Greek life is a major part of our campus culture, with over three-fourths of our student body belonging to one of the various fraternities or sororities on campus. As a junior Greek affiliated woman, my normal role during rush week is to stand inside my sorority house and talk to various first-year women throughout the week. Instead of going this route, I was lucky enough to be selected as a Rho Gamma where I had the job of counseling and guiding first-year women through the rush process.

While not all upperclassmen find this job appealing, I personally loved it. Not only did I get to skip some of the longer rush workshops that many Greek women go to throughout the year, but I also felt like I was able to have a positive impact on the first year women.

While I received my position in winter of 2016, my job really started a year later during “formal rush.” Throughout this week, my Rho Gamma partner and I were assigned a specific first year hall that we would be in charge of.

While this was an exciting week, it was also one of the more stressful one of my college experience. Formal rush week is  jam-packed with mandatory meetings for both Rho Gammas and first years, and any extra minute I had was spent with my hall answering question after question while my partner and I tried to calm our girls’ nerves.

Each day of formal rush started when my partner and I gave our girls their schedules, which informed them about which houses they had been invited back to or not. During the afternoon our job was to lead the girls to the sorority houses for the “parties” and take them to Evan Dining Hall afterwards so they could rank which sororities were their favorites. Our final role of the week was to give our girls their official bids offers from the sororities.

The week overall was a roller coaster for all Rho Gammas- while we were able to join in on some girls celebrations when they got a bid back to their top choice, we also had to be the ones to break the news that some girls did not get their first choice, and some did not get a bid at all. Being the bearer of bad news was always difficult but thankfully, more than often, I got to be the one to give my hall the best news they could ask for.

At the end of the week, although I was tired, I felt incredibly accomplished and proud to have helped so many girls join a Greek system that has had such a positive impact on my own experience here. Luckily for me, I will be able to have a similar experience during the next rush cycle as well, but this time I will be the Head Rho Gamma who interviews and selects all of the Rho Gamma.

So, if any readers are looking for an opportunity to help counsel and educate first years about a system that is such a major aspect of our campus life, I encourage you to apply to be a Rho Gamma for this year!