Finding Your Place On Campus

Finding Your Place On Campus

 I’ve been through it all: the outfit planning, the pain inducing smiles, the “girl flirting.” Rush is an experience that I’ll never forget. But, what happens when after the process, you find yourself sorority or fraternity-less? At first, it feels like the entire campus is Greek and you’re the only one who didn’t make the cut. Eventually, you realize that you can find community other ways, too. Some Elon University freshmen shared their advice about what you can do if you don’t get into a sorority.

Shoshana Trager jumped on other opportunities after not joining a Greek organization. She is an avid member of Hillel, our campus’s Jewish community, and Elon’s Finest, a dance group. “I would say just get involved in organizations that really interest you and you look forward to going to,” she said. "You can always try a few of them and see where you feel most comfortable.”

Nick Markunas is a member of a television show about sports debates, One on One Sports. “One on Onewas very welcoming, and it gave me a chance to hang out and talk about sports with people who were just as passionate as I am,” he said.

Stanley Dowell is a part of an a cappella group on campus called Twisted Measure. He has practices three times a week, at least one gig every week, and social events like bowling and softball games. “When your time is so invested in an organization, you’re bound to make friendships,” he said. On a campus where the Greek scene rules the weekend parties, Stanley says that belonging to an organization that is so much like a family is a full-time party.

Another great suggestion that Stanley had was joining some sort of school-sponsored program. For example, Stanley is a leadership fellow. Besides doing community service hours and attending workshops, events and projects, the fellows have a forum once a month and different social gatherings here and there.

You could also rush a specialized fraternity. Kaela Wnorowski is rushing a business fraternity, something she didn’t expect to do, but she said “is nice because it has the social element but also the professional. It will hopefully help me learn business skills that I won't learn in the classroom.”

As for me, I came to college expecting to join a sorority. When that didn’t work out in my favor, I decided to join my student’s newspaper. It’s something I did in high school that I didn’t think I would continue in college. But it really is true: you will form a family wherever you go. I still have three more years left at college, and while I’ve dipped my toes into the pool of organizations on campus, I still have next year to take the full dive. And who knows, trying out for something totally different than what you expected may turn out to be the right choice.