I’m going to record it awesome okay hello and thank you for coming my name is Misty levingston director for black excellence and achievement and I want to welcome you to this virtual panel to provide the students with information about what it means to be in a historically black and Multicultural sorority and fraternity
And who better to discuss it than people that are members guests if you please mute yourselves um this will be recorded for students that were unable to attend and it will be posted today’s panel is comprised of people and organizations that are in the panh helenic excuse me
The National panh helenic Council or nphc and nalo nfo or the National Association of Latino fraternal organizations according to the national museum of African-American history and culture black Greek letter organization ations emerg during a period that is characterized as a low point in American race relations these associations were
Established on the principles of personal Excellence racial uplift community service Civic action and kinship black students came together to create these organizations forging familial ties to one another and Outreach within the larger black community according to the nfo website uh it was established to unite and Empower Latino organizations in their
Communities through advocacy cultural awareness and organization development while fostering positive interf fraternal relationships and collaborating on Mutual in issues of Interest so now I’m going to turn it over to our panelist please tell us your name your Greek letter organization and a little bit of history about the organization
And I will start off Dr rege isn’t here so um let’s see who’s who’s next in order I believe it would be our Kappa folks Dr Mark or Dr Mark I will defer to Dr Mark all right so uh my name is Mark Fleming I’m a member of uh CPA alasi Fraternity
Incorporated I was found in 1911 on the campus of Indiana University uh in Bloomington Indiana I did join as an undergraduate um why did I join uh for me I did have some exposure to fraternity life uh even as early as high school and uh I was in awe really of uh
You know the cap Alpha side uh uh it just was very uh intriguing to me I knew some people uh actually also in the fraternity and you know I thought that the Brotherhood I thought they dressed Immaculate uh and these are things that I was definitely uh attracted to uh as a
As a young uh college student and and really wanted to be a part of the organization uh based on what I saw from the outside not knowing you know what I knew or what come to know in terms of you know act actually being in the fraternity um in the special bond that
Is created among the Brotherhood um as far as membership benefiting Dr Mark just one time one one second Dr Mark one question at a time let me turn it over now to uh I’ll go back to Dr Rich you know how they are Kevin Hart says he he wasn’t ready uh where where
We at my apologies I just got question one please tell us your name your Greek letter organization and a little bit of history of the organization absolutely he everyone uh Dr rege uh I am a life member of alpha alpha Fraternity Incorporated founded December 4th 1906
On an ice cold Tuesday in itha New York um so the sincere pride is that every organization you see represented here um had the opportunity to make the marks that they made but somebody had to be first and I take tremendous pride in saying that Alpha F fraternity was the
First Collegiate black historically black Greek letter organization and from all of the Multicultural Greek organizations we take pride at the growth and success um and the amazing Legacy of every single person whose organization is represented on this call when you talk about black Excellence it is virtually impossible to talk about
Black Excellence without talking about the organizations assembled here um we now I’m going to go to darll Williams please share about your organization please tell us your name your Greek letter organization and a little bit of history about the organization all right thank you Miss can you hear me okay yes
Just fine okay so my name is darville Williams I am a proud member of Omega scii attorney Incorporated uh we were founded in 1911 also along with the campus uh but we were on the campus of Howard University so we were the first to be founded on a historical black
College um uh our our uh Founders were three undergrad men and one grad advisor and so uh they decided to start the fraternity to uh pretty much combat a lot of the uh the uh racism and the uh discrimination that was going on and uh
In the country so uh that’s a little bit about fraternity we uh friendship is essential to the soul is our uh that’s our model thank you sir uh let me turn it over to I’m going to go back around and let me go to miss Joyce tell us about
Your your name your organization and a little bit of history of the or greetings everyone thank you for having me Miss Misty my name is Joyce Kelly Brown and I am a proud member Diamond life member of Delta Sigma Theta sority Incorporated Delta was founded on the campus of Howard University in
1913 and I crossed the Burning Sands at Florida an University which is in Tallahassee Florida in the spring March 16th 1990 a long time ago and um the beautiful thing about our Sisterhood is that we were founded on the principles of being of service to the community and
Internationally to the world so we are a public service Sisterhood thank you so much now I’ll take turn it back over to Dr Mark Hopson all right good afternoon brothers and sisters I am going to just pick up to where the good brother Dr Mark Fleming
