Wrapping up...

As the school year is coming to end, I am looking back on my memories from my sophomore year of college. I have grown up alot this year, I have made mistakes, I have learned to learn from my mistakes, I have had so many wonderful oppurtunities as I near the final years of my college life. My sorority has made me a stronger, more independent leader, I have expanded my horizons and taken things on that I never thought I could. This has been one of the most educational, rough, amazing years of my life and I wouldn't change a minute. I have learned that college is about getting an education, despite what I want it to be. I have learned alot about myself, others, and am now, more than ever, focused on my bright future ahead of me.

For any of you ladies out there interested in going through recruitment in the fall, I highly encourage you to do so. Recruitment will be 4 days the first week of September. You can sign up online or wait for the Greek BBQ the Sunday we return for school in the fall. Even if you do not join, just going through recruitment will help you meet new people if you are new or even if you just haven't put yourself out there yet. I encourage anyone with even the slightest interest in Greek life to go through recruitment. It has changed my life so much and it can do the same for you. If you are looking for service and leadership oppurtunities as well as life long friends and excellent networking for your future, Greek life is the life for you. Sign up for recruitment today!

Social Media Taking Over the WORLD

While doing research for my paper in Composition 112, my sister who is a senior at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, showed me this video. It was introduced to her in a social science class and is full of useful information and statistics about the use of social media. I think many of the students in my Composition class will find this to be very useful in researching and writing their final papers.

For some reason the embed code will not work so here is a link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

Support Phi Sigma Kappa

Just a little heads up to anyone cleaning out their closets as they prepare to head home for summer, Phi Sigma Kappa is holding a clothing drive this week to donate clothing to those less fortunate. Look for big yellow bins to donate around campus. I believe there is one in the Union and I know there is one in Roberta Hall by the front desk.

How-To Avoid Social Media Disaster

How to Avoid Facebook & Twitter Disasters is a guide to using social media. It discusses the importance of privacy and how to maintain privacy while still getting full use out of the social media sites of Facebook and Twitter. This article is an excellent source because it is an easy to read, quick guide on something that many people care about, privacy. This source is completely relevant to my topic because what is posted on social media sites may be available for future employers to read. This is a huge issue with college students now as they are beginning to see that jobs are increasingly hard to find. Because of the economy, fewer positions are available and employers want to fill those places with quality people. More and more employers today are using social media sites to sift through the candidates based on their online profiles and what is posted on them.

Social Media and Your Career

How Social Media Can Hurt You Career from CNN.com is an article about how Facebook, twitter and blogging updates can affect your future career. It gives many examples of how others have lost future jobs and present jobs because of inappropriate Facebook and twitter updates about jobs, co-workers and bosses. This article shows how prevalent this topic is and how people are clearly not learning from others mistakes because it is a reoccurring pattern in the business world. This is one of my favorite and most valuable sources I came across. It directly relates to my topic and is exactly what I am aiming to discuss in my paper. It is an easy to read and uses examples of Facebook and twitter updates that are funny to draw people in and keep them entertained while educating them on the severity of posting such things.

Learning Through Social Media

Social Learning by Desing: The Role of Social Media from Knowledge Quest is an article is about social media's role in student learning today. It is an argument for technology education in schools because it will be such a huge role in education in the future. The author, Laura Brooks, is an advocate for social technologies and encourages the use of it among school age students with proper training of use and privacy. This article is great for my topic because not only in itself is it an excellent source but all of the sources used to compile the article are also listed which is very beneficial to those, like me, using this article as a source for their own piece.

Social Media How-To

Mashable: The Social Media Guide is another easy to read, easy to follow and stay enthused piece. it is a basic "how-to" for social media users to have success in their career field. with technology today, it is nearly impossible to not incorporate social media with your future career because it is such a prevalent part of the current and future world. This piece is basic step by step tool to use social media to the fullest advantage to help your career. I believe I will use this source a lot when writing my paper because it is so basic and lays everything you need to know about using social media to assist in your future endevours.

Can Social Media Affect Your Career?

