High-pitched screams and loud music could be heard blaring from Byrne Hall as a long weekend of sorority recruitment winded down to an end on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019.
Girls who participated in rush had officially signed their bid cards and were finally able to run out to their newly found homes on the Hill. Currently, there are four nationally recognized Panhellenic Conference sororities on Spring Hill College’s campus that participate in spring recruitment annually. Those chapters are Delta Gamma, Sigma Kappa, Tri Delta, and Phi Mu. The two main players of recruitment are the already-inducted members of the sororities and the potential new members (PNMs), but another huge component of the weekend comes from behind the scenes, and that is the Rho Gammas. Rho Gammas are a group of women from all four sororities who volunteer to “drop their letters” in order to help freshman girls maneuver their way through the rigors of recruitment weekend.
“Being on the Rho Gamma side of recruitment this year was like getting to experience recruitment for the first time again,” SHC senior, Caitlin Hellmers, said. “Since we weren’t in contact with our sororities, we had no idea what was going on the other side. Instead, I got to see and hear how my PNMs were feeling and all of their emotions about the process as well.”
Each Rho Gamma team was assigned a group of potential new members before the weekend began, and were given the job of guiding them through a journey they had never taken before, both physically and emotionally. They were in charge of leading PNMs from party to party, helping them through ranking and being the person rushees went to when they faced many different emotions that came with the sorority recruitment process.
“The Rho Gammas helped me so much by explaining and guiding me through the process, which was super complicated, and they really helped me with my decisions. All of the emotions I experienced that weekend were all worth it when we finally got to run out to our new home. As soon as I ran out the door there were 50 girls so excited for me to be there. I felt so loved and welcomed, and although rush was emotionally draining, I never once second-guessed my decision to go through it,” said freshman rushee, Maddie Kurcab.
On Sunday, after every rushee had signed their bid card and had run out to their new sororities, the newly re-affiliated Rho Gammas officially unveiled what sorority they were in and also got to run down the steps of Byrne Hall and back home to their sisters.
As Hellmers explained it, “running back home after rush was awesome. Being a Rho Gamma made me appreciate my sorority more, especially as a senior getting ready to leave Spring Hill, but also wanting to do it all over again at the same time.”