Last night in Heritage Hall Penn State’s Greek life celebrated the 2012 Greek Column Awards and 2013 Convocation.
Awards were given to fraternities and sororities in the Interfraternity Council , Panhellenic Council , National Pan-Hellenic Council and Multicultural Greek Council . Some awards that were given were Most Improved Chapter awards, Chapters of the Year Awards and the Chapter of Excellence Awards.
To qualify for the Chapter of Excellence award each sorority and fraternity on campus must go through an evaluation conducted by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life at the conclusion of each Fall semester. The Office evaluates the chapter’s progress in meeting the expectations outlined in the Greek Pride Initiative’s Minimum and Reasonable Standards.
Some of the recipients of the Chapter of Excellence award included Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and Delta Upsilon fraternity.
The guest speaker for the night was Will Keim , member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He talked about his experience as a brother and how important it is to be a part of a fraternity or sorority and how the sisterhood and brotherhood can build you up and make you a better person. He also told the group how important academics are.
“I need you to study and I need you to think because your brain is the greatest and most important part of your body,” Keim said.
Heather Cukierman, Vice President for Programming for the 2013 Panhellenic Council presented the Philanthropy Leadership Award. When she presented it she asked everyone who agreed with her statement about the importance of the sorority and fraternity community at Penn State to stand. Her statement reminded the students in attendance of the history of THON and IFC and Panhellenic’s support for the dance marathon. By the end of the statement every student in the room was on their feet.
“THON is a year long effort that raises funds and awareness against pediatric cancer. The support of students from across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and alumni all around the world, the Four Diamonds Fund continues to finding a cure for all children with cancer,” said Cukierman. “The event is known as the IFC/Panhellenic dance marathon and we as a fraternity and sorority community should fight any attempt to change the name of this event to anything other than the IFC/Panhellenic dance marathon.”
“Tonight definitely gave me a deeper sense of the community and seeing all of the hard work we have done throughout the year,” Alpha Xi Delta sorority sister Miranda Herrera (sophomore-industrial engineering) said.
