I can’t believe this is our last class. Pretty crazy how fast this quarter has gone. I just wanted to say it’s been my pleasure to be your classmate and getting to know everyone. I really enjoyed it. I know I will be seeing most of you around campus. Find me on facebook if you already haven’t. It’s not hard im the only Morad, I promise.
Since I didn’t have a video to go with my citizenship blog, ill post one here. I chose this video because it made me happy and hopefully it will do the same for you…
It's not what you think it is. Just Watch.
Happy Holidays and Good Luck on finals everyone!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Citizenship
With citizenship comes community. In my opinion these two things go hand in hand. You cant have one without the other. They are essentially married. Citizenship is your civic duties that you give to your community. Whether that is through service, teaching, learning, working, helping, or all of the above, it is what you do to give back and help your community grow and prosper.
Fraternity/Sorority life has many ways of showing citizenship. Citizenshipis not only shown by your fraternity/sorority and your brothers/sisters but also as the Greek community as a whole and on top of that the entire student body. SigEp has instilled a great deal of citizenshipin me. It has shown me that caring for your community is important. It is your community so if you don’t care for it who will? Also SigEp has helped me become a more active in my citizenship and shown me how much more active I can be. Watching all of my brothers and seeing all of their campus involvement is inspiring. It causes me to strive to be like them and
become a better citizen.
Fraternity/Sorority life has many ways of showing citizenship. Citizenshipis not only shown by your fraternity/sorority and your brothers/sisters but also as the Greek community as a whole and on top of that the entire student body. SigEp has instilled a great deal of citizenshipin me. It has shown me that caring for your community is important. It is your community so if you don’t care for it who will? Also SigEp has helped me become a more active in my citizenship and shown me how much more active I can be. Watching all of my brothers and seeing all of their campus involvement is inspiring. It causes me to strive to be like them and
become a better citizen.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Panel
I want to start off by thanking the panel for coming in and taking time out of their days to come talk to us. I really appreciate that. It was extremely nice to see other Greek life members fighting for the same things that we are in class and so passionate about Greek life in general. They care for the community and its expansion and its future. For me this was one of the best things I took away from the panel. It was very contagious and inspiring to see that.
Another thing I took away from the panel is to be excited about your fraternity/sorority. The panel spoke on caring for your fraternity/sorority because it is yours and it will become what you make it. I feel this is very true. Once someone joins a fraternity, it is easy to becoming apathetic and stop caring. People get that feeling that they are already in so they don’t have to do more. By doing this the fraternity will never grow. Staying excited about your fraternity/sorority helps to keep you involved and lead to the positive progression of your fraternity/sorority.
Something that really hit home with me was when Jordan was talking about being thrown into a chair position in her sorority. She spoke about not really knowing what to do and having to work from a blank slate. What I mainly took away from her story was when she said to not hold back and to just go for it. She was put in an unfamiliar situation and just went for it with no inhibitions. I feel that people work best when faced with adversity. Being afraid and holding back will get you nowhere. If you want to make progress in your fraternity/sorority and in yourself, you just have to jump right in (a little pun for the day’s events).
The last thing I took away from the panel was when they were speaking about communication with other brothers. Talking to a brother/sister is easy. It happens freely and a day to day basis. But criticizing and telling a brother/sister when they are wrong is extremely hard. No one wants to be the “Debbie Downer” of the situation, but sometimes someone has to go against the grain to preserve the integrity of the fraternity/sorority and the members. I took away that I should not be afraid to confront a brother when he is in the wrong. To me this is what being a brother is all about. Being there through the good and the bad.
Another thing I took away from the panel is to be excited about your fraternity/sorority. The panel spoke on caring for your fraternity/sorority because it is yours and it will become what you make it. I feel this is very true. Once someone joins a fraternity, it is easy to becoming apathetic and stop caring. People get that feeling that they are already in so they don’t have to do more. By doing this the fraternity will never grow. Staying excited about your fraternity/sorority helps to keep you involved and lead to the positive progression of your fraternity/sorority.
Something that really hit home with me was when Jordan was talking about being thrown into a chair position in her sorority. She spoke about not really knowing what to do and having to work from a blank slate. What I mainly took away from her story was when she said to not hold back and to just go for it. She was put in an unfamiliar situation and just went for it with no inhibitions. I feel that people work best when faced with adversity. Being afraid and holding back will get you nowhere. If you want to make progress in your fraternity/sorority and in yourself, you just have to jump right in (a little pun for the day’s events).
The last thing I took away from the panel was when they were speaking about communication with other brothers. Talking to a brother/sister is easy. It happens freely and a day to day basis. But criticizing and telling a brother/sister when they are wrong is extremely hard. No one wants to be the “Debbie Downer” of the situation, but sometimes someone has to go against the grain to preserve the integrity of the fraternity/sorority and the members. I took away that I should not be afraid to confront a brother when he is in the wrong. To me this is what being a brother is all about. Being there through the good and the bad.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Oath
This blog was one of the hardest to come up with. I think this is because I am still learning about my oath to my fraternity now. Oath to me can be many different things. It can be a vow, a pledge, giving your word, but most of all I believe it to be a promise. Oath is a promise to uphold something that is sacred and dear to oneself.
