Taking One for the Team

When I think of sororities, I think of rich, snooty, fashion-conscious, exclusive young women with whom I'd have nothing in common. However, I am slowly learning that not all sororities are fit my stereotype. My college freshman daughter Kendall, too, shared some of my judgements about sororities, but then she learned about Alpha Sigma Kappa-Women in Technical Studies, at her university. According to their website,

This sorority of women is committed to achieving academic goals and promoting women in technical fields, through leadership, friendship, and support.

They are also philanthropic, evidenced by their involvement last weekend in Relay for Life overnight event at TCF Stadium, where 126 college teams helped raise money to fight cancer.

Pay no attention to the photo bomber over Kendall's shoulder 

and notice instead how happy these girls are.

Ready...

This one's my favorite...

Can you believe those teams raised $128, 451.28?!

Before she joined, Kendall wasn’t sure she was into the whole “sisterhood for life” thing; she was mainly attracted to the networking and service aspects of the sorority, as well as the opportunities for leadership (She really liked Student Council in high school). That Alpha Sigma Kappa works with schools and kids also appealed to her, of course. She also figured that a sorority of women committed to academic excellence would be a great place to find support as she works her way through a very difficult major (Chemical Engineering or another engineering field).

Other points that set Alpha Sigma Kappa apart: While some sororities have huge membership fees, ΑΣΚ’s is only $100 per semester, and they accepted every student who rushed. They don’t have any superficial standards related to appearance. As you might also guess, they’re not partiers (Besides, they don’t even have a house.).

Kendall says that in the past two months she’s spent getting to know the girls in the sorority, she’s come to appreciate the sisterhood aspect. She genuinely sees the contribution each girl makes to the sorority as a whole, and she appreciates it. Kendall said that although many stereotypes about “Greek life” are true, “There are so many other faces in a sorority behind the faces that get all the attention; there’s much more to them than meets the eye”.....

….even when that eye is full of pie.