Left off I’m a proud member of cap Alp pasai Fraternity Incorporated um I think it’s interesting to note that a lot of us have our um Roots going back to Howard University um except for the fact that Kappa um was was started or founded by a good
Brother by the name of Elder Watson Diggs who eventually left Howard and went to Indiana and so even though we didn’t begin there there was some early some early Rumblings no doubt um you know I wanted to add on to something that was said earlier um this entire panel is put
Together by uh black excellence and achievement and kappas are proud to say we’re all about achievement that is our model we’re all about achievement I’m going to leave it there for a minute and I’ll come back and add more later if I’m ask okay thank you so much Dr Mark and
Now I would like to turn it over to Athena quas please say your name I’ve already said it your or Greek letter organization and a little bit of history about the organ yes hi everyone um first and foremost thank you I want to honor everyone that did come before us Omega
58 Authority Incorporated we were established in March 15 1989 at the University of Albany and State University of New York um we are a multicultural Authority our motto is serving and educating through our diversity it was founded by 17 women from diverse backgrounds who did see the
Need within the university to have these spaces to continue to form a sense of belonging and continue to um fight against different racial injustices within the community um I became a sister of the organization in Fall 2020 2018 as an alumni um due to the fact that my undergraduate did not have a
Chapter on campus um back in 2008 um so yeah so again it’s it’s an honor to be here uh along all of you all thank you so much um that it’s so good to hear hear all this uh love in the room or in the zoom um now some of
You already answered the question but did you join as an a graduate or undergrad did you join as a grad or an undergrad and why why didn’t you if you joined as a under like why did you choose to join the organization when you chose to join it and just please tell us
Um how long you’ve been in the organization I know Miss Joyce already alluded to that but um just tell us how long you’ve been a part of it and um we can pop corn it I’ll go to uh let’s see Miss J yes um Delta was introduced to me
While I was in high school dur throughout High School I was very very active I was class president Junior and Senior year of high school I was uh ranked like number one and two throughout that that period of time um with a class of over 800 students I was
Also captain of the cheerleading team and the volleyball team so I was just very very active always coming up with with programming for the um for our high school and our Dean at the time was a member of Delta so she pulled me to the
Side one day in my junior year and she was like okay it’s about time for you to start thinking about colleges and and along with that I want you to consider joining my sority so she introduced me to DTA she felt that I would be a good
Fit because of how active and proactive I was in anything that I complished or took on so that was really my introduction to Delta and when I got to the campus of FAMU little did I know that out of over 2,000 applicants that submitted and rushed with us on that
Campus only 25 of us would be chosen to pledge so it was extremely competitive and um it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life um to this date I can call any of my line sisters at any time and um and they’re there they’re
There for us because it’s really really a Sisterhood so yeah did that answer your question it did thank you and I’m going to kind of combine the two because um we’re at we’re naturally combining them so I’m going to combine the next uh qu this question when I asked darll uh
Did you join as a graduate or undergraduate how long you’ve been a part of the organization and why did you join this particular organization Okay I gradu uh I joined as an undergrad at UC Santa Barbara uh I pledged back in Spring of 1987 so 36 over 36 years ago I
Know I don’t look it but uh black don’t crack uh I joined because I knew nothing about fraternities and sororities in high school when I but when I got on campus Because you see Santa Barbara I went there I played football but you see Santa Barbara had a small black
Population but I noticed some brothers that was pretty much quote unquote running the yard uh they were involved in all the campus uh activities student campus Affairs president of the BSU uh one uh member was of on the finance board for UC Santa Barbara I’m like who
Are these guys in this purple and gold and then they invited us to a party and I said oh these guys can party too so uh the q’s take care we call ourselves Q’s or Q dogs as well uh they took care of business 100% And they party 100% And I
Said hey I think that’s what I want to be a part of uh and they invited a lot of the uh young men to a bowling party one time and it was uh it was about 20 young uh black men there and uh five of us end up pledging together and that pledge
Process uh bonded us so tight that we’re all friends and tight to this day and so that’s the thing about fraternities and sororities I I’m pretty sure all can attest you’ll be friends for life it’s not just why you’re here in college and so I can call like as uh Soro said call
On anyone to this day and they’ll be there for you I can go out of town and if I don’t know anyone I can find out where the cues are and I’ll be taken care of don’t don’t need any money and the networking is is tremendous in terms
Of the brothers that uh are professional and if you need some help they’re always there you so much darv appreciate it um let’s go to uh the marks okay so I’ll just keep it brief since I probably so I’m undergraduate and uh I pledged in Spring
