Hello and welcome to my channel it’s Dr shie here and today I’m going to talk about the requirements to um join a graduate chapter or an alumni chapter of a black Greek letter organization in this case a black sorority um before I begin I just want to welcome you to my channel tell
You a little bit about myself um again shaie Collins Woods I am an assistant professor of social work I have been teaching um at the Collegiate level since while 2007 and in 2015 I wrote my first book The she devotional 31 daily Inspirations for woman’s Spirit health and emotions and
On this channel I talk about all things related to self-care self-compassion my faith and spirituality um as well as uh setting healthy boundaries whether that’s in a personal relationship interpersonally or in business uh settings but also success and so today’s topic sort of relates to ways that an
Individual or woman who is interested in joining a um sorority for you know professional purposes just for uh Sisterhood can be successful in that process so thank you so much for watching this video please be sure to give it a big Thumbs Up And subscribe to
My channel and to all of my returning and new subscribers thank you for being a part of this community and welcome so let’s get right down to business I made a two-part video where talked about the requirements for um women to express interest in joining an undergraduate
Chapter I teach at the collegate level and sometimes I meet women who just come to me and say hey Dr Woods I want to be a delta or I want to be a zet or Sigma gam rooll or an AKA can you help me can you write a letter a teacher letter
Reference or can you support me in this process and so as I’ve had conversations with um a lot of women who are college age and I’m talking about a traditional college student a woman who was pretty much graduated from high school and went straight from high school to um her
Undergraduate experience I realized that everyone may not know some of those requirements so I made two videos but in my doing so I received comments and questions from other women who viewed that video and they asked me to make one that related to um alumni chapter requirements so that’s what we’re going
To talk about today so the first thing I I want you to understand is that I can only speak from the perspective of my sorority which you still I have my sorority Crest on I’m a member of deltaa sorority Incorporated I joined November 4th 2000 pledge too College
Mississippi um and presently I’m active with the Nashville alumni chapter although because of my other personal and sort of professional responsibilities I’m not as active um with that chapter as I would like but I am a financial member okay so when you think about alumni chapter membership
You really just need to kind of keep in mind that whether it’s undergraduate or graduate level membership it doesn’t change that much you still kind of have to meet the basic General requirements and um I pulled this down from Delta’s website and this first paragraph talks about alumni membership so let’s get the
Um enunciation of the pronunciation correct because sometimes I run into women who graduated from college and they’re saying I want to be an alumni member and for Delta I’m not sure about AKA Zeta or S gar Ro we pronounce that word alumni is pronounced alumni not alumni some others may call their
Chapters their graduate chapters alumni so it’s alumni chapter so basically I’m pulling this first paragraph before I get into my own kind of suggestion or ideas about this this paragraph is pulled straight from Delta’s website if you go to their National homepage look at membership they pretty much lay out
Everything for you right up front so it reads requirements under alumni membership any female who has earned a Balor degree or an undergraduate degree um is eligible to apply for membership in an alumni chapter provided that number one the college or university from which she earned her degree is
Accredited by by an accrediting um agency that is recognized by the United States Department of Education or the Council on higher education so basically you need to have an undergraduate degree a 4-year degree from an accredited university in the United States also this female who has graduated should
Have a minimum GPA of a 2.75 on a 4.0 scale so again as I mentioned in the first video for undergraduates you still have to have a high or comp itive GPA or a 1.75 on a 3.0 scale three you must reside in the community or the area that
Is being serviced by the alumni chapter so this means if you’re looking to join an alumni chapter in Michigan you would need to reside in Michigan and pretty much in that Community which you are expressing interest there may be six or seven chapters in Michigan but you need
To be a part of that community in which you are um seeking to express interest you can’t be like in Milwaukee saying you want to join a chapter in Michigan and lastly the female has not been a member of nor has been expelled from any society holding membership in the
National panh helenic Council or the panh helenic conference so that means the divine nine um Zeta simaro AKA or Delta so basically you can’t have been a member of Zeta and then try to join Delta or you can’t have been in AKA or Express or basically have gone through their processes and then
Try to say you want to join uh Delta in this particular instance so you can’t have been expelled and then express interest so those are basic requirements on Delta’s website so that’s for Delta so let me give you some of my just general kind of professional tips if I
Were to offer this to a woman who’s seeking alumni membership you still have to go to rush and it’s also listed on the website Delta you have to get a majority of the chapter vote when you are expressing interest so that means those women who are in that chapter a
Majority of them have to vote and say yes we want candidate X Y and Z so again you will receive all this information when you in attend the rush or the informational session where the information will be shared I’m just sort of highlighting some of that general information um that’s that’s pretty much
Going to be available to you uh at rush so number one attend rush you may be asking where do I find a rush sign for an alumni chapter how do I know when they are holding rush I will tell you go to Instagram instagram.com type in the name of the
