Tribute Tuesday: Guest Blogger Abby Sewell's EMPOWER Experience

For this week's Tribute Tuesday our guest blogger Abby Sewell discusses her experience at EMPOWER, a leadership retreat for members of LSU's Greek Life.

Guest Blogger Abby Sewell

"On the weekend of March 7 through 9, I was blessed with the opportunity to represent my chapter at a Greek wide leadership retreat called EMPOWER. EMPOWER is designed to break down barriers between the sororities and fraternities down the row and to better yourself as a leader. A large part about this past weekend was recognizing that you yourself can be a leader within your chapter even though you may not think you can. Suppose someone in your chapter has come up to you and encouraged you to run for council; that is because they see something in you that is the beginning of a great leader. However, not everyone will be “tapped” by someone else, sometimes they have to “tap” themselves.

Sewell joins the six  ZTA's that attended EMPOWER weekend (Gotangco, Guastella, Hillburn, Wainwright, Henry and Jack) and the two ZTA's that served as EMPOWER facilitators (Al-Juraid and Culotta)

Through this experience I got to meet some amazing people and making lasting friendship throughout the entire Greek community. The facilitators to my small Group 12 (or District 12 as we liked to call it) had never participated in EMPOWER either but we all went through this wonderful program together and came out as stronger leaders. We had a guest speaker, Lori Hart, give an unbelieveable speech about the power of leading through relationships. At one point during the weekend we were told think of an influential leader in our personal lives and I immediately thought of my mom. She has always taken on tasks by first building a relationship with her coworkers and gaining their trust so she was able to lead them in a more effective way. As cheesy as it sounds, the whole reason I even decided to seek out a better leadership experience was because of my mother and I’m so glad that I did.

ZTA's throw the crown at EMPOWER

EMPOWER was such a rewarding experience that I wish wasn't over. I’m currently experiencing EMPOWER withdrawal from my small group and I miss our talks already. Through this incredibly beneficial program put on by Greek Board of Directors (GBOD), I have blossomed as a leader and a person. It showed me how to better myself and my chapter by simply “tapping” myself and taking on everyday issues from a new perspective. Recognizing the leadership skills of others is extremely important when you are trying to organize a large group of  people; like a philanthropy event for example. When everyone’s strengths are utilized the group can accomplish everything that’s thrown at it. I’ll never forget the friendships I’ve made and the skills I’ve learned from this past weekend. I highly recommend EMPOWER to anyone that’s on the fence about getting more involved in their chapter or even if you want to reinforce your skill set."

Sincerely,

Abby Sewell

Thank you Abby for sharing your EMPOWER experience! As a past member of EMPOWER, I can attest to it being one of the best weekends I've had at LSU. It inspired me to pursue leadership opportunities in the LSU community and ultimately lead to running for my current position on ZTA's Executive Council. We look forward to discovering where EMPOWER will lead you and the six other ZTA's that attended!

Zeta Love and Mine,

DK PR & Historian

For more information on EMPOWER click here.

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Vote Today to Support our ZTA's for Student Government Elections

Today's the day to vote for Student Government elections! Be sure to support our ZTA Candidates running for:

UCAC Senator- Taylor Wainwright
UCAC Senator- Helen Frink
Vice President of the College of Science- Katie Henry

Voting ends tonight at midnight, so get your votes in by clicking www.lsu.edu/sgelections

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nstagram: @LSU_ZTA

#ThrowtheCrownThursday: ZTA's 12-Hour Pancake Breakfast

Happy #ThrowtheCrownThursday featuring our DK members at last weekend's 12-Hour Pancake Breakfast! ZTA raised money for Breast Cancer Awareness and Education by providing guests with pancakes and a topping bar, a silent auction, a DJ, and a new pancake eating contest! #thinkpink #ZTAPCB

For more things ZTA follow our social media:
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#ThrowtheCrownThursday: ZTA's Love the Gymnastics Team

Last Friday, ZTA sisters attended the LSU Gymnastics "Pink Out" Meet to support the No. 1 ranked Lady Tigers and their Delta Kappa sister McKenzie Fox (Purple). 