90 and um and I already told you why I joined so you if you saw the Super Bowl that was me as a as a young man seeing what what happened at the Super Bowl and and saying okay I I gotta be in that because you saw the Super Bowl so
I’ll just leave it at that so my I’m sorry I’m just kidding my history goes back to about uh grade school um my father is a member of cap alpide fraternity my uncle is a member and uh most of the men I knew coming up were members and so I was a
Part of what we call the guide right program which is kappa’s National initiative to um raise young men essentially and so we would take part in activities Etc and uh one of the first examples um of what uh the good brother darll mentioned that I found to be true
Is that you indeed can travel and be associated with an organization and be taken care of no matter where you are I’m reminded of being a guide right member and uh going on a college tour and we went to Tennessee State University um those in charge of the
Trip were an Educators we had a former Olympic Athlete and we had businessmen who took us to Tennessee State University for example where we didn’t know anybody but once we hit the yard Brothers came out of the blue and made sure we were taken care of um so I’m
Legacy is what we call it and uh in that regard I was always fond of C Alpha fraternity um when I finally got to college uh at that particular institution um much like other institutions around the country the cappers weren’t on the yard and so we didn’t have an opportunity to uh attach
Ourselves to that particular organization and so I went throughout my entire undergraduate experience not having um any affiliation uh with Kappa in that capacity um but after I graduated I would then go on to join the dullas Leesburg alumni chapter of Kappa better known daac or the country club
Chapter um and ironically enough there were brothers that were in guide right with me as a kid who all made their way I shouldn’t say all but many of them made their way into Kappa as adults and perhaps one of one of our most well-known members guy who was a guide
Right member with me is brother Marvin Sapp He’s a gospel singer Entertainer and uh Bishop in Texas at the moment and brother Sapp will be here in uh in Orange County uh just as soon as next week I think right may maybe even this weekend I’m not sure which date it is
But um yeah so you meet these people as a youngster who become part of your lives for you know for however long you you want it to be I would say that those students who are on the line at the moment um one of the reasons why this
Forum has been put together is to introduce you all to the capacity for Brotherhood and Sisterhood here at Chapman um but it goes Way Beyond Chapman this thing goes on for a lifetime it goes to all four corners of the world and uh you can become as accomplished in that organization um professionally
Personally however you choose to make your way and contribute back to that organization there’s a opportunity for you to do so um I’m G to pause and I’ll come back a bit okay thank you um let’s go to uh Athena you already talked about that you when you joined but you can just
Elaborate a little more why you joined during um the time that you joined and why you joined this particular organization yes thank you missy so um yes so fall 2018 I had just graduated from my master’s program and I had learned because I am Legacy my younger
Sister is part of opbsi spring 2012 from UC Berkeley um and I had learned about the organization and seeing the type of work and Community involvement that them as adults continue to do so I so then the alumni chapter was well at the time the alumni Collective was um revived on
2017 and that is when I started to see more movement within the Los Angeles area um I was a recent graduate and even though I was very content with my academics I just didn’t know professionally what was my next step um I ended up going to an informational
Just to learn more about the organization itself and how it was going to benefit me and that’s when I got to meet many that now now are my sisters and I got to see woman empowerment within the space I was able to see the way they presented thems and how
Confident they were with articulating and I remember just being Star Struck about the woman being there present and all the work and the goals and the mission and just the objectives of what they wanted to do within the Los Angeles area and I wanted to be part of
That um that movement of that space itself um so that is why I decided to go on and and go through the program itself um uh to to become a sister of this particular um organization you so oh thank you so much and Dr Ridge uh the question is did you join as
Grad or undergrad uh when did you join and how and why did you choose this particular organiz yeah yeah I can I can wrap it all up pretty tight I would I want to add a modifier on to it though that you know in whether whatever fraternity sority you pick there’s a
Very strong bond between these organizations when I get a job application and I read all the way down to the bottom of that CV and I see organizations affiliated with and I see Omega sci-fi or cap alfasi I’m like let me talk to them like just immediately
Because I know the sort of mental mindset and that Focus that that that they use to join their organization is probably something that could be beneficial so I at least say I want to have a conversation with them so I do do want to say that the older you get and
