Squirrelly Alpha Gamma Delta

Today I will be addressing and debunking the stereotype of the Gamma Lambda chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta. Alpha Gamma Delta, best known as Alpha Gam, has been on Longwood’s campus since October 10, 1959.

I would like to reiterate that the purpose of this blog is address and then debunk the stereotype of Alpha Gamma Delta. This is NOT my opinion.

Crest of Alpha Gamma Delta

Jack Harmon, Senior at Longwood University, states how Alpha Gam “gets overshadowed a little bit by louder sororities… louder in the sense of like maybe not as highly represented on campus”. He addresses the fact that although Alpha Gamma Delta may be present on campus and involved, he does not hear their names as much as other sororities. Jack goes on to say that “personally for someone who’s not in Greek life at all, I don’t know a lot about them because unless you’re one of them you don’t really know”.

I interviewed two sisters in Alpha Gamma Delta to get their perspective on their sorority and what they think of the stereotypes associated with their organization.

Rachel Kuney is a junior and has been a sister of Alpha Gam for a semester. I read to her a stereotype of her sorority posted on GreekRank in April of 2018. “They don't have as much cohesiveness when compared to the other sororities on campus, but they have a strong sisterhood and in a way that makes them seem the most genuine of all the sororities on campus”.

Rachel then responded to what she thought of the post…“I think it’s just disheartening because a lot of people don’t realize that people who may not look the exact same or do the exact same thing every weekend or during the week like just because they don’t do the same things, they can’t be a sisterhood. And I think we are a diverse group of girls who somehow mesh together well enough to create Gam.”

She expressed how before going through recruitment, she thought Alpha Gamma Delta was full of hippie girls that liked to party, but she found something in their philanthropy that resonated with her. She grew up volunteering at the food pantry in her community at home so when she found out that Alpha Gam did that, she thought she found a good group of girls who were chill, laid back, and volunteered in the community. https://www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/our-approach/leading-the-fight

Yes Ma'am!

Jessica Knox, Senior, has been a sister of Alpha Gamma Delta for a year and a half. Before joining Gam, Jessica was one of those people that did have a stereotype on certain sororities, one being Alpha Gamma Delta.

“I had the stereotype stuck in my head that they smoked a lot and that they didn’t really care and like stuff like that,” she says, “but when I went through formal recruitment I realized as soon as I walked through the doors they were nothing like the stereotype led on.”

Jessica also gives her opinion on Alpha Gam after being a part of the organization for over a year… “For the most part we definitely are diverse because we have people who have completely different majors from each other. We also have people who do sports, people who’ve never played a sport in their life, people who are very artistic, people who want to work with kids, people who don’t really like to be around kids at all. I think it’s just a great group of people”.

I asked both sisters what prospective new members going through recruitment should know.

Jessica, who is Alpha Gamma Delta’s Vice President of Recruitment, responded, “I would say the biggest thing is to just have an open mind because I know when I went in I was dead set on Gam and I fell in love with them right away but that was because I’d been to open houses and I had met sisters. But I think before you even go through recruitment you should try to go to open houses and get a better idea of who’s on campus and what they do and find a place that fits your values and what you believe in and also a big part of it is giving back to the community”.

Rachel, who is apart of the newest member class, told me that you have to “keep an open mind and if you have preconceived ideas and if you go on Greek Rank and see this stuff, don’t let that be the end to it all, because you can go in and find that person or that group of girls that you can see yourself falling on the floor naked, feeling comfortable because that’s what I found in Gam”.

Finding your home is a process, but you have to keep an open mind in order for the process to WORK.

Next week I will be addressing and debunking the stereotypes of Sigma Kappa. I will be getting an outside view of the organization from individuals outside of Greek Life, from Greekrank, and the perspective from the sorority sisters themselves.

Mock Recruitment 2019