by: Helen Dotchel

Sigma Alpha is a professional agricultural sorority that has a chapter at UD. At first, I imagined a large group of female farmers planting crops and petting goats together. While this may sound boring to some people, after thinking about it, I realized that planting crops and petting goats with my friends is my dream day. I live for “outdoorsy” activities and animals of any kind. Also, my job is babysitting goats for long periods of time, and I absolutely love it. So, after looking into it and realizing that while there was more to the sorority than goat yoga (which they do), my friend and I decided to check out the program. 

Sigma Alpha has a two-week-long rush period with activities like cookie decorating and blanket making. One of the rush events I attended was S’mores in a Jar night. Essentially, we poured chocolate and marshmallows into a jar and ate them. It was amazing. 

S’mores in a Jar night sounded fun to me, but I was nervous. Rushing a sorority is nerve-wracking, and many people warned me against it. I half-expected a stereotypical sorority movie moment because of all the ominous warnings I received. 

However, a large part of me knew that this was just people making judgments based on stereotypes and that sometimes girls just support other girls. Organizations full of women tend to be judged more harshly. 

 I was pleasantly surprised to find that all the girls were super nice and had similar interests as me. The night included ice breakers, eating candy, talking about reality shows, and scrapbooks -all of which I enjoy. More importantly, the night included sharing pictures of animals and talking about vets, zoos, and hiking. I was so excited to meet some like-minded people. While realistically I know that people at rush events can be super friendly because they are trying to get a bid, I also know when people were genuine in their actions, and I felt that they were. While meeting large amounts of new people can be awkward at first, the girls present quickly found common ground and started exchanging stories. People were laughing and chatting during the whole event. The two hours passed quickly as we bonded. I thoroughly enjoyed the night and hope to get a bid.