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Our Capture the Cure #MCM!

We love our men who #thinkpink! Happy #mcm to everyone who came out for yesterday's fraternity philanthropy event Capture the Cure! We had a great turn out and an awesome time playing capture the flag. A special congratulations to the teams that placed: 1st-Kappa Sig/Sigma Chi, 2nd- Fiji, 3rd- Theta Xi! #CapturetheCure #ThinkPinkWeekend

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#FeatureFriday: Our Rituals with Guest Blogger Danielle Kelley

For this week's #FeatureFriday and in honor of National Rituals Celebration Week, we've asked our Ritual Chair, Danielle Kelley, to share her insights on why rituals are important!

"Some might say the history and tradition of the ceremony itself is amazing. The ritual has existed for more than a hundred of years, older than some nations in the world. During those decades, changes in culture, society, academia, and technology have occurred. However the ritual remained unchanged, frozen in a time before the Internet, before women’s suffrage and before widespread electricity. It has been meticulously memorized by thousands, yet remains a mystery to outsiders.

Others might say that ritual is important because it is a right of passage, a journey to manhood or womanhood. Upon receiving a bid, a new member must pledge herself to upright conduct and to make each member her sister. She must learn history and traditions in order to arrive at the culmination of her journey of pledgeship: initiation. Initiation is a time of exciting reflectance, anxiously awaiting the guarded secrets of her order. She leaves the ceremony with knowledge of the mysteries of the sorority. She has gained something special, and has been officially accepted into the national organization at large.

But to me, ritual is so incredibly important because of the values and lessons it teaches young men and women. Ritual is what separates one Greek organization from another. Ritual strives to instill in us the noblest of characteristics that men and women should possess. The ritual is secret so its members understand the important of its sacred values. But what shouldn’t be secret is the way we live out our ritual.

Truly, our traits wouldn’t be a mystery to outsiders if we lived by the values we swore to keep dear. In fact, it should be obvious to others what we value, what we seek, what we find is truly noble. If we take our ritual seriously, our symbols and the meaning behind our letters should be apparent. Please don’t be mistaken! Ritual secrets should never be divulged with non-members.  However, we can portray what is shared in the ceremony through our lives. Ultimately, rituals make us better men and women.

In conclusion, I’d like you to consider what would happen if Greeks worldwide lived out our rituals everyday? Would we defy our stereotype? Would we show others that we value our brothers and sisters more than we value our money, status or possessions? There’s more to Greek Life then just the parties or networking. Being Greek means gaining lifelong friends. They join your family and treat you like a true sister because you are bonded together through the sacred ritual. Hold the ritual in your heart, and share the values you’ve learned through your actions."

Danielle Kelley, Ritual Chair at the Delta Kappa chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha

Thank you Danielle for sharing your thoughts on our ritual importance! 

Rituals are truly the foundation of Greek Life and what unites each member to their sorority or fraternity. We welcome everyone to continue reflecting on the core values of Zeta Tau Alpha by clicking here to visit the ZTAFeed! The ZTAFeed provides the opportunity to delve further into the rituals of our organization. The site contains interesting articles on how you can live out each section of our creed, how to make living our ritual a daily ritual and videos of personal reflections on rituals!

As the National Rituals Celebration Week comes to an end, I challenge you to assume the task of living out our ritual each day. Consider the words Miss Kelley shared on how our daily actions should display what we value as a sorority, but never share our sacred secrets! Thank y'all for taking the time to reflect on ZTA's rituals and have a happy Friday!

Zeta Love and Mine,
DK PR and Historian

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#ThrowtheCrownThursday: National Rituals Celebration Week Edition!

Delta Kappa legacies Claire Davis (Right) and her mother Cynthia Davis (Left) throw the ZTA crown during their Mardi Gras brunch!

This week we honor ZTA's core values and rituals, which bind our sisters to one another! For our National Rituals Celebration Week edition of #ThrowtheCrownThursday we'd like to recognize the relative bonds that were strengthened through ZTA sisterhood, our legacies! #NRCW #Legacy #Sisterhood


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Twitter: @LSU_ZTA
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