Many may only see collegiate Greek life as a cultural group who hides their partying behind community service hours and charitable donations. However, I would like to challenge that stereotype by emphasizing the professional development and self-improvement opportunity that is presented to Greek life members - especially those who hold leadership positions. Currently, I serve my one-hundred member sorority as chapter president and use other officers to keep up a well-balanced, structured, and involved organization.

Fraternities and sororities must operate as a company first, and a socialite second to be able to be successful. I would really like to point out some key concepts that show the relation between Greek organizations and businesses.

Greek organizations:
• Divide officers into teams to work on specific areas of the chapter
• Must operate on a strict budget, fueled solely from member's dues
• Must market themselves well to be able to continue to recruit new members
• Have mission statements and values to put on their members to and gear their brand
• Must follow rules from, and report to, their national headquarters
• Have insurance to cover their organization and its members, along with many policies and procedures in area for holding events

These are just a couple points that show how Greek organizations are ran as the best business, combining friendship with professionalism and offering members a good opportunity for personal development.

As president, I see all sides of running a Greek organization and must help every officer no real matter what team her position is really a part of. My days are filled with constantly making decisions and weighing the consequences. I discovered to make fair decisions that benefit the more good, while remaining unbiased in the process. I also reply to everyone's questions and concerns while problem solving when an unplanned event takes place. For example, we had a tiny crisis with flyers that were made to promote an event we were having. Once they came in, we noticed the contact email on the flyers was spelled wrong. After some deliberation, we chose to utilize the flyers we had and made a brand new email address with the typo included.

An enormous element of owning a successful organization works well and professional communication. Our main forum of communication between officers and the advisory board is emailing. I discovered how to properly send and answer emails in an expert manner. My communication skills have improved substantially since being fully a leader of my chapter. I discovered to communicate concisely and format information in the utmost effective way. I have found providing information in bullet lists is the better way to obtain members to learn messages fully. Our officers must hold team meetings and get reports of progress in the various areas on their team. Officers are accountable for organizing their particular meetings and taking minutes to record what was discussed. Greek organizations teach members to effectively and professionally communicate through emailing, holding meetings, and working with others.

One of the most valuable traits that I'm still learning through my presidency, is ways to get confident with hard conversations. I work closely with your Director of Standards and Ethics to be sure our members are holding themselves to your high ideals and values. When someone is falling behind, it's our job to own conversations together about why this really is happening and what we are able to do to be sure it does not happen again. These tough conversations become even tougher when remembering that the members of our chapter will also be our friends and sisters. As a leader of a Greek organization, I'm understanding how to have these hard conversations while staying in control of myself and the conversation.

Greek life has so much more to provide than the social aspect of the organization, and can truly prepare young adults to become listed on the professional world. Through developing members personally, and developing officers professionally, Greek organizations will offer life-changing collegiate experiences that can't be found elsewhere.