One because we have a lot going on in the country right now a lot of the members of the 20 did not had their graduation so that was one disappointment and I know they’re looking forward to going to college and all of the experiences that go with that
And a lot of them are looking forward to one day joining a Greek letter organization particularly a black Greek letter organizations so again I am so happy to have with us today members of the divine nine so we will start with first I just need a thumbs-up from
Everyone that it’s okay to report this session thank you because it is busy Facebook live but it is being recorded to be uploaded to Instagram and YouTube thanks for that so we will begin with everyone introducing themselves telling us what college and university you attended thanks so much for wearing your letters
That it was a last minute requests on my part um and then show us your organization hand starting when my top left so Lauren will start with you hello everybody my name is Warren Conway I’m a member of Omega saw Confraternity incorporated I went to Murray State University in
Murray Kentucky currently I was an engineering major there and currently I’m in law school at Southern University Law Center and Jordan Jordan Sampson hi everyone I am still under guard so I’m going into my senior year at Miami University in Oxford Ohio I am a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority
Incorporated and I was initiated into the land a new chapter in spring 2018 hi my name is Darren Davis I’m a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity incorporated I you know Todd chapter at the Louisiana State University thank you and now Melkor de spring 2009 initiative catalyst a fraternity incorporated the
Pi epsilon chapter at Tulane University in the world of the levy M thank you and Jordan Bates good afternoon I’m a member of the Phi Alpha fraternity incorporated also a graduate of Xavier University Louisiana College of Pharmacy as a 20-19 and I was initiated at the Beta Tau
Chapter thank you and I know I’m gonna get this around Sunil shaneoh senior thank you my name is Janelle Reed member of Alpha fraternity incorporated across the new side chapter that’s the Louisiana State University fall 13 Pablo Thank You Shannon it’s good to see everyone especially
Sora Jordan how are you my name is Shannon Bertha I am a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated also to Louisiana State University for undergrad and I was initiated in Beta Kappa chapter I attended Hampton University where I received my master’s degree in speech language pathologists it’s speech language pathology excuse me
And so I currently reside in Woodbridge Virginia thank you thanks so much for being here and we’ll have a couple of other people who are getting off from work that will join us a little bit later in the call but we’re going to jump right into the questions so I think
One you know a student may have a particular affinity for your particular great letter organization because they have family members that have attended or they have seen different things on YouTube or I’ve just heard about it and anybody can jump in why would a student want to join one of your organization
I guess I can go first so as a as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha I was say that a lot of things speaking and then some of these many of these great traits they rub they rub across all members of the divine nine let’s start there we said we
Can hold ourselves in high regard and we try to lead by example as well as a influence on campus and just in life in general as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha withdraw withdrew meets a alpha was the fact that it was a lot of like-minded individuals as myself scholarly social
And giving back to the community those were the things just individually at my campus that that stood out to me about the new side chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha um but first and foremost um giving back to the community I feel like there were a lot of different outreach
Opportunities from LSU with new side and that’s the thing that really stood out to me I’ll go next the the most important thing about Omega sine Phi fraternity incorporated is that once you join you again you gain a new family of brothers and you know before as of right
Now all of my friends except for you know the people I grew up with in the elementary school they’re all brothers there are members of Omega South Phi fraternity and you know that bond and that Brotherhood that we have built throughout this time you know it’s irreplaceable and these are gonna be the
People that you know I cross with and you know they have befriended me throughout my fraternity they’re gonna be my friends for life I’m sure they’re gonna be my group my wedding they’re going to be there on my one at my funeral when I die you know so it’s just
The friendships that I built they have made Omega sapphire worth it more than anything else for me okay yes I’ll go ailing and chime in I’ll say in true to attribute to what was I mentioned earlier about the the campus involvement and service as well as the the social aspect I originally
Personally I was one of those type of people I had no remote interest in becoming Greek when I first entered into college and when I first entered an undergrad I was originally a Florida in University in Tallahassee and again I had no remote interest in it and I was
At the time of Hurricane Katrina they found out that I was in need of of New Orleans and these guys these particular group of guys then they came to me and they they found out who I was and they actually you know their first interest was how was my family how are your
