The Panhellenic Council, the reigning council over all the social sororities, has implemented a “Leader of the Month” award to recognize those in leadership positions within their respective sororities. Each month, a different chapter will be selected for recognition and members anonymously nominate who they think has shown leadership in their chapter to receive the award.
First-time recipient of panhellenic’s award, Tam Nguyen, dental hygiene junior, joined Alpha Phi in Fall 2017. Since joining, she has become the vice president of member education and programming, has implemented new systems within her sorority to better members’ grade point average and has helped sisters attain a better relationship among one other outside their usual clique of friends.
“I promote academic success [within Alpha Phi] and sisterhood,” Nguyen said. “We have proctored study hours and I let the proctors choose their location, and most of them [the hours] are done in the library. [Members] sign in and have to meet with their proctor to sign out.”
Madelyn Williams, undecided freshman and director of sisterhood in Alpha Phi, said Ngyuen implemented a system where sisters pair up together and go out on a date get to know each other on a more personal level.
“She’s a one-semester pledge,” Williams said. “For her to be able to take a VP position is not very common, but she saw she needed to change her chapter and she needed to be a leader within that department for our chapter to be better.”
Panhellenic’s Director of Leadership Alyssa Dimmick said the award has been put into place to motivate chapter members to step up to the plate in leadership roles and let this recognition be an incentive to become leaders if they are not in a leadership position already.
According to Dimmick, the award will motivate people to want to be more proactive in their roles as leaders on campus.
“It [the award] will have a good impact on the leaders we have now,” Dimmick said. “It motivates them to strive even harder to lead their sorority to a better future. [Award recipients] will receive a plate to put on a plaque and that plaque will be displayed in Fain Hall [where the four sororities’ chapter rooms are located].”
Courtney Hoover, business management sophomore and Alpha Phi president, said Panhellenic’s leader of the month award was put into place to bring to light the accomplishments of the Greek community and to better promote the positivity Greek life brings throughout campus.
“[This award] is something for [members] to work for,” Hoover said. “It’s something for girls to be motivated toward to do things correctly.”
Nguyen said the award has been put in place to push leaders to achieve recognition for their chapters.
