A new Greek Fellowship focused on developing and bringing together underclassman students is being instituted this year, with the goal that these students will one day be leaders within their greek chapters.
According to senior Jimmy Kirkpatrick, one of the important goals of the new fellowship is "personal and professional development. We are trying to provide fellows with skills that will be applicable for the rest of their lives."
Kirkpatrick is one of this year's four leadership interns, students hand-picked by the campus living and community development office to develop and implement the new Greek Fellowship. Seniors Arezoo Nazari, Gus Wigen-Toccalino and Raven Connel are the other interns.
JC Lopez, assistant director of the campus living and community development, said the idea for the fellowship began as the administration wanted more involvement from student leaders.
"We had something similar in the past that was more administration led," Lopez said. "We wanted to have more student involvement, so we created four leadership positions for greek members with a high level of involvement in their communities and on campus."
However, the creation of leadership interns was just the beginning. This semester, sophomores can apply for admittance to the fellowship. If the students are accepted into the program, they will embark on a semester-long journey designed to develop and enhance their leadership skills and prepare them for a leadership position in their fraternity or sorority and ultimately leadership roles later in life.
Next semester, applications will be open to new members of greek organizations to be a part of the next year-long program.
"The year is supposed to lay out a story," Nazari said. "It's supposed to start off with a high ropes course. High ropes courses [that] puts an individual in a high stress situation where they have to think carefully about others and their decisions. The purpose is self evaluation of where you stand as a leader in your community."
After the high ropes course experience, Nazari said later meetings would focus on different greek house positions, providing information to deal with sexual assault and alcohol abuse cases and strategies to approach greek alumni as resources, as well as resumé building and interview practice.
Nazari stressed the importance of the new fellowship as a mode of bringing together the various chapters on campus in a cooperative and team-building environment.
"Our goal is to get one member from every organization," Nazari said. "When we meet, there will be different leaders coming together from every chapter and breaking barriers. Greek house leaders will learn to consult with members of other chapters."
However, on a campus that has such a large majority of greek students, independents might feel overlooked. According to Lopez, the Greek Fellowship program itself is not open to independents.
"In the future, we're trying to create a program that gives independent students the same experience and introduces them to the same type of leadership skills, without the emphasis on Greek living," Lopez said.
Kirkpatrick said students interested in applying for the position should have a commitment to leadership, intellectual excellence, a desire to see a unified greek system and a clear understanding of the value-based greek unit as primary aspects of a competitive potential applicant.
"Being a leader in a greek house is unlike any other kind of leadership experience," Kirkpatrick said. "When in doubt, apply."