Higher your belongings and things of that sort are you aware of where your family is meeting staining of Jimmy toiletries that and you know from that thing that that point moving forward their interest in me wasn’t anything Greek related it was it was just purely out of out of
Interest of me as a human being and I took took light of that and when I transferred back home to New Orleans I went to Tulane I was particularly sold on chapel and it just happened organic I’ll share my experience it’s a lot of people you know they say they talk about
When they got to campus and what they saw in the organization’s they saw but for some people it starts at a younger age so for example in elementary and throughout middle school I was not very strong in math that was like the one subject that you know you put a math
Problem in front of me you can forget about it but I had a tutor who was an aka and you know she really helped me she sat down with me you know went through the problems together she also attended my church so it just made that connection so much you know more special
We also have a very close family for him who I’ve known since I was very young who’s also a source so sometimes it starts when you don’t even realize it like when you’re younger and you make those certain connections and then that’s when I figured I was like
This is you know I see them helping me and that’s the organization that’s the type of service that I want to do in my life so that was my experience yeah I can also add to this as well I really agree with me on that said in the
Beginning that a lot of things that are for charities and sororities offer are very similar across the board and I would also in addition to the cistern and Brotherhood aspect there’s amazing networking opportunities within our organizations one of the that so the one I that I’ve graduated from our chapter
Is common ground of needing someone that’s in the same organization as view professional development with attending the conference’s that we attend regularly and a lot of good leadership opportunities if you want to be leader on campus or in life in general you’re in a lot of good positions to influence
Other people which is really important I know for my chapter we do weekly service and we tutor kids at a community center and not just a really good kind of house or a Shannon was saying like so having someone in your life at an earlier age
She was a role model that she can look up to that’s another thing that we do and I would also say that our organizations offer a platform that she didn’t necessarily have before and what I mean by this is a my home church I used to do service call us so infer
Haiti and it was we made reusable pads baby diapers and blankets to be sent to women and Haiti needs that and I was able to take that and make an event in my school and it was on such a bigger platform and so I think those are just
The main things in addition to the sisterhood and Brotherhood that all of our organizations can offer obviously thank you and Jordan actually brought up some points that leads me to my next question so thank you for that what are some of the activities of community service events that your particular
Chapters have taken part in yeah I think for my chapter specifically at LSU a lot of the guys in our chapter are very involved with social justice even right now with the heart of everything that’s going on you’ll see some of the members of my chapter kind
Of leading and spearheading a lot of some of the moves that are happening so I like black out LSU and some of the other local grassroots organization said of being founded through the OSHA community in Baton Rouge we also have the March of Dimes that’s one of our national philanthropies where we donate
Money for premature babies and that’s something that’s personal for me as that I was born three months early so going back to the question of what was drawing me to Sigma a lot of those things start even before I was able to walk with me benefiting from some of their their
National philanthropies some of the things that they’re involved in as far as service wise is sleep out for the homeless who raised dual canned food drive and literally sleep outsides just to kind of empathize with people who are going through and experienced homelessness in the Baton Rouge
Community but also want to be productive and having a canned food drive so we can provide for some of those temporal needs as well I kept my chapter Isilon chapter at Tulane primarily what we’re really big on is our addition so we do a registration I guess you can call it a
Dawn storm make sure everybody’s registered the voting actually go around in various neighborhoods and Alcon doors and then also as of late we’ve done since we’ve done that twice to my recent recollection we’ve also donated to several music programs around the city several high school music programs of course
Everybody was more than just kind of like one of those music capitals so you know we adopt certain kids with the high GPA and we’ll if they’re enrolled in a music program of course then we’ll donate to them whatever their respective instrument is just giving them a
Refresher on stuff that they need in regard to like materials towards that instrument or even if they need any new musical method books things actually we’ve actually adopted an entire band back in 2010 one of the initiatives oh no you can go anything okay all right so it’s been a minister’s
Undergrad but just the events that took place within the ADA Kappa chapter on LSU’s campus during my time being in the chapter we had the in our sorority had a alliance with National Alliance on Mental Illness which is Nami so what we hosted was an event called time loose
Ends which was centered around you know mental health and mental health awareness so we had a speaker come in and she talked to us about you know how to maintain your mental wellness activities that you can do like you know how to ease anxiety and things like that
