Semester in Review: Part I

The first semester of my travels have come to a close and I am now sitting at home watching too much Netflix to unwind from a busy few months. 

I have traveled to eight universities in six states for a total of 108 days on the road. In Alpha Delta Pi terms I have traveled to four of our six districts: District 5, 2, 1, and 6. Every school and state brought a new set of objectives and a new backdrop. Each District is headed by a different International Officer and is comprised of other volunteers that are experts in their field - alumnae relations, philanthropy, recruitment and marketing, you name it. On top of separate leadership in each district comes a variety of campus norms at each school and unique chapter dynamics - just enough to keep me on my toes.  

Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, California, Oh My! 

My journey began on August 10th in Oklahoma. 

Oklahoma taught me that chapters in their first year of operation can put together an outstanding recruitment. It was key to balance the ideas of collegiate chapter officers, the chapter members as a whole, chapter advisors, International Officers, and myself as a Consultant. It is no easy feat for a chapter to put something together of which they have no firsthand experience. The pressure was on to recruit to quota and continue to establish ADPi's legacy on this campus.  It took hours of conversation practice and learning various recruiting strategies on top of developing an attention to detail in regards to presentation, but the women at the Theta Xi chapter came together and had a successful recruitment. 

On top of that, Oklahoma City is actually quite pretty and I was surprised by how much I loved it. Hopefully I will get to visit again... maybe see a Thunder game.

Most of my time has been spent in New Orleans at Tulane University with the Lead Colony Consultant, Courtney Fields. It has been an absolute pleasure to be a part of reinstalling the 5th oldest chapter of Alpha Delta Pi. Colony marketing and recruitment involved learning the best ways to reach out to students at Tulane University and share with them what it means to be a founding member of Alpha Delta Pi. Once we had members, they operated in committees since there was no officer leadership yet. After juggling 11 committees ranging from finance to social and risk management, we met with each member to discuss their desire to run for a position.

Then on November 10, 2013 Epsilon was installed as the 147th active chapter of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority and 84 women joined our sisterhood. The celebration was perfect and a group of members brought many of us to tears with an a cappella performance of Chantal Kreviazuk's "Feels Like Home."  While driving home, Courtney and I - along with another LC, Grace Brodrick - were overjoyed that an entire semesters worth of hard work had come to fruition and when our favorite song came on the radio we rolled down the windows of our Toyota Corolla and graced the city of New Orleans with our singing and/or screaming of Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball."

Speaking of, what a better backdrop than the city of New Orleans. Don't be fooled, however, my version of Bourbon Street was PJs Coffee Shop on Willow meeting with colony members from 10 to 6.  I loved every second of it - even the stressful ones - and in a few weeks I will be back in New Orleans helping put together Epsilon's first formal recruitment! 

Stay tuned to hear about Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, and California on Wednesday!