The further away you get from your process the more you start to really appreciate sort of what these organizations mean for our community in in total so I have kind of an interesting I think um story so um I actually was supposed to pledge spring
1989 um but I was arrogant uh which is not unsurprising for Alpha uh so I had 19 credits and I went to the informational and they’re like n we’re not going to put you online and I was like they were like you got to drop a
Class or you can’t go online and I was like I got this I’m smart and they’re like no we’re not putting you online with 19 credits so I was like I’m not dropping any classes so I just I left I said fine I’ll do it next year spring
Night so that was 89 Spring 89 Spring 90 comes around we get ready to go online right we go online and then we get hit with a moratorium because there was a an incident that happened in 1990 so all of us who came through at that time so so
Our line got Frozen and so what we ended up doing was instead of pledging for a regular period we pledged for 18 times longer than we probably were supposed to and we ended up Crossing um we cross I cross Spring May 26th uh 1991 um there were eight of us that went
On line four of us um ultimately Across The Burning Sands um alpha alpha has I think always been in my heart but I was a first generation college student so I knew nothing about black forties and sororities I didn’t even know it was a thing and actually when I got to campus
The very first guys that approached me these guys rolled up to me and they’re like Hey listen hey welcome to you know I was up in San Francisco State they’re like welcome to campus we recognize when the new brothers on campus won’t you come up and kick it in the room now I’m
From Oakland California and I don’t know you so I’m not going to your room I was like I’m gonna get jump my first week in college I did not go turns out that those guys were the brothers of Omega Sci-Fi fraternity Incorporated and so forever more I will have a special
Appreciation and affinity for those guys because they were the first ones that reached out um and extended you know extended a hand of Brotherhood so so shout out to darel and the cues because I appreciated that what made me decide Alpha F Alpha really straightforward people were always out
On the yard I saw everybody out on the yard I was blessed to be at a school that had all the organizations including Iota fight beta and so I saw everybody out on the yard then I would see people at the kiden play style House Parties that were really popular in the ’90s
But when I went to my organic chemistry class when I went to my math class and all my that’s where I saw the alphas and so I said oh these are the brothers that are trying to graduate from college and that’s what I want to be a part of and
So they not only I mean that’s not I’m not just obviously these brothers All In Color I’m not saying that that’s not but in my mind I was like that is I need to be affiliated with the folks who are serious about their studies um and and
That’s that was been the the best best decision that I made for myself in in college was participating so I’m 33 years into this fraternal Journey I’m still very active and you know we talked about it being lifelong um so I’m not gonna leave darll out there they’re hanging you know
Alpha’s party don’t get it wrong we don’t just study um we talk about we party hard and stay up late but most of all we graduate um and it’s always it’s been a blessing I’m I’m super fortunate that that I chose Alpha Alpha chose me um and I encourage everybody who has an
Opportunity to join any of these organizations to take a very serious look at not only the people who are on your yard but what the organization stands for the longevity um and I think there was one more I think there’s one more element to this question um so yeah
Undergrad I joined that particular organization because I thought the brothers was about graduating and um you know an ALICE is just cold I mean how could you not when you see that black and gold come by how would you not want to be down I don’t know what other
People thinking but that’s what’s up I’ll stop there it sounds like we may need a stroll off in a minute um I mean I’m just saying so M don’t stroll or shim I thought that was I thought that was a CPP that said that I already know
What you do look at I see I see Dr Hopson down there with shoulder action Dr hson about to okay do we want to do it right quick I can I can uh let me take a little video right quick okay and every you want me to play h
A we just we’ll put it on mute if you play a Tomic dog are we GNA hit it no we’re not gonna hit it nobody’s gonna do nothing okay wow anywh who next question um how has membership benefited you through your um Collegiate Experience and through your lifelong
Experience anyone anyone I can start um the way that I would say the Delta has benefited me in my um personal life as well as my professional life um after graduating I went on to to um I went on to take a profession in the marketing and corporate world and with
That I would say that a lot of what I learned on campus and what we actually did on campus helped prepare me to be able to lead in my capacity while working in a corporate um corporate corporate job and uh with that Along came a lot of um a lot of promotions
More rapidly than um quite a few of the other um employes had obtained throughout their career you know at the companies I worked for a pharmaceutical company so just another one of those highly competitive markets and I would I honestly would say that um the work that
I put in as a delsa because we do work and we love our work uh helped prepare me for that then personally whenever I’m you know at church I can always find a sister to pray with I can always find a sister to confide in and just that moral support
