The Greek Life organizations of KSC continued with their schedule of recruitment events last week with their annual Meet The Greeks event.
On Friday, Sept. 19, each fraternity and sorority tabled outside of the L.P. Young Student Center with the goal of getting students to sign up for the upcoming fall recruitment process. The event also included lawn games and a truck serving free Kona Ice shaved ice for anyone who filled out a recruitment interest form.
With their individual tables, each Greek organization had the chance to connect with the campus community and showcase what makes them each unique.
Senior Charlie Baxter, president of Delta Tau Delta (Delt) fraternity, spoke about what makes his organization different from the others.
“We have a very involved national organization. Our motto is, ‘We’re committed to lives of excellence.’ We want to take in guys, help them grow to be the best version of themselves, give them some leadership opportunities [and] personal development opportunities,” Baxter said. “We have a lot of fun programming. We’ve done whitewater rafting trips, hiking the Appalachian trail, sailing the Gulf of Maine, all sorts of fun stuff, all to get guys involved and build them up to be better guys when they graduate.”
Baxter said the purpose of the Meet The Greeks event in the recruitment process is to have visibility and exposure on campus.
“At the end of the day, the point of recruitment is for people to find where they belong,” Baxter said. “This is an awesome opportunity to meet everybody, get to see what everybody’s about, and then decide who you mesh well with and who you want to go talk to.”
Junior Andre Nickerson, the director of recruitment for the Delt fraternity, added that the event is a good opportunity for connection within the Greek Life community.
“It’s also just a great way for all the Greek orgs to get together and hang out. We don’t do that a lot, so it’s great to have these joint events,” Nickerson said.
Junior Liam Bulger, president of the Sigma Pi fraternity on campus, talked about the importance of the Meet The Greeks event for his organization.
“It really helps us in terms of recruitment and just being a bigger part of the community,” Bulger said. “We do strive ourselves on being active in the community, and events like this help us touch base with campus more and meet new people, including people that are already in the Greek community.”
Bulger said KSC students should consider joining Sigma Pi because there is a close community within the organization.
“We are a very tight-knit group,” Bulger said. “I know every single one of my brothers and everybody knows each other. It’s really easy to obtain a leadership role in this organization and become really good friends with all your brothers. It’s such a good time.”
Senior Vice President of Alpha Sigma Phi (Alpha Sig) fraternity Dario Sidilau, a junior at Keene State, said students should consider joining Greek Life overall for similar reasons of making social connections on campus.
“If you’re looking to find new people to socialize and form friendships with, Greek Life is for you,” Sidilau said. “I came here as somebody who was very introverted, and I very much grew socially. I think that Greek Life is really important for people who want to find new friends in new areas. Regardless of major, regardless of background, it’s a good way for people to connect all across the campus.”
Sidilau also said that Alpha Sig is unique as a fraternity because it has the largest population on campus, works closely with its five philanthropies and provides a space for its members to grow.
“Our goal is to better each other as individuals and as people, and then that way we can better the world around us,” Sidilau said.
On the sorority side, junior Natalie Cataldo attended the event as the membership recruitment chair for Phi Sigma Sigma (Phi Sig). Cataldo said the sorority’s philanthropy work is what makes the organization unique.
“We are partnered with Wheelock Elementary, which is our partner school. We do lots for them. We donate some pies, we do our 5k for them. All the money we make from the 5k goes directly to them, so they can do whatever they want with the money,” Cataldo explained.
Junior Em Heath attended the event as a general member of the Delta Phi Epsilon (DPhiE) sorority, and she spoke about the opportunity of getting to meet students at events like Meet The Greeks.
“I do love to reach out to anybody that could potentially be interested in Greek Life,” Heath said. “I think we have a wonderful environment and welcoming community here. It’s just really nice to get to know people.”
The final Greek organization that attended the event was the Kappa Beta Gamma (KBG) sorority. KBG President and senior Marissa Correia explained what makes her sorority different as the only non-Panhellenic organization on campus.
“What that means is that we don’t have an overarching government. We follow all the Panhellenic rules, so we do everything the same, but it does alter the amount of rules we have to follow,” Correia said. “We also have a much smaller national organization, so we get a lot more attention from our national officers. We’re also just a smaller organization on campus, so it’s easier for me to know everybody and what’s going on with them.”
Correia talked about the pros of joining Greek Life by mentioning how it “changed her life,” saying, “I didn’t think I was going to make friends as a freshman, and stepping into Greek Life really broadened my professional skills, my personal skills, it just makes me a better person.”
Sophomore Lauryn Strahan said she decided to attend the event after noticing the Greek tables and Kona Ice truck outside of the student center. Strahan said she has been considering joining sorority recruitment and that this event made her consider it a little bit more.
“They keep trying to get me every semester, and I consider it more and more each semester because it does look like a lot of fun, and it does look like a nice community,” Strahan said. “[Meet The Greeks] definitely helps bring a lot of students in, especially with the Kona Ice.”
Strahan said she would want to see events like this happen again in the future, but she hoped it would happen closer to the student center on the front lawn for better visibility.
Justin Dearborn can be contacted at
jdearborn@kscequinox.com
