Another Year, Another Recruitment

Sorry this post is a few days late! It was that time of year again. This past weekend, the sororities of Transylvania held their recruitment and swept up some wonderful new members! It’s no secret that Transy’s Greek community is prominent on campus—around 60% of students will join a Greek organization. I know it may sound scary with all the typical images of Greek life with which the media bombards us—the toga parties, the drunken debauchery, the drama, the exclusivity and pompousness—but I’m here to tell you that Transylvania is different.

Had I attended any other University, I would have never even considered going Greek. I’m way too concerned about my academic endeavors. At Transy, though, academics come first no matter what Greek organization you join. In fact, one of the most coveted awards at Greek awards every spring is the “highest GPA” award. Sounds different from what you’d expect right? Imagine Greek communities competing over how much service they can complete, how involved on campus they can be, and how high their grades can soar instead of competing over who looks the prettiest or who can party the hardest. That’s Transy’s Greek system. It’s ranked in the top 10 Greek colleges in the nation for a reason, and I am SO proud to be a part of it. It has facilitated so many of my accomplishments these past couple of years, and no doubt will continue to do so!

Here are a couple pictures from the weekend!


Getting our New members

The Sophomore Class

First Night of Recruitment

The Rambler

Hi folks!

I have just successfully completed my first week of my Junior year (that gets scarier every time I say it—junior year—junior year. Ahhh!) While I’m already loaded down with reading and research, Junior year means I’m finally into my upper level classes for my majors; basically, I’m completely overloaded with work, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world because I love the topics so much. But I don’t want to talk about classes just yet. Instead, I want to highlight something I feel like I kind of just left out last year.

Last year, the Opinion/Editorial editor for our school newspaper “The Rambler” decided to quit, and having submitted a couple of articles to the paper as a contributing writer, was approached about the position. Because I knew they were in a bind, I decided to “fill in for a couple weeks” and then I watched that couple weeks turn into a few months and here I am still. It turned out that working for the paper was a blast (not without its ups and downs, of course), and I decided to stay. As Op/Ed editor, I get to collect and read about the student body’s different perspectives on things happening around campus, around the country, and around the world. I get to write editorials representing the collective views of the The Rambler staff, and occasionally I make appearances on other pages.

Me, working on a story for the first issue this year in the student publications office

I have always been a creative writer. I write poems, not news. The Rambler, however, has given me an opportunity to learn about a whole different area of writing and begin developing skills, which I will no doubt be able to put to use across the street on academic side and in my future career, whatever that may be. Our advisor, Terri McLean, a self proclaimed “nerd,” not only oversees our production, but educates us about journalism, professionalism, and time management, and deserves some sort of award for putting up with our hodgepodge of personalities. (One day during workshop this year, we found a nickname generator online while trying to come up with an alias for our advice columnist--chaos (fun) ensued.)

Me and the Sports Editor, Carlos working, and not goofing off AT ALL (for a change).

The Rambler has had a rocky history, but over the past couple years, it has emerged as a professional student publication, and we’re super excited for what this year will bring! Check out The Rambler online! http://transyrambler.wordpress.com/

Until Next Week!