Particular chapter you are interested in somewhere if they are holding membership intake if they are accepting invitations for women to submit an interest in becoming a part of their chapter they have to announce that information it is a little bit different than undergraduates undergraduates have to
Announce it as well the chapters have to announce but their information is going to be in a somewhere on that college campus whereas for the alumni chapter that information is most likely going to be shared via social media there will be some type of Public Announcement when
You see that announcement um make sure you abide by the rules that they are listing on that um informational flyer they may say please don’t repost this to your social media so what you need to do take a screenshot keep it for your records read the information that that
Chapter is sharing with you and abide by their rules that they are clearly going to share with you so again have a social media account look on Instagram Twitter Facebook and again do not repost that information on social media although they have posted it they don’t want you
To be posting it on your personal um pages and things of that nature um and also what you also want to make sure you are doing is looking kind of daily because just because it’s taking place perhaps in Nevada in February it may be a different date for another chapter in
A different part of the region so make sure you are paying attention and you know you know what to look for online number a point I guess I would say Point number two in my particular points um you do need to have have a um you need
To go to rush you need to make sure you um are looking on online so those are my two points go to rush have an Instagram account look online Point number three make sure you have a competitive GPA and so that means they’ve already told you
The requirements a 2.75 on a 4.0 scale so make sure when from your undergraduate institution you have a competitive GPA and I would even say keep this in mind you’re no longer an undergraduate so they’re going to be be looking for women who have professional experience that you have service
Experience so keep those things in mind which leads me to point um my next point which is make sure you have a record or of service and work experience so this means if you graduated 5 years ago and now the chapter in your local community is having a rush or they’ve invited
Women to submit you need to be able to explain what you’ve been doing during that time period right so that’s going to be point five so Point number one attend Rush um Point number two make sure you have a social media so you can find that informational information out
There have a GPA and make sure you are um having past work experience and a strong service record also another point that you need to consider is that make sure you know those women who are in that Community for example you can be neighbors with your neighbors can be a
Part of Zeta let’s just say Zeta but do you really know your neighbors like that in the context of have y’all done some service activities together have you been able to talk to your neighbor about expressing interest in joining their organization so the same goes if you’re undergraduate or if you’re of seeking
Alumni membership you need to know the women and they need to know who you are so make sure if you are um they having activities in the community that you are showing up and trying to support their activities again I mentioned in the first undergraduate video if it’s a
Canned food drive take canned goods make sure you’re showing up another point to be um mindful of I don’t know if this is six or seven I got a little confused on my list but um know something about the chapter that you are intending to join they have social media accounts and they
Have Twitter they have or x what it’s called X now they have Twitter they also have Facebook so they’re going to share information about their chapter make sure you are knowledgeable keep in mind approach this like you’re approaching a job you wouldn’t go into um apple and
Interview for the position of a lead consultant and not know anything about Apple so the same thing goes for whatever organization you are interested in applying or expressing interest to make sure you’ve done your research look up documentaries YouTube has a lot of information out there on these black
Greek letter sororities they’ve been around for hundreds for over a hundred years many of them so make sure you are checking out this information and people are very diligent to put um information out there on social media there are books and things of that nature so find
Factual um information and then you know of course you can always go to the library research things of that nature so make sure you know something about the chapters and if you don’t have a lot of information about the chapters definitely know something about the organization that you are seeking to
Express interest in because if not why are you even expressing interest all right another point and these sort of are going I’m just going to roll them together make sure you do your own research so again that goes to my point know about the chapter do your own
Research have a strong rationale for why you want to become a member there may be a point in this process after you submit and you can kind of see the trajectory of the process particularly in Delta they are very transparent of what happens in the process in the
Preliminary process all you have to do is go to the membership page you will see this information is outlined you so you you can pretty much understand what the process is going to look like so if you get to the point where you are interviewing just like if you would do
For a job you submit your job application they review and say hey we want to meet with you on this particular day for an interview it’s no no different when you’re trying to become a member of a sorority you don’t need to get to your interview and say well my
Grandmother was a Delta and I just wanted to do it because she loved Delta and she we’re talking about you we’re not talking about Grandma so have your own personal rationale for why you are interested in becoming a member of these one of these organizations so make sure