And then afterwards you know we did like making tie-dye t-shirts so things like that even we have something called feast goes red for you know the American Heart Association where we bring awareness about heart disease and we know that that disease is very prominent especially in black women so we have
Someone come in teach us how to do CPR on you know the dummies on the floor but these are the things that we you know who carry over into real life so those are some of the events that we host it on campus during my time within the chapter
No it’s all good some of them some of the initiatives that the loose ball Center I’ll file for kind of spearheaded was we had this thing called PI and alpha so essentially what it does is just like Mel mentioned earlier it was centered around uh voters registration one of our
National programs as if all these people are hopeless people so we would do is we will stand in the in the in free speech alley at LSU and then we would a for every person who signed up and registered to vote they would be able to
Pie us so there were a lot of people who who wanted to give a shout out on us another thing that’s really important for us is one of our national programs is go to high school go to college so what that is is that’s geared towards mentorship of high school students so
Specifically one of my one of my line brothers the Queen Glynn started organization called click for help which is actually a organization that not only tutors some high school students in some areas of concern but as well does things like canned food drives and famous for a
Toy drive for you know some of the underprivileged kids in need because what people don’t know is LSU is smack dab in the middle of the ghettos of Baton Rouge so we always want to try to find ways to get there less fortunate at Murray State
What we did was Murray State is a is a PWR predominately white institution and we there is there’s not a lot of spaces for black people to enjoy the blackness of our of being us so what the Alpha Beta Chapter did we decided to create to have a banquet the black woman’s
Appreciation dinner and what we did was we took that as an opportunity to honor all of the black women on campus so you know we served them dinner they came into the banquet hall we served them dinner we gave them flowers and we wanted to really make them feel
Comfortable in safe in a space where in his face in a small town where there was no spaces for them to feel comfortable or for any other people of color to feel comfortable Darren brought up something and this wasn’t one of the questions but I’m really interested to know cuz of course
We I can’t let this moment go by this time that we’re living in so I’m really interested to know what your organization’s are doing in response to the civil unrest that we’re currently facing well I’m much older now I’m far removed from my undergraduate days but on the
Graduate level we are actually we’re actually starting at the grass root of course we’ve already done an hour protesting and our demonstration now we’re going for the grass roots and we’re actually partnering our ourselves as well as one of the graduate chapters of a bigger size by the former high
School that I graduated from a lot of their alumni called culturally grew up to go on into either Kappa or Omega because we’re an all-male african-american school here in the city so what we’re going to do is we’re actually going to set up mentorship programs Kappa lead which is our junior
Artillery group Kappa leave is already dominant on on that particular campus at that high school but now we’re going to do a lot more than just think you know just don’t know all the little and like I said with the assistance of will make us our gradual chapter I forget the
Exact chapter name excuse me but um but yeah we’re actually going to break the mold of the thought process of the junction h-hi and we’re going to broaden their horizons and try to try to elevate their thinking beyond their peers because really and truly at that age
Level that’s where the distrust for the police Woodson and government officials start thank you anyone else yeah a big part about leadership for our chapter is influence seeking to use positions that they’ve earned been elected to to influence the culture in the current state of the ocean community so some in
Particular that brothers Cameron Cryer and Devin Woodson have been working on right now LSU is the renaming of some of the buildings of LSU one of our one of the ones in particular is our library was named after a former president of our university who had some very interesting thoughts about integration
And was not afforded so those two guys have been leading being with like the Black Caucus the Black Student Union black metal initiative and collaborating across all these different connections than black organizations that LSU to spearhead the changing of these names and that’s really important cuz representation
Matters we want to know that our university is for us because we are bringing so much that unity and we won’t don’t want to feel as though hey you guys are analyzing or putting these people who oppressed us on a pedestal and other things such as really active
On social media I think that’s a huge thing social media gives you a big platform to reach different people who you may not come into physical contact with so they’re leading or charge and being very active on our social media and tagging different organizations and making sure that they’re informing
People through a lot of the posts as well thank you thank you so you all have mentioned really some amazing things so tell us what would a undergrad student do to become a member of one of your organizations anyone can jump in I mean I’m sure it’s more than like
