Finding an upperclassman or a peer mentor/advisor in one’s college of interest or in one’s sorority can bring a wealth of knowledge and confidence to the new college freshman. In the last few weeks, when Mary Claire has been trying to decide what classes to register for next semester, whether she should seek out part time employment, or even if she should consider running for a sorority office, her older DG sisters have been a huge help.  When she has come to me asking my advice, I have encouraged her to call or text the women she knows and respects living at Delta Gamma.  She also has some special friendships with upperclassmen in other sororities whom she can consult.  This has proven invaluable to her re: the recent decisions she has had to make.

There will always be a handful of older sorority sisters who are involved on campus, leaders in their chapter, and savvy in campus employment and involvement opportunities. They are usually the sorority sisters who enthusiastically love sharing this information with their new members so our daughters should take advantage of this resource.  Peer mentoring is a valuable tool that can assist our daughters in several areas: academics, leadership development, employment, relational and social issues, spiritual development…the list goes on and on.

As the holidays approach we are looking forward to having our college student back home amidst the family chaos. I want to wish all of you a safe and blessed time with your family this month and into the New Year.

You shall have a song as in the night

when a Holy Feast is kept;

and gladness of heart.  -Isaiah 30:29

But – when our daughters take off for college, do they jump from our environment of 110% study support to floating in the winds of academia like a dandelion fleck?  Isn’t this a bit of a largish transition?  The good news for parents is, just because we have relinquished our supervisory roles, doesn’t mean that our daughters will stop receiving scholastic encouragement…not if they are members of a sorority.

NPC sororities (their officers and local alums) seem to be keenly interested in seeing that their chapters maintain high grades.  On most campuses, it is important and prestigious to be the sorority earning the highest combined GPA for a particular semester.  To this end, a variety of motivating programs are in place -

• scholarship dinners, professors nights
• weekly awards for quiz grades, semester awards for high GPAs, chapter and inter/national sorority-based scholarships
• quirky, fun awards for things like best combined Big Sister/Little Sister GPAs
• some chapters print up a review of courses which reveal the inside scoop regarding captivating, entertaining, and/or reasonable professors
• “Dinner by Major” – sorority sisters who share the same major dine together, to discuss which classes are valuable, which to avoid, which to take which semester, career paths, related summer internships, etc.

Wouldn’t you say that this is a definite PLUS to sorority membership?  To sum up, if your daughter is a member of a sorority, this significant, historical organization is interested in your daughter’s grades!  I feel smug when I consider that it requires a large organization (many of the NPC groups are well over 100,000 strong in terms of all the collegians and all of the alums) to take over where I left off!

One final thought – will anybody in any of the alternative collegiate living arrangements take any sort of  interest in our daughters’ academic pursuits?