You have it on the tip of your tongue prepare rehearse rehearse keep in mind you may say well what about Legacy Clause my grandma was a sigma gamar my mom was a sigma gamar does it automatically mean you would need to look up the Clauses or if there’s an application for whatever organization
You are seeking to express interest in for Delta it appears that and this information is online that there is now a legacy application so if your mother or grandmother was a Delta there is something that you may want to highlight in your application but I will still encourage those who are legacies to
Still stand on your own Laurels my sister is a Delta but you know we brought we both brought our own unique flavor to um our um interest process all right so um another point which I also mentioned for the undergraduate make sure you are sweeping your social media
For any content or things that may be harmful or perhaps not done in the best casaste at the time it was posted sometimes we posted things maybe six or seven years ago and you forgot that it’s out there so make sure you’re looking at your social media and your branding to
Make sure that it is aligned with what the image and branding of of the image and branding is of the sorority you are interested in expressing um members interested in becoming a member of right so this means clean up anything that’s negative make sure you’re taking that
Time to make sure you’re putting your best foot forward on social media um what else make sure you have your financial um ducks in a row and what I mean by that let’s say you get the opportunity to uh you know let’s say you made line and they
Come to you and or whoever contacts you and says hey um it is now time for you to pay money it is now time for you to move forward with the process you want to make sure that you have your money in place because um these processes move
Swiftly so you don’t want to be scrambling or trying to call and trying to figure out where you going to get this money from so make sure before you go to somebody’s rush or you know you move forward and put all this work and energy into submitting an applic
That you have your financial resources available and I do know for many reasons a lot of people were not able to um join sorority during the undergraduate experience was largely because of you know not having the financial Capital um another thing you should do uh to
Prepare or just kind of get your mind around joining an alumni chapter is to think about um are you going to really be able to commit your time and to focus your attention to um being a part part of the intake process should they accept you for whatever organization you’re
Interested in this means do you have time in your personal life and do you really have time on your job from your job to be away or to attend whatever it is the the processes is for your particular um organization of Interest so keep this in mind if you have a
Really really really tight schedule and you’re just trying to see if you can float and maneuver through people’s processes that may not necessarily work um so you need to be honest with yourself but also um see if it works for your schedule because it may not be a
Good time on the other hand it may be the perfect time right so keep those things in mind um make sure you you’re still being friendly and cordial um I we often interview individuals for job opportunities and it’s the worst thing to you know kind of be encountering an
Individual and they are seeking to express interest in your organization but they just barely have the time to open their mouths or barely have the energy for you know the whole job interview or they’re falling asleep or just really disengaged so make sure when you are showing up at events that you
Are putting your best foot forward that you find some energy from somewhere okay that you are showing up ready to engage and taking things um very serious you know if it’s a political for you know you don’t want to be over there sleeping or texting the whole time show
Engagement things of that nature be cordial be friendly and you know those things are very important also be discreet you don’t have to go blast and tell everybody that you’re going to russan so as you can see again these processes are not very very different from undergraduate and um graduate
Another point I I think is very important when you’re working with groups is to be teachable and remain flexible um when you start talking about alumni chapter membership you’re going to be working intergenerationally with women if you make line from all different walks of life okay and so you
Need to keep an open mind ask yourself these questions do I work well in groups do I work well with women who are also you know college educated who are also you know the top tier in their organizations who also have you know two or three degrees and things of that
Nature can I work well with women and not feel a sense of intimidation or this competitive thing that sometimes occurs when we’re in these spaces right so think of that and what is your purpose for serving the community am I going to actually want to undertake the role of servicing the
Community because that’s what it’s really about when you start talking about joining these black Greek letter organizations so keep those things important remain teachable remain humble be open to working with younger people people who may be younger than you be open to working with individuals who may
Not be in your same um age bracket or in your same socioeconomic status right it’s about leveling that and finding commonality so keep an open mind um number another point I’m not going to get into the numbers I lost count a long time ago but everyone may not understand
Why you’re trying to join an alumni chapter and so this means if for whatever reason you were not able to join and undergraduate chapter and you really wanted to and now let’s say you are I’m 42 let’s say you’re 42 your partner whatever your friends may not understand what girl what are you
Talking about you trying to you trying to go pledge now what are you trying to do so everyone may not understand but they don’t everyone doesn’t need to understand the only people who need to understand are the are you and the people you’re trying to uh impress in
Your interviews but also the individuals who are part of your support system because those members are those individuals and people will be the ones to help you sort of walk through process and support you and encourage you so everyone may not understand but make sure those who need to understand have a