Finding somebody on the yard and saying I want to be a part of your organization what are some yeah I’ll answer that okay so the main thing that was that was preached to me is that um alpha is not for everybody you know and like I said many of these concept concepts are
Synonymous with with every single chapter so the main question that I was asked amongst um amongst me trying to be coming out for the main question I always stuck with me is what what do you bring because alpha can be beneficial for a multitude of people but what are
You gonna add to the chapter what do you bring do you have leadership on campus do you have are you silastic lis influential do you um you have great community community service skills do what do you bring to the chapter that we don’t already have so with me my my gift
Is is being able to perform musically so that was something that that I could do to bring something different to the chapter as well as me being the vice president of LSU in double-a-c-p and then me being involved in Tiger TV sports it’s just it was something that’s different because everybody everybody
Wants brotherhood or sisterhood everybody has good grades what is that unique thing that you’re going to add to kind of boost the unique brother thank you to speak on that oh I’m sorry go ahead yeah I was gonna say you know for for as far as I’m concerned
In my personal opinion the best way to show that you’re interested in my organization is to work you know like when we have us we there’s enough people in every organization who or who come in and they don’t put in the work if you show the or in your organization instead
Organization Jeff when you decided on that you are willing to work by showing up when we have community services you know showing up when we do things for the elderly or the canned food drive or you know even being a helping hand whenever we need it you know don’t tell
Me you’re interested show me you’re interested and that’s how you show your interest to you know people to people within my organization dr. B I think this is a question we get asked a lot about like what can a person do if they want to be in your organization but and
I know this must sound like a broken record when I say this but even before you know you’re talking about showing interest in a specific organization you have got to just do your research that’s a broken record that I’m talking about everybody’s going to say do your research but you know seriously it’s
More than what you see on social media has like you know it influences everything they say so it’s more than what you see on social media is more than what your friends told you about like when they went to school and how it was you know you definitely have to get
To know the organization that you’re interested in and you know just because somebody maybe told you that it might be a good fit or you feel like that might be a good fit you know you need to understand what these organizations you know stand for what they are what
They’re doing in the community how does that align with you know your values and what you want to represent so I think that’s another step before even you know saying that this is a specific organization I want to be a part of or this is the chapter that I would like to
Join you know what are the steps that you’re taking beforehand so that you know once you get to that point thank you I agree with all those things definitely I’m sorry well I agree with all those things definitely was showing interest making sure that you expressed your own personal qualities and then
Also exert but also before you even step out to that I just say if you look into even join an organization you need grades as a priority and really that’s because a lot of people think that we don’t have standards or requirements or it’s almost like
Club where we don’t have things that we need of you before you even join either a sorority or fraternity but definitely you need to have grades before anything is that X is a lot of candidates X is a lot of people out considering that in might be demonstrating your interests or
They might have all the research and they’ve had family members that join and they express an interest but if they don’t read the minimum requirements I still don’t keep them out I was just going to add definitely do your research at all time and I would say have your
Priorities straight and what I mean by that is don’t come in just because you want to wear pink and green and stroll like that you have to have your priorities straight we do so much more than that so much more than what someone mentioned for so much one thing is that
Social media is so much more than you see you know walking around on campus we do so much more than that and it’s a lifelong commitment so you have to make sure that you have your priorities straight you did your research and you align with the guides of not only the
Organization but I would say tubes I’ve actually talked to a lot of my younger family members who are going to college and they all want to be a case cuz I’m Nek which great but I always tell them like you need to wait till you get to school and see that chapter because
Every chapter is different when my chapter does might not be which you know another chapter does so you have to make sure that you align flags with the organization as a whole but also that you’ve been in mesh with that chapter so yes thank you and to
That point wood is like a time requirement you know like on average bad once someone commits and is accepted to being a member crosses like what other kind what time commitments are expected because y’all you know they are in college and also have to concentrate on studying to graduate so what are time
