1983 so i’m coming up on 39 years on april 9th and you know i was traveling to uh new york and i uh was in the theater district and there
Was a bus that was unloading folks were coming out to go to a play and um y’all know after y’all become a member of the first year you are like a walking billboard right i’ve got it head to toe front to back yes t i’m i’m like flashing where wherever i’m going
And um a soror comes off the bus and says hello sir as i’m just walking by this bus and that just stood out to me because i’m like we’re everywhere yeah and that it’s a sense of comfort you’re in this you know different city it’s new you’re looking around but you know
That you know this the sisterhood is strong and everywhere and it’s just a comforting feeling and um i just wanted to share that because i’m i’m an only uh i’m the baby i’m the only girl in my family um but knowing that i have over 350 000 sisters is quite comforting
And amazing and so if you want that experience um you know do the research identify which of our organizations fits you best and um certainly have that service because you know all of us talked about it it’s definitely something you need to have in spades so make sure that you’re doing
That and just follow your heart for sure well thank you like all these responses thank you so much and thank you everyone out there who tuned in we want to do a round of applause to our panelists thank you and we hope to invite all of you again for
Possibly your round two that would be fun all right we would be our pleasure yes definitely thank you i’m gonna end our broadcast now
source
