Hi everyone,
I made a new screen name because under my usual name on here, it's very obvious which sorority I am in. I want this to be a complete surprise at the end, should it result in my friend's AI! I will call her Jane.
So, here are some details, though I'm going to try not to be
too specific, because I don't want my location or my org to be figured out. It's too easy already to narrow down orgs because not all of them allow AI.
- I've already contacted my nationals, and we do, in fact, allow AI. I'm able to sponsor her since I'm an alum in good standing. I'm also an executive officer in my local alumnae chapter.
- Jane attended school first at a private university with a Greek system, then transferred to a state university that also had a Greek system. She went through recruitment at the state school and ultimately joined a local sorority, not a national (this campus had both). The local has since gone inactive & my org colonized a chapter there which is now active, but all that happened after she graduated. Edited to add: the local did not become a colony of my national - if it had, then she could automatically be initiated at some point without much other effort.
- Jane and I have been best friends since we met on the playground when we were in 5th grade! She is a single mom who works really hard to make sure her son has everything he needs.
- Helping her with her AI journey came about because on New Year's Eve she was telling me how she wishes she had national connections & sisterhood from college, and while she loves the girls from her local and keeps in touch with them, she feels like she missed out something since it wasn't a national group. She said if she could do recruitment all over again she'd explain that she'd be on campus for 2.5 years, not 1.5. Because of transferring schools, she knew when she went through recruitment it was going to take her 5 years total to graduate but didn't think at the time to mention it to the girls in the different chapters when going through recruitment parties. Also, grades were an issue - she is a very hard worker, but due to a documented learning disability, she struggled a bit and had less than a 3.0 GPA in college. The Greek system where she went to school wasn't competitive like the SEC but being older and the grades issue probably hurt her chances.
- Last week I thought about that conversation & realized that my org allows AI so I researched this week and sent her texts about what we'd need to do. She wants to move forward so now I'm going to see if I can introduce her to some of my alum chapter ladies and go from there.
I
do not expect this process to move quickly. It could be 1-2 years before any major progress is made, because ideally I'd like for her to become friends with other women in my alum chapter first. Also, I'm terribly swamped with grad school and working 2 part time jobs, so I'll be fitting this in around all that.
None of our other good friends from high school went Greek so I'm kind of her only connection to an org! I would love if she could become my sister...I think that she really would have fit in with my collegiate chapter had we gone to the same university & because of it being such a long-standing friendship it would be amazing to add another layer to it with a sacred bond. Plus she could possibly initiate at the school she attended, now that they have a chapter of my org, so that would be cool too.
Wish both Jane and I luck! I'll try to post here whenever anything happens, like if she attends anything where she can meet my sisters...etc.