Requirements like as far as I mean I just just overall commitment it is the lifetime commit it doesn’t just grow by just your undergraduate years or even a year or two after it is a lifelong commitment I myself I’m a person who has many irons in the fire I’m an
Entrepreneur over here I still haven’t severed a job I’m active with my undergraduate I’m also most an assistant band director as well so I have all of these different things going on at one time but doing a doing Kappa my undergraduate years actually prepared me for that because of course I was a
Full-time student I’m a full time employee working in retail and I also have this eternity that’s requirement requiring a little bit of my time I have to show up if we decide to do church service on Sunday and I’m if we’re not imparted all night
We also have to roll up our sleeves and pitch in and actually assist these elderly worth meeting we need the elderly for Christmas and things that sort so it requires a lot of time if not if you don’t actually have the man-hours to physically put in for
Every single thing give as much of your time as you’re physically able to I can add to this as well I would say as an undergrad it’s definitely like the second major or a job obviously in terms of time commitment I go to a PDS oh my
Chapter is rather small so we have a lot of work kind of spread between a smaller chapter and to someone who’s not a part of our organizations I would say to think about an event that she might go to that is hosted by one of our organizations and that event might be
From 7:00 to 9:00 and think about being in the net organization well we were there an hour early to set up and an hour later to clean up and then the past month to plan that event so it’s a lot more behind-the-scenes work that I think
A lot of people don’t notice or take into consideration because people always see the final product but it’s definitely like a double main another job obviously academics comes first for me but a case closed second yeah and I think it’s important to point out that most of our organizations
Function as a business we are incorporated for a reason so a lot of that Sigma business is very important chapter meetings are of the utmost importance sometimes it may be an hour which is a pretty cool getting get out there just such the basis kind of updating each other other days that
Chimay have lasted about four or five hours it really depends on a season in which we’re in fall semester is always super busy for our chapter with the homecoming with step shows with different events that we’re doing as far as recruitment wise with service projects we’re trying to make sure that
We’re also kind of setting the tone academically for that semester so study halls may be a little more intense in the fall just to make sure that none of our guys are falling off or getting distracted by all the things that all the extra curricular things that are
Happening but we still won’t have a maintainer presence on campus as well so a lot of that looks different based off of would committee you may be on your time you look a little different per semester but I would agree with with Jordan in a sense of hey this is kinda
Like a second major but we do encourage our guys because it can be overwhelming a lot of things what’s important or what’s helpful is when you incorporate Sigma into everything else that you’re already doing so if you know you are a part of another organization how can you collaborate with that organization and
Sigma if you know a big thing about your time is I really want to get ahead academically how can I make or push that through my chapter so a lot of the men seeks to kind of cross those kind of cross pollinate the things that they’re already doing with Sigma so they’re
Still handled in Sigma business and everything else that is coming along with that to kind of piggyback on with Jordan and Erin see you know everything both for themselves was absolutely true but the thing that I will harp on about the time commitment is you get out of
The Frant what you put into it you know like if you don’t ever donate any of your time you’re just not going to get you’re not gonna reap the benefits you’re not gonna read the rewards that other people have written put in those hours in that time
And you know coming from a small chapter because when I came into the chapter there was only three members in the chapter no we had that their work below was very high you know we had to put in hours upon hours upon hours to get the finished product and for that finish
Product to look like a production and you had to be resourceful because you know if you only have three people running the show you know you got to find a hand some kind of way you know but I would say you know as far as a
Number of hours per week you know you can expect anywhere from 10 to 20 maybe like but this if you’re going to be truly active and you’re gonna put the time in to make sure things are going right and things look the way that they need to look and you’re conducting
Yourself your chapter as it needs to be conducted just echoing with Warren and Mail mentions as far as like what you get out of it is what you put into it but also like it looks different it this is a lifetime commitment so what you were doing an undergrad you’re not going
To be doing you know 25 50 years down the line so yeah you know what the programs that you doing undergrad are great but we encourage lifetime commitment because your life you know life changes especially like in a situation or in a climate that we’re in
Now so you want to stay connected to your organization even what I say connected to your you know to the other members that are in your organization within the divine nine and those who are in other councils as well because you know right now we’re talking about social justice who knows what we’re