Comprehensive um understanding of why you are undertaking um or expressing interest at this particular point in your life and so that could be a year after college or it could be 10 years after college it doesn’t matter just make sure the people who need to know
Know what’s going on all right and let’s see um one of the thing that I really one of the things I think is really important to keep in mind is that pledging or joining an undergraduate chapter is not the opportunity to relive a college experience you did not have if
You make um the line or if you are one of the 30 let’s say 30 or one of the 10 because everyone’s chapter varies they are having membership intact because they’re looking for you to work all right not looking for you you just we talking about you want to be on step
Team and Str and you want to go sit it out with the cubes and sit it out with the alphas and sit it out with the sigmas and sit it out with the cers people are looking for you to work and so they’re looking for the best women in
Their Community those who have this passion for community service a desire for social uplift and change to come in to actually do the work to care to their passing of the Baton like here take it you got it run with it all right and so that’s what they are looking for or um
In a an alumni chapter member because um it is clear that these chapters sometimes go on for 5 to 7even 8 9 10 years and they don’t don’t have membership intake very frequently some chapters may do it a little bit more frequently maybe every 3 four years but
Some chapters can go on for for many many many years and not take have membership intake because they’re comfortable with the size of their chapter or perhaps perhaps the work is being done and or perhaps there are some things that the chapter needs to work out so it’s the choice of the chapter
Whether or not um they are basically moving forward membership intake but also in the context of Delta it also is a decision um from the regional director so get to know who the regional director is and whatever region it is you are expressing interest know who that that
That woman is because she does hold a lot of of power um and also I guess my final points which is you know again go back to my point of just be ready to do the work it’s easy to wear the t-shirts it’s easy to show up to the parties the
Socials the holiday socials to show up to the barbecues and do all of that stuff but that’s not what the main thing is and I said in the video before and I’m going say to here keep the main thing the main thing these organizations were founded on Christian principles um
And the purpose is for social uplift to promote social change there are so many different issues that you can tackle as a part of a um black Greek letter organization of course you can do these things independently but there is strength in numbers and there is um
Strength in the unity that comes from being a part of a black Greek letter sorority so take your um expression of Interest very seriously because the women who will be reviewing your information are definitely taking it very seriously and they are devoting and committing a lot of their time again a
Lot of their time and energy into reading the information that is submitted into going through into making um decisions that will basically contribute to the perpetuity of their particular chapter but also to the larger organization itself so whether that’s Delta AKA Zeta or Sim gamma R there’s a lot of intention and effort
That goes into selecting um alumni chapter uh prospects for um membership in take so finally keep God first remember you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you I’m a person go in prepared going overprepared go in prepared to knock it out of the ballpark
Okay whatever it is you do and just know that um when your heart is in the right place you know things will fall into place in due season what happens if you do not make the line and you putting your heart and soul into it making the
Line does not define you okay you you you are who you are because God Made You and God created you so just move forward and resubmit if it doesn’t go in the way in which you want to what if the chapter you’re interested in is not having membership intake well you know that’s
Up to the chapter uh to decide and also the regional director to give the go on that and I’m not sure how it works in other um organizations but for the most part processes are not that different um and so just just keep looking keep being aggressive in your research of what’s
Going on and you know just keep making sure you align your purpose um with God’s purpose and I think that in due season things will work out um for you there are many many many reasons why um lines do not move forward and so um that’s neither here nor there but there
Are many many different reasons so thank you for watching this video I hope you found it helpful but again just to reiterate undergraduate and graduate processes are not that different so you can find clean information really from that those first videos that I shared they aren’t that different you just need
To make sure if you are trying to express interest at the alumni chapter level you can really articulate what you’ve been doing since College what service activities you’ve been really you know doing how have you made yourself this you know this have this Dynamic service record because you will
Also be competing with other women who are also the cream de la crem in their Community the crem DEA crem in their communities as well and so um you know it’s a competitive process whether undergraduate or graduate so thank you for watching give this video a big
Thumbs up and share it with those who are interested in joining in alumni chapter specifically those who may be interested in joining Delta again I am not here to tell you any secrets about my sorority no no no no no I’m just highlighting some basic um skills that
Will be helpful to anyone who’s interested in expressing interest in any sorority but also again go to Rush look at membership intake processes a lot of this information is already on the national website so I’m just highlighting some points of interest thank you you guys take care and until the next time be
Safe a
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