How Joining My Chapter Empowered Me To Do Both

When I first got to college and was looking for ways to get involved on campus, one of my biggest questions was:

How is joining a sorority different from joining any other campus organization or club?

Other campus organizations can have groups nationwide similar to Greek organizations, some may pertain more to my career path, and some may also have the philanthropic efforts that a sorority would bring. 

So what makes sorority so much different?  We’ll come back to that question later, but first let me share with you a part of my sorority journey.

When I first got to college, I immediately jumped onto my school’s club website and forced myself to sign up for at least four organizations that I may want to join within the first few weeks of school. I was ready to make those lifelong friends that everyone says you find in college, and as someone who was on the fence about joining a sorority I was sure I’d find those relationships in other campus organizations and clubs.

After my freshman year, I didn’t end up sticking in any of the clubs I had joined. None of them really felt like my community of people. So at the beginning of my sophomore year, I thought going back to a dance organization would be the place that brought me those lifelong friendships and the community I was looking for. I had been dancing since I was 8, and as a kid the relationships I had with my dance team were some of the best I had, so I thought that may be the community I was looking for in college

Joining my dance team was such an amazing decision; I loved the people I was around and I loved getting to dance with them every week. But at the end of the day, something still didn’t feel right. 

I still felt like I was missing deep friendships and relationships I had now spent two years searching for.

I joined a sorority that was reestablishing its chapter on my campus in the spring of 2024, and even in a totally new chapter I felt so connected and so welcomed by the women within my class. We all had wildly different interests, majors, and career plans, but we bonded over the shared values and lifelong friendships we’d been looking for in college. 

The women in my chapter and within our panhellenic community have become some of my best friends and people I know I’ll have lifelong bonds with. I couldn’t be more grateful for them and the ways they’ve welcomed me into their lives.

After what I’ve experienced in my time in college, here’s why a sorority is different from a club: 

1. Community of people with shared values

These women understand and value the same things I do, which makes it so easy to have engaging conversations and feel so understood by other people.

2. Lifelong friendships & commitment to something bigger than yourself

Not only have I made friendships that will last a lifetime, but I’ve committed to a cause that’s bigger than myself which connects me with hundreds of thousands of women across the country who are committed to the same organization.

3. Building block for other forms of campus involvement

Being a part of a sorority has empowered me to not only take leadership roles in my chapter, but even within those other organizations and clubs I’m involved in on campus. I now serve on my school’s panhellenic executive council, on the executive board of my dance team, and as a student assistant for the university’s communications department. I wouldn’t have had the leadership training or confidence to take on those roles without my involvement in my chapter.