Greek life: it’s a part of almost any college campus, and Moravian is no exception.

In fact, twenty percent of students at Moravian are involved in Greek life. On campus, you’ll find five sororities and three fraternities. Gamma Sigma Sigma, Moravian’s national service sorority, is one of them. When I came to college I didn’t set out to join a sorority, but here I am two months later as a member-in-training of Gamma Sigma Sigma.

Gamma Sigma Sigma does not fit the typical college sorority stereotype, because it’s a co-ed service sorority. Almost every week, there is some kind of table in the HUB where Gamma Sigma Sigma members are selling or trying to raise money in support of some charitable cause. Besides service activities, members can participate in letter-making nights and a formal, among many others.

Additionally, potential members of Gamma Sigma Sigma don’t have to go through a bidding process to become a member, which means if you want to be in the sorority you’re pretty much in.

Every semester the sororities and fraternities have a rush, which involves recruiting new members. This semester the rush week theme was Harry Potter and, as a huge Harry Potter fan myself, I was intrigued by the poster and decided to check it out.

The rush process was fairly straightforward. Before rush week officially kicked off, I attended an open house in the Gamma Sigma Sigma suite with friends, where we met current members and learned about the sorority.

For the first night of rush week, the prospective members, along with a majority of the current members, were split into teams and participated in a Harry Potter scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt took us all around PPHAC, and we found our way to each destination using riddles based on the plot of the Harry Potter novels. Throughout our journey, I got to know the current members on my team a  bit.

On the next night of rush, all of the potential members got to know the current members through a variety of icebreakers. Then, on the last night of rush week, potential members joined the current members of Gamma Sigma Sigma for a service project, which included making and selling flower pens, our fundraiser for the March of Dimes, an national, nonprofit organization that works to end premature births, birth defects, and infant mortality.

The rushing rituals then led to an induction process. At the induction ceremony, we had to wear all black and repeat an oath. All the current members surrounded us and sang the sorority song. We then took a lot of pictures and received gifts from our “rose,” who would function as our mentor until we were given our “bigs,” who serve as both mentors and friends. After induction, we officially became members-in-training, which means we have to attend weekly meetings with the “moms,” who are the vice-presidents of membership to learn the basics about Gamma Sigma Sigma.   

The bigs are chosen based on your likes and dislikes. On the night of the big-little reveal, we went on another scavenger hunt around campus that would lead us to our bigs.  At each stop, we got a little present from our big, such as our favorite candies and stuffed animals. The hunt ended in the Collier Hall of Science.

Before we could meet our bigs, we had to put on a shirt that match our bigs’. We were then sorted into one of the four families that make up the sorority.  Once all of this was done, it was the moment we had all been waiting for: we got to meet our bigs! After seeing who our bigs were, we again took lots of pictures (as with any Gamma Sigma Sigma event!).

The process of becoming an official Gamma Sigma Sigma member won’t be complete until sibling bonding night, or SBN. That’s when we present the class paddle that displays the names of our rush class and other information and create a guess-the-member game for our siblings, among other things. Once we become full members, we will be able to fully enjoy all the perks of Gamma Sigma Sigma. We’ll go to formal, participate in community service, and next year receive our littles.

Joining Gamma Sigma Sigma was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’m excited to see what the next three years will bring!