That emotional support so I I would say those are the biggest ways in which Delta has um benefited me personally and professionally thank you so much um whoever wants to take that next question that question I’ll go ahead and jump in and uh I think you know I kind of break
It up into two parts first an undergrad it was it was really about the social activities but I learned a lot of responsibility because you know we had to rent hotels and different venues to host parties and uh and then you know just socially being being uh you know
Having that level of exposure I was on step team actually uh which was also like another uh you know way to get exposure and in increase you know social uh so so was just great socially for me you know as an undergrad but I’ll say um I ended up transferring and actually
Going to uh this was at a different school but I ended up doing pharmacy school at Texas Southern University which is a HBCU and a lot of my Pharmacy male faculty were actually in Kappa alasi and I can say that it really changed my life especially when I
Started to realize I had an interest in graduate education because the men that mentored me had gone to University of Iowa and got a PhD in in 1955 and to know that they had gone to these uh large pwi institutions in the 50s to get their doctorate education
Really took a lot of the fear out of it for me and I’ve often leaned on even the experiences of our Founders at Indiana University in the early 1900s uh to say if they can do this why can’t I do it you know sometimes it feels like you know 1971 even though was
Like not in the 2000s when I got my doctorate degree but I think being able to to to look at their uh experiences and think about what it must have been like in Indiana like there’s no excuses for me and and I can tell you those experiences have benefited me
Tremendously in my uh education and and academic career thank you so much for um for letting us know that that’s that’s dope it it it’s rain it’s resonating with me because I’m you know I’m struggling with this doctor it and I’m like I can do it
If they can do it I can do it so thank you um let’s see Athena so for me um something that I benefited the most is professionally um is finding the balance between business and like Sisterhood or like business and taking care of business just in work space but also
Having relationship with others and having that that line in between that boundary um and not taking everything personal um and really get really trying to understand the other side as well um Through The Sisterhood because it’s very diverse I did grow up in a u Latino
Community so being able to now get to know other folks outside of um my Latino Community L next Community has really also opened up a lot of um areas like just knowledge that I’ve learned and been able to also explore and develop professionally um another point that I
Do have here is mentorship I’ve always been really big in mentorship just being as a first generation woman of color navigating different spaces um being the first can be very very um harsh and could be a lot of struggles that go in between that and through the
Organization I’ve been able to give back um and this kind of goes back to the point of here at Chapman University being opbsi being the first um Latina oriented Multicultural Authority on campus has really also given me the way of like again continue to exercise my professional um professional spaces but
Giving back back to our current students as well and preparing them for um life after graduation preparing them through through right now as um undergraduate so any student out there who is Chapman University who has seen opbsi um and seeing our radiant gold and forest green U Flyers out there to stop
By to any workshops any informationals um their emails are out there too so check out the Instagrams as well and just come to any any event um I always I’m always saying that you don’t know what the environment is like until you go and you experience it for
Yourself so I just want to mention that really quick thank you so much I love a good plug I’m a I’m a plugger um let’s go with uh darell how has this how has membership in your organization benefited you well first of all with with my current job as a Financial
Professional um when I got hired on we had to memorize a 16-page script and by me going through the pledge process as all the brothers and sisters can attest you got to memorize history poems uh names of Big Brothers their mama’s name their grand their Grandmama you got to memorize a lot so
Uh when I got hired uh and I just because I called the the the black folks that were that were in the room and it was about eight of us and only two of us made it because you had to have that done in the first week and I always
Attest that to my pledge process I was able to memorize that whole script and like okay what’s next so it built that Reserve that that resolve rather to uh be able to handle a stressful situation so when you pledge you handle stress uh at least back then in ‘
87 when when pleases was was going down in the 90s and whatnot um but also I want to Peck back on what Dr re said in terms of uh we we all have pride in our our own organizations but in the whole D9 you can call on anyone in the whole
D9 and still be taken care of if when I uh started my education when I started teaching the reason I got the job is because there was an alpha that said hey you know what you should uh come come to pomon Unified School District and start subbing there