Going to be talking about in the next few months so that lifetime commitment piece I think is very important so what you put in it undergrad is what you’re going to get out of undergrad but then also once you make that commitment year after year after year it’s the same type
Of principle and situation I think thank you and just one more question and then ask you for any final thoughts but is there any financial commitment for new members and what does that look like I can answer if you’re thinking about joining an organization start saving now
That’s all I got to say um I I’m not gonna say exactly down to the penny how much it costs for me to join my organization but it’s not cheap and I wouldn’t say I find myself spending that much money like on the daily for my
Chapter like I feel like it was once that amount was paid on smooth and then you have chapter dues obviously but it I wouldn’t say that you just are throwing out cash every other week but definitely I saw everybody this can’t say the exact number but it started savings accounts
Today get you another job thank you yes to echo with Jordan C is definitely not cheap and then also the numbers have in whatever ignore entry-level things are also very according to them number of members in your undergraduate chapter so Tulane of course is a Twi so we’re a
Pretty small chapter so our fees were yeah our fees were a little something up there so yeah so um you know just look to UM to get a second job you know tap mom and dad and grandma you know bust open a piggy bank in and get ready you
Know just just get ready to financially commit just as much as you’re going to physically commit your time thank you and we’ll wrap up and everybody please please chime in any final thoughts that you want to say about just your organization as a whole or your particular chapter any advice
For anyone looking to join your particular organization um I would say what I said earlier you know after you’ve done your research like they told you and after you decide what organization you want to be in you know when everybody’s sitting around the table deciding who they wonder who they
Don’t want you know it’s hard to say you know to the person who put in more work and nobody at the tables gonna be like oh this guy came to every community service bit we don’t want so thank you you know I would say for for me and
Touma for my child I would go ahead and throw out any kind of preconceived idea of what you may have about Sigma I think what I thought what I was getting to was gonna be was totally different from what I actually saw with one of the most
Diverse chapters on our campus we were represented by the Latin community blacks Egyptian Hispanic Hindu some that didn’t expect to see in a historically black fraternity but here at LSU and I’m seeing that is a going trend even in a lot of chapters around our country is
That and it truly is about the inclusive we um and being non-discriminatory enriching all parts of our community whatever that may it looks like and using those different avenues to truly make impact on LSU Baton Rouge and hopefully the world so like I said put down a mean stereotypes you may think
You may have and really try to make you drunk on jizz a really tricky time for students because you know you’re coming out of that high school period and you got four years to really just figure out who you are what you want to do so amidst classes and try to make freeze
You you know so many things are gonna be put into your head so it’s easy to say like have a system self and know who you are before you join these organizations it’s hard to say that but it needs to be said because I feel like a lot of times
We might go into a situation and we let our surroundings and the people that are around us maybe sometimes change us either for the better or for the worse so just know your standards no you know what you value you know respect yourself before you show interest in any organization
Because I really feel like that’ll take you a long way and then yeah I think that’s what I would like to share with those who are watching thank you just echo that because that’s actually when I was going to say D research know yourself for sure because you know I I
Wear my letters I Know Who I am without my letters I know my values and they aligned with a K I didn’t change who I was to become an a K and this was a part of me so do your research stay true to yourself also I would say let things
Happen the way they’re supposed to happen in terms of timing I got to school and I immediately knew that I wanted to be in a K because of the chapter that it was at my school I was like yes that was where I supposed to be
And as a freshman I was like pressed to enjoying the chapter as a freshman and I’m so thankful that that did not happen for me as a freshman because I would be stressed overwhelmed burnt out and it happened when it was supposed to happen and I think I was able to grow and
Myself someone I touched you know my first two years in college experience so much I’m currently the chapter president I feel like I’m a better president than a leader because I was able to have that time to develop that wasn’t necessarily in the chapter so let timing happen when it happens
And lastly don’t be weird and that’s very vague but I just wanted to say that I feel like everyone acts very gear when it comes to these things tiptoes around it it’s not that deep it’s not that serious just be true to yourself be genuine and some be weird
Anybody else no okay well thank you all so much for joining tonight and this concludes this segment of dr. B’s Thursday thoughts with the divine 9 thanks everybody have a good night thank you bye I’ll go boom he was nice to meet you guys y’all see ya bye bye
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