Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Special reports, clips and features from Impact 89FM's news department.
At Michigan State University, social Greek life has had a long standing presence in shaping campus life and the connections that students make. However, not every student feels drawn to traditional chapters or sees their goals reflected in these organizations. This has led to the growth of a different type of Greek involvement on campus, professional fraternities and sororities. Professional fraternities and sororities aim to create a community for students who want to develop their careers early in college. Many arrive on campus already aware that strong resumes, industry connections, and leadership experience are essential to standing out.
Speaker 1:Professional chapters offer a structured way to gain those advantages, providing mentorship, skill building workshops, and networks that extend beyond MSU. Sarah Reynolds, a sophomore studying supply chain management is in Pi Chi Theta, a co ed professional business fraternity at MSU. While she initially joined to branch out and meet new people, she realized that the organization would give her so much more.
Speaker 2:It's such a great avenue for branching out and getting out of your comfort zone, especially coming from me, a smaller high school, that I was more involved in, like, sports and that's a good thing instead of, like, the broader scheme of things. Yeah. So it was a really good opportunity to branch out, get to know new people, but also, like, a balance between academic and community or in social, I guess. I go through the application process. And I think as I've been a part of the organization these past three semesters, like, the benefits keep showing up in different ways.
Speaker 2:So different things like leadership you can get involved in, the general consensus of the community that everyone loves. Like, that's I everyone that you're gonna talk that you would talk to is, what's your favorite thing about PCC? It's the community, hands down. This
Speaker 1:support is what encouraged her to run for member wellness chair, which is the role she's currently in right now. She works directly with the director of membership wellness to support members across the fraternity, providing resources like scheduled check ins with pledges and links to mental health resources. Alyssa McKenna is a junior and a member of Kappa Gamma Delta, which is a pre health sorority. Kappa Gamma Delta provides a community for women in the medical or science fields. She first heard about the organization during her sophomore year and decided to rush in the spring.
Speaker 2:I didn't really know about it freshman year because then one of the girls in my class is actually in it. So I heard about it through that. And I was looking for more things to do because I didn't I didn't decide I wanted to do I'm pre physician's assistant, but I didn't decide I wanted to do that until later. Initially, I was just, like, research Yeah. Direction.
Speaker 2:So I needed kinda more direction and more people I knew that were kinda pre med to help me too, and I needed more experiences through that as well. There's different chapters. Chapters basically, like, the one the school you're at. So, like, we're the MSU chapter, I believe, like, a name, and it goes in order of, like, the Greek alphabet, I think. So, like Okay.
Speaker 2:The first one's alpha. It's, the one that opens beta. And, like, I put a lot of, like, beta epsilon chapter. Like, they they get to, like, double letters.
Speaker 1:Kappa Kama Delta offers support for women preparing for medical school, hosting panels with guest speakers from both MSU and the broader medical community.
Speaker 2:Actually kinda cool. They I wasn't a part I joined too late to do this, but they published, like, a research paper. So there's, like, 10 or 15 of the girls that are, like, now published authors of research paper. Oh, no way. Pretty cool for Yeah.
Speaker 2:Especially for, like, pre med. That's a good thing to put on your I think it was about, like, quality of care, and it was more of, a review research paper as opposed to like a lab, like doing the experiments in lab, but it's still pretty cool. No. That's so awesome. And they presented at URAP last year too, which is cool.
Speaker 2:But it's in like a medical journal or something somewhere.
Speaker 1:The sorority also organizes workshops where members can earn basic life support certifications like AED and CPR.
Speaker 2:I recently did basic life support certification, which is like CPR Yeah. AED and stuff. So that was helpful because I need to be in that. Yeah. They've done like a, what is it called?
Speaker 2:EKG clinic, which is kinda cool. Like, see it on that. Because, like, apply it and, like, look at all the heart waves.
Speaker 1:There are also many social events and community service opportunities.
Speaker 2:I like like, we do a lot of social ones where it's, a craft night or, like, you watch a movie together. They do certain speakers sometimes come in and Yeah. You know, from like different departments or people that are working in like their their like medical assistant, their physician comes and like talks to us or something about Oh, yeah. Their career which is kinda interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 2:We even have like, a Google Drive of, like, people's examples for, like, cover letters and, like, letters of or, like, how to ask for letters of rec or recommendations. And we have, like, a, like, Excel file of, like, classes that you've taken or need help with or you can't help with which is really helpful because like you know maybe you're struggling in anatomy and then this some other girl did really good you could ask her for help which is nice.
Speaker 1:Impact eighty nine FM.