And so it it goes beyond your own organization it’s a whole uh family I guess you can say that you can lean on any other or any any other D9 U member and that’s that’s helping me out to this day as I go to uh Zetas uh Deltas akas I
Haven’t done any fraternities except SE for q’s and I do presentations and so my door in is the fact that I’m deny I’m a Q and they come in and invite me in to do presentations on financial literacy and I I in turn get clients that way so
That’s how it’s helped me uh professionally and uh yeah I guess that’s that’s it thank you so much um and let’s go with uh let’s go Dr Mark all right so it’s been said this idea of networking and what I find most phenomenal about that and recall um I
Went alumni so there’s different aspects of this experience but the networking that I’ve seen is phenomenal for a few different reasons largely because it’s multi-generational right so we have a saying within Capal where no one’s diamond is any bigger than anybody else’s well what you find is that you
Have brothers in their 20s hanging out with folks in their 30s influencing folks in their 40s being mentored by folks in their 50s and I was at an event just recently where I’m hanging out with Brothers in their 70s and 80s it may not sound cool at a young
Age but as you live you realize that these experiences are things that you will either see or someone around you will come encounter and so just to have this wealth of knowledge at your fingertips as sister Joyce said you know somebody to pray with but you might want
To hang out with another athlete you might want to hang out with an intellectual you might just need somebody to to lean on because you’re going through some tough times you might be going through some ratchet times there is somebody in your organization that you can lean on for wherever you
Are in this journey called life I kid you not so it is multi-generational um there are varied personality ities you’re going to find very conservative folks you going to find wild outlandish folks and the thing about it is you’re able to contribute whatever it is you see as important and
Valuable right because coming up I remember watching some of these brothers thinking I would never want to do or be like this person or I really want to be or do what this person is doing and so I was able to bring to my organization what I
Value recall that I had been influenced by a team group called guide right well I was able to lead guide right LED guide right for six seven years now I’m the person taking students on tours and I’m seeing these young men come through high school and go on to college and many of
Them are now graduating going out to be phenomenal people on their own and I would just add this in addition to all of that this multi-generational mentoring um in addition to the fact that they’re going to be organizations that exist no matter what um D9 and Beyond there are
Organizations that will exist that will benefit its members um at least learn about it at least learn about them and in the process of learning about them or even becoming members you learn things like Robert’s Rules of Order or as brother Fleming will say a
Test to you learn how to tie that bow tie right or as darel said you learn a little bit about how to plan financially right or how to put things together how to develop ideas and um both as sister Joyce and brother re have said it goes from the personal to the
Professional right you can benefit personally because I’ll call a brother up and just share my world in a minute or I have them that call me and want to talk about whatever it is is they’re going through um but also professionally I’ve met some of the most accomplished
Men and women that you will ever meet and they are listening or at least answering questions that I might pose anybody on this line can tell you I don’t doubt that we know somebody who is characterized as as um successful in whatever Endeavor they’ve
Chosen as you see I I could go on but I pause future do M Go sir thank you sir I just wanted I know that Dr R I want to um have you finish out with that question but I just want to share I was just recently at a 100 black women um
Organiz of Orange County or uh event and in the room were all these women that are really changing and doing and doing their their service to um the community and I’d say all most of them were um in sororities and I that was one thing that
I haven’t done yet I’ll put the little yet on it one thing that I haven’t done in my life yet that I’m going to do so if you’re listening there’s you see all these benefits from it um Dr Ridge uh if you can yeah I I’ll have to jump in uh just
A couple things I mean I think both uh both of Brothers of cap Alpha are really sort of underscore points that that jump out at me I would say two things one everything that I learned about leadership I actually learned by being the chapter president and the dean of
Membership intake as an undergrad because you got to organize people who are volunteers who are busy and distracted and to pull off a convention or to do something with a bunch of 17 18 19 20 year old black men who I I can Le pretty much any organization after after trying to
Navigate just the experiences and trying to get these uh these guys moving in the right direction um as an adult I would say just without question iron sharpens iron right and so my opportunity to go to an alpha convention and you know in some circles you start feeling yourself a
Little bit you got this PhD you got this VP title you out there thinking you do things then you go to a convention and you meet these seven people who are the president of their institution three are retired judges this guy just completed some neurosurgery before he got over