Social Media and Your Career: 6 Thing You Need to Know is a piece is from a career tip website and gives advice on the use of social media because of how prevalent it is in our society. It stresses the fact that social media is here to stay and whether we like it or not, it will be a part of most of our careers. This article, by Sital Ruparelia, states six basic tips which I believe is not only ones to live by in the use of social media, but in life in general. Be respectful, be transparent, be of value, be nice, be a connector, be different. All of these tips relate to my topic because it is important to practice all of these when it comes to your future career.

Social Media in The Classroom

Social Media in the Classroom from MultiMedia & Internet @ Schools, is the complete opposite of a previous source I used, "The Impact of Facebook on Our Students". This article argues for the use of social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, blogging and Twitter among students from kindergarten to high school. This article stresses that it is a good way for students to gain social skills through practicing safe use of social media. This piece breaks down different aspects of social media by age group and emphasizes the importance of privacy especially among the younger users. This article is a completely different spin on the use of social media among young children. Most sources are against it; this is one of few I found that argued for the use of social media among school aged children. This piece related to my topic because it is a good piece to pose an argument against many of my other sources that have a different point of view.

Your Doctor, Partying

This article is absolutely perfect for my topic. It is titled Now on Facebook: Your Future Doctor, Partying from Chronicle of Higher Education. It is about how a student posting inappropriate pictures and postings on their Facebook affects their professionalism and future career. Most students post on their social sites thinking no one important will be able to see this but they are completely wrong. This article discusses the repercussions of positing such things in the open and how it may ultimately affect your future even when you are still in school. This article is very informative and uses actual situations of med students to get its point across. This source is directly related to my topic because it is exactly what I plan to talk about in my paper. It draws readers in with a funny, interesting title and keeps them interested by using a real life situation that could happen to any student that has a Facebook or any social media account.

Connect and Promote

The article, Connect and Promote from Career World, is about the benefits of social media to the marketing field. Through Facebook, Twitter and blogging, companies are getting more advertisement than ever. Connect and Promote discusses how simple technology has made it for companies to advertise their product to certain age groups thus improving sales for the companies. This piece is unique because it encourages social media throughout unlike other pieces I have seen. This source is relevant to my topic because advertising and marketing is a huge career field that directly relates to the use of social media.

Social Media and Journalism

Social Media: Journalism's Friend or Foe?, covers everything from posting a professional writing through social media to protecting one's professional integrity when using personal social media tools. This article discusses the impact of social media and current technologies on the art of journalism. This article is more of an informant on the pros and cons of the use of different social media tools in different ways in journalism. It discusses that social media, in moderation and used properly and professionally can be a benefit to journalism as an evolving technology. Social Media: Journalism's Friend or Foe? is an excellent source for my topic because it discusses the downfalls as well as benefits of social media to journalism.

Facebook and Young Students

The article, The Impact of Facebook On Our Students by Monroe and Fodemen from Teacher Librarian is all about internet safety. It is an argumentative piece about why students should not use Facebook due to lack of privacy, scams, and the danger of meeting people online. This article argues against the use of Facebook in schools by stating numerous facts and statistics about how the age of children that are joining Facebook is getting younger and younger and how easy it is to market young students through advertisements over social media sites such as Facebook. This article emphasizes privacy amongst young technology users and urges how important it is to keep our children safe when it comes to uses of these social sites. This article is very prevalent to my topic because my career of choice is education. The safety of my students is important to me. I agree with the article in the fact that I do not believe Facebook or any other social media device belongs in the classroom or around students that are not old enough to understand boundaries of privacy for their own safety.

Roberta Hall Hauntings

I am sure many of you have heard stories about the haunting of Roberta Hall here on Northwest's campus. If you haven't... read on.... Roberta Hall now stands where an old dorm building once stood in the 1940's and early 50's. Railroad tracks ran right behind the brick building, then used to house any Northwest student. On April 28, 1951, a gas tank on the tracks exploded sending a steel beam crashing into the building and causing a fire. The building cleared out immediately with the exception of one student, Roberta Steele, who was in the shower on the 3rd floor. Others were injured in the explosion but Roberta was the only one that died a year later from injuries from that day. After the building was rebuilt and named, Roberta Hall, it is said that Roberta haunts the halls of the now sorority dorm building. Many girls have reported drawers flying out of dressers unexpectedly, brushes flying across the room, seeing wet foot prints and hearing foot steps when no one is around, door knobs turning and doors opening on their own. Is it all true? Does Roberta's presence still linger all these years later? These questions can only be answered based of your own experience and beliefs.