I took my oath to become a brother of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity during the end of spring quarter of last year. When I was taking my oath, I didn’t really know what I was doing. All I really remember is that it was extremely hot and I was sweating through my shirt and breathing heavily. I knew I was joining a fraternity and a brotherhood, but there is more to it than that. Not until recently did I understand the “more” part. A couple of weeks ago we had a few new brothers join and go through ritual. This time I got to watch and listen to what was said and done. As I was standing on a chair, it allowed me to literally get a birds eye view of the ritual. It showed me what the oath of Sigma Phi Epsilon really is. An oath is giving your word to your brothers and your fraternity. It is a vow to always be a brother and to adhere to the Ritual day in and day out. It is a pledge to follow our fraternal values and our mission. But most importantly it is a promise to uphold and maintain our fraternity to the utmost level it can be.
I attached a video of JFK taking the oath of office because I thought it was appropriate. He is taking what I believe to be one of the highest oaths in our country.
I took my oath to become a brother of the Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity during the end of spring quarter of last year. When I was taking my oath, I didn’t really know what I was doing. All I really remember is that it was extremely hot and I was sweating through my shirt and breathing heavily. I knew I was joining a fraternity and a brotherhood, but there is more to it than that. Not until recently did I understand the “more” part. A couple of weeks ago we had a few new brothers join and go through ritual. This time I got to watch and listen to what was said and done. As I was standing on a chair, it allowed me to literally get a birds eye view of the ritual. It showed me what the oath of Sigma Phi Epsilon really is. An oath is giving your word to your brothers and your fraternity. It is a vow to always be a brother and to adhere to the Ritual day in and day out. It is a pledge to follow our fraternal values and our mission. But most importantly it is a promise to uphold and maintain our fraternity to the utmost level it can be.
I attached a video of JFK taking the oath of office because I thought it was appropriate. He is taking what I believe to be one of the highest oaths in our country.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Incongruence
As you can see in my last blog, I did not even say one thing about incongruence in my blog. I feel like it is hard to think of incongruence’s because everyone likes to think highly of their chapter and not really look at the lows. I have never really stopped and looked at the incongruence’s of my chapter and the Greek community that happen on a daily basis.
In my chapter, I believe the largest incongruence is in the recruiting of new members. We are said to be “Building Balanced Men,” but how can this be done if all we look for a balanced men? Our mission statement is not “Recruiting Balanced Men,” its BUILDING. Recruits should not have to be balanced men when they join. That is the whole purpose of the fraternity; to help them become balanced men through their years as a SigEp. I feel as if we only give bids to recruits that are already established balanced men and don’t really have much more room to grow.
For the entire Greek community, I feel that there are a lot of incongruence’s. They start right there; community. Sometimes not all of the fraternities and sororities act as one community. Sometimes we all tend to be independent and disregard the rest of the community. If we call ourselves a community, then let’s start acting like one. Another, incongruence is the amount of social events we have compared to the amount of service. If we did half the amount of social events for service, we could help the community in so many ways. To me the largest incongruence in sorority and fraternity life is, just in general, not following our values and ritual in everyday life. Values and ritual are the reasons we are sororities and fraternities. They make us different from everyone else. I feel that Greek members lose sight of their values and rituals. The way I look at it is if you don’t follow the values and rituals of your sorority/fraternity, then why are you even in Greek life in the first place?
In my chapter, I believe the largest incongruence is in the recruiting of new members. We are said to be “Building Balanced Men,” but how can this be done if all we look for a balanced men? Our mission statement is not “Recruiting Balanced Men,” its BUILDING. Recruits should not have to be balanced men when they join. That is the whole purpose of the fraternity; to help them become balanced men through their years as a SigEp. I feel as if we only give bids to recruits that are already established balanced men and don’t really have much more room to grow.
For the entire Greek community, I feel that there are a lot of incongruence’s. They start right there; community. Sometimes not all of the fraternities and sororities act as one community. Sometimes we all tend to be independent and disregard the rest of the community. If we call ourselves a community, then let’s start acting like one. Another, incongruence is the amount of social events we have compared to the amount of service. If we did half the amount of social events for service, we could help the community in so many ways. To me the largest incongruence in sorority and fraternity life is, just in general, not following our values and ritual in everyday life. Values and ritual are the reasons we are sororities and fraternities. They make us different from everyone else. I feel that Greek members lose sight of their values and rituals. The way I look at it is if you don’t follow the values and rituals of your sorority/fraternity, then why are you even in Greek life in the first place?
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