Here and you start realizing you have to constantly level up your game to be a part of these organizations and to to be an active member it’s both humbling but it’s also very very um exciting and the last part I’ll add to that is I was having a conversation with the colleague
Once who just did not understand I could not get her understanding the value of these Multicultural Greek organizations these DN and she just wasn’t getting it and I said let me see if I can make this argument another way I said as as Black Folk you know we were robbed of our our
Culture and our history and our narrative and our story right we were robbed of our story when we came here and these fraternities and sororities represent our will intent to create our own kind of family like we own this experience and so I think that whether
You were 1906 1908 1911 1913 I think the iotas were 1963 1989 wherever you came into this story we have created a family and a narrative and a story that is ours that nobody gets to take away so when people ask why didn’t you join you know a white
Fraternity I’m like why would I I saidou know the most amazing black men are part of this Legacy why would I not want to be part of that and Associate so I think you know I’ll close with just saying that that it’s humbling it’s very humbling to be a part of these
Organizations and you understand the responsibility so when you put your letters on you act right and you make smart decisions you know this is a gratuitous plug but you know when I was in College I would call the Deltas and they would be there they would just be
There when we’re out doing community service I just knew you know if I pick up that phone that the the DST uh woman would be there and so it’s a it’s a kind of family that that you chose um but to some extent chose you and I wouldn’t trade it for the
World that is awesome thank you so much so before we conclude and I’m going to open it up to see if anyone on the call has a question can I get a um everybody to throw up their sign can you at least do that since you ain’t going to stroll for
Me I got a bar okay hold up there you go do it again I didn’t get you thank you thank you so much um now um would anybody like to ask a question of these amazing individuals we all good Riley I know you have some questions she’s like why are you talking to
Me Erica I just want to say thank you to everybody and giving out your information I I truly appreciate it and um I’m a bon cookman Al l n so I’m so sorry to thank you adeli said why would someone not join an organization was that a statement or a
Question it’s a question but uh Athena yes I was just going to um ask if we could elaborate a little bit more on like I know for families like legacies are very important right or you should join this organization because your cousin’s part of it and you should not
Go and join this other organization because x y and C so I think it’s important to like just elaborate and talk a little bit more about that if there’s any like legacies here I know some of yall of us mentioned um but that way also our students can hear a little
Bit more about that excellent question and also um while you’re adding if you are a if you’re like a legacy and you chose a different organization I was gonna say that it’s not mandatory because you are a legacy to join s you know the organization of
Your sibling or your parent um um in fact you know I was praying that I would have a daughter but I ended up having two sons so my goal is to take them to our next National Convention so they can find them some Delta
Wives and and I am not a legacy but I’m struggling with the question in a different capacity because I have a soon to be 18-year-old daughter who’s going to be starting college and I my my boy is going to be following right behind he’s almost 16 and what my commitment is
Is obviously I would like like him for him to be Alpha um but I have understood and I’ve had such good experiences with all the brothers on this call that if he comes home and he says Dad I’ve decided to become a c I’ve decided to to to
Pledge a c now this is a mature this is the 55y old me because if you had asked me this question back in the day I’d have been like well then you better figure out how to pay for it and don’t wear any of that stuff in my house but
Now it’s like because of the value that I put in the organization I just I just want them to be able to be down and I want them to be able to experience this in sort of whatever capacity works for them and so I’ll leave it at
That yes that does take a lot of maturity congratulations Dr rid you anyone else want to answer alrighty well that concludes the program I want to thank you so much for participation your participation this was great um we have two in two things coming up for our multi one for our Multicultural
Student organization and Delta Sigma Theta so OPB is or Omega 5 vaa is having an informational tonight at 7:17 PM in the crosscultural center and Delta Sigma Theta sorority Inc has a rush on Sunday at 3:00 you’ll see the Flyers around campus that have the specific information or email me at levingston
Chapman.edu all righty thank you so much for coming peace and blessings one uh word of uh advice for the young ladies that might be interested um pledging or expressing interest in Delta I would highly highly highly recommend that you read the book in search of Sisterhood it will really
Equip equip you with a lot of information that would be very valuable going into a rush or interacting with other members of the sority and if you need a copy and you don’t have one just come to my office and I’ll loan you my copy but I wanted I think bu
One thank you so much you all thank you Bye
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