This is a video all about the crash, the building and the hauntings, done by the Northwest Missourian last year.

Remembering Our Sister

On behalf of Sigma Sigma Sigma I would like to thank everyone on Northwest's campus who came out last week and supported us during our local philanthropy week in honor of a fallen sister, Karen Hawkins. Karen was a sister from our chapter, Alpha Epsilon, back in the mid 90's. She was a typical college student here at Northwest. One day as she was leaving work, a male co-worker asked if he could get a ride home. Thinking this was nothing out of the shoordinary, Karen agreed to take him home. She never made it home that night and her body was found two weeks later, she had been raped and killed. Tragedy struck our chapter when this happened in 1995. In honor of Karen Hawkins, we as a chapter dedicate an entire week once a school year to spreading the word about how awful physical violence is and about how prevalent it is in today's society. During this week, Sigma has a different event everyday. This year, we participated in "free hug" day, "pie a Sigma" to raise money for the Karen Hawkins Foundation, a self defense class that was open to anyone wanting to attend, and a silent walk around campus in memory of Karen. We use this week not only to spread the word about physical violence but to honor Karen's life that was so tragically cut short.

G.D.I

Since I am a firm believer in the positive aspects of Greek life and don't see why anyone wouldn't want to join, I asked a non-Greek (sometimes referred to as a "GDI" or "god damn independent") why Greek life didn't interest them. Jordan Stevens, a sophomore here at Northwest, lives in a house full of Greeks. I asked her why Greek life wasn't for her and she said, "I have nothing against Greek life, I live with all Greeks but don't think I would ever join a Greek organization." When asked why, Jordan brought up most of the common stereotypes of Greek life. The first stereotype she discussed was "paying for friends". Jordan said that she would not want to spend her hard earned money just to be apart of a circle of friends. I explained to Jordan that paying to be a member of Greek life is paying to be part of more than just a "circle of friends". Being a member of Greek life is fairly costly but the money you put forth is well worth the experiences and opportunities you receive. Another reason Jordan did not want to be a member of Greek life is because "I don't like "catty-ness" and don't like dealing with rivals and wouldn't want to compete with other organizations". With this I explained to Jordan that Greek life, especially sororities, are as "catty" as you make them. Here at Northwest there are no "rivals" but there is friendly competition. The competition between organizations is in a friendly manner whether is is competing for highest chapter GPA or playing to win in intramurals. It's all a friendly competition and that competitiveness is a big reason why some people do join Greek life. After discussing all of this with Jordan, her views on Greek life changed. She said, "If I had the money, I would join!".

Many of you may not know this, but Carrie Underwood is a Sigma Sigma Sigma of the Alpha Iota chapter! If you don't know who Carrie is, she was on American Idol a few years ago and has turned into a country music sensation. In this video for her song, "All American Girl", she is wearing a Sigma sweatshirt!

Foundations of a Sisterhood

Since I briefly covered how Greek life began, I thought I would share how my sorority, Sigma Sigma Sigma was founded since I know a bit more about it than Greek life in general. Sigma Sigma Sigma (also referred to as Tri-Sigma, or simply, Sigma) was founded in 1898 in Farmville, Virginia by 8 women seeking a special bond and journey. Throughout the 1900's Sigma Sigma Sigma was established at various colleges around the US. Sigma is moving ever forward establishing philanthrophy, sisterhood and leadership in each member. Here at Northwest, the Alpha Epsilon chapter is over 75 women strong and striving to achieve excellence through philanthropy, scholarship, leadership and sisterhood.

How It All Began...

Since I have been doing this blog I have been talking about how great Greek life is but I realize now I never explained how Greek life began. Greek life was founded at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1776. The first organization of Greek life was named Phi Beta Kappa Society founded by John Heath because of rejection from Latin-letter fraternities at his school. Greek life later stemmed from Virginia and other chapters based on philantrophy and brotherhood. Different chapters were given different letters of the Greek alphabet to identify themselves and each organization was founded on various virtues but mainly on the cornerstone of philantrophy and brotherhood.

