When I started college, I was 150% anti-Greek life. I never understood the “fake” connections and the “OMG ILU BIG”s and the carbon copy pictures of sorority girls who all looked and acted exactly the same. Granted, that was all through assumptions based on stupid teenage rom-coms and from my own jaded newly-out-lesbian-and-total-bro way of thinking, but when I began Rutgers I thought it would just turn out to be true. Fast forward three years, I’m in a co-ed social fraternity and a bunch of my best friends participate in Greek life and I’m basically biting my tongue; however, one organization still stands out to me. If I were to ever join a sorority, the only one I would ever even remotely consider is Sigma Kappa.
In a time when most sororities and fraternities are actually like the movies (whether you recognize it or not), for an openly gay and not-even-remotely-girly-girl to even consider joining a sorority is pretty incredible. But I truly feel like Sigma Kappa’s “dove love” is actually just as real as the love my own non-traditional fraternity family shows each and every day. Girls I knew pre-pledging are now members and it just makes sense: these girls wouldn’t make sense in any other Greek family, because this is the only sorority on campus that accepts people as genuinely kind and unique as them, and that promotes these genuinely awesome values all around campus every single day.
There’s the phrase “no matter the letters, Greeks stand together.” Sigma Kappa exemplifies this value and even takes it a step further, showing that not only Greeks stand together; rather, humans stand together. They actively support Alzheimer’s research, the first sorority to do so starting back in 1954. They participate in The Maine Sea Coast Mission, which helps with emergency relief, holiday gifts to needy families, and crisis intervention programs, among other things. To add further to their repertoire, they are committed to helping the environment, through their support of Inherit the Earth. And on a personal level, they’ve helped my own organizations, the first ever sorority to support the Queer Student Alliance in its annual Coming Out Café. These girls devoted their time to creating rainbow bracelets to sell as a fundraiser, and also participated in the event itself, coming to help and enjoy and truly immerse themselves in a community with which they were not really that familiar. To see Greek letters supporting a minority community so actively and so enthusiastically made me feel as if there was, in fact, good in the world – and, more specifically, within the stereotypically not-so-great Greek community.
The appreciation I have for this family rests close to my heart. The sorority steps outside of its comfort zone and immerses itself into the worlds of others, and truly exemplifies what it means to be philanthropic. They are the only sorority with which I feel comfortable truly being myself, a feeling that provides true meaning behind the word “family.” After all, Greek life is supposed to create a family, right? Too many are too preoccupied with superficial values to recognize that there are entire communities outside of their own just hoping and waiting for the day that they will be noticed. If all Greek organizations were like Sigma Kappa, the world would be a much more inclusive and happier place for everyone, even jaded lesbians just like me.
Amanda Matteo