I had a hard time finding just the right video I wanted to put on my blog.. there were alot of recruitment videos out there for different organizations but I like this one because it is short, sweet and to the point!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsOn_VMIWlc&feature=related

Founders & Symbols!

One heck of a motto there!

Want me to name 'em for ya?

As I was looking for quotes about Greek life, I came across two that I feel really describe my life in the Greek community and why I love it so much.

"People ask why I am in a sorority and I try to explain all the things a sorority is that they cannot see. A sorority is more than letters on a sweatshirt, I say. More than traditional songs, a gold pin, rituals, and obligation, or a way of life. A sorority is learning about people, a sorority is giving without expecting a return. A sorority is earning respect from others, as well as for yourself. A sorority will not solve all your problems. But I have made good friends and found confidence there to help me take life one step at a time." (It doesn't say who said this but it is from www.angelfire.com/greekquotes) I love this quote because it clearly explains that sororities aren't all about image and material things like many people think they are. Sorority life is based on love for others, willingness and wanting to help those less fortunate, and a life long bond with your sisters.

"From the outside looking in you can never understand it. From the inside looking out you can never explain it."(www.angelfire.come/greekquotes) If I could pick one phrase to describe Greek life it would be this one. My bond with my sorority sisters is indescribable to others that are unaware of the Greek system. When you pledge a fraternity or a sorority, you're not just joining for 4 years, you are joining for life. No one will truly understand that unless you join a Greek organization. Being in Sigma is like having 75 of my best friends around me all the time to love, support and encourage me. Who wouldn't want that?

Stupid Stereotypes

Have you ever had a professor that calls Greeks out in class because of negative stereotypes? Many teachers and students think that Greek life is all about partying, drinking, and "frat boys" chasing after girls. As a member of the Greek community for almost two years now, I know that this is ABSOLUTELY not the case. I have had so many professors that call my out just because I am wearing my letters and have heard TOO many similar stories from fellow Greeks. It has gotten to the point where I can not wear my letters proudly in some classes because I know I will get called out in the middle of class. The other day my economics professor used me as an example for a scenario and associated me with beer just because I was wearing letters. NEWS FLASH.. students that are not in a sorority or fraternity are just as likely to drink and party in college as members of the Greek community. I am not in any way denying that Greeks drink or party because as all you know, they do. But students and professors shouldn't stereotype Greeks until they know what Greek life is about and what each organization stands for.

Why I LOVE Greek Life

I love Greek life here at Northwest because of all the opportunities it offers it's members. Joining a Fraternity or Sorority opens up so many community service and leadership opportunities as well as opening its members up to friendships and relationships within the Greek community. Through mixers and social events, members of the Greek community can get to know each other. Through community service and leadership opportunities, member of the Greek community get a chance to work together forming a social network that compliments life in college. When I was in high school, I did not have much diversity in my life as my school was very small. Now that I am a member of the Greek community, I have been exposed to so much diversity and broadened my social circle.

WooHooo! Sigma is the only sorority that does not have to participate in Spring Recruitment because we are two members over campus quota. That makes us the largest sorority on campus! I am so proud to be a Sigma! As far as Fall recruitment goes, I have just been chosen to be the assistant to the recruitment director! I am so excited! I will assist in the planning, preparation and execution of Sigmas Fall recruitment in September 2010! This is my first real leadership position as an active member and I can't wait to get started! The other Panhellenic sororities on campus will be having recruitment events coming up so any of you girls that are interested in Greek life, I strongly encourage you to check it out! For all you males out there, I believe the Fraternities are going through recruitment now as well. Check it out!

When I first came to college, I never thought I would enjoy Greek life as much as I do now. I first chose to go through recruitment after seeing many of my friends from home join sororities at different schools. I could not be happier with my organization, Sigma Sigma Sigma, and Greek life here at Northwest. I chose to do my blog on Greek life because I feel as though a lot of people have a negative perspective on what Greek life is all about and I would like to share the positive aspects of being apart of the Greek community. I have had so many wonderful opportunities since I joined Tri Sigma and have developed what I know will be life long friendships.

Sigma Sigma Sigma Crest

Bid Day 2009-Sigma Sigma Sigma NWMSU