I don’t think that I fully understood how much pledging the wine & silver blue would grow to mean to me when I pledged South Dakota Alpha back in 1997. I knew that when I went off to the University of South Dakota that I wanted to pledge a Greek chapter because I thought it would be a great way to get involved in college and figured it would be a good way to build a social network, if nothing else. However, what I came to realize in college and continue to realize is that Pi Beta Phi has meant so much more.

During college I thoroughly enjoyed my time being an active member in the Pi Phi chapter. I lived in the house for three years and served in several different leadership roles, including Vice President of Social Advancement and Recruitment Chair. While academics and my studies were important to me, it wasn’t how well I scored on final exams or the great mid-term papers I wrote that I now remember about college. The things I remember most involved Pi Phi and the awesome women I had the opportunity to surround myself with. It was the afternoons we sat on our second floor lounge and talked and laughed… it was the midnight trips to the store to get supplies for our Beau-n-Arrow boxer shorts… it was heading back to school in the fall for Spirit Week and reuniting with the entire chapter. These are the things I remember and miss about college. Without Pi Beta Phi, I wouldn’t have these memories.

I graduated from USD in 2001 and moved across the country to Atlanta to join a sales & management training program with a company called the Mattress Firm. I thought it was a great place to start my career, as many Pi Phi alumnae were working for the organization. I had great success with the sales & management team in Atlanta and received several promotions within my first couple of years with the company. In 2005, I took on a position at our corporate headquarters in Houston as the National Recruiting Manager. Still today, I have a connection to Pi Beta Phi as I communicate daily with Pi Phi alumnae who work for my company across the country.

As life has moved beyond my active days in Pi Phi, I know that the success I have experienced is in large part due to my experience and relationships developed during my chapter days. Pi Phi strengthened my motivation and desire to take on leadership opportunities, my ability to communicate with people from all different backgrounds, and my compassion and desire to help others.

I also can’t disregard that the thing I am most grateful for is the incredible friendships I developed during my time at Pi Phi. Proof of the strong bonds I created with my Pi Phi sisters was evident when I was married June 2005 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and 10 of my Pi Phi girlfriends were there to celebrate with me.

With all that Pi Phi gave to me during college and still today, I am proud to continue to support Pi Beta Phi through the Foundation’s P3 program and my chapter so other women can have the awesome experience that I did!
 

Being a Pi Phi has been an important part of my life. I pledged and was initiated in 1994 at Bucknell University (PA Beta). One of my fondest and earliest memories was when my grandmother – who was an Alpha Phi at the University of Colorado at Boulder – called to congratulate me on pledging Pi Beta Phi. She sang “Ring Ching Ching” to me over the phone and couldn’t have been more excited that I had found such a wonderful group of women to call sisters. Not only did I find lifelong friends during my collegiate years through Pi Phi, but I have also found amazing women in my alumna years with whom I have become great friends. It doesn’t surprise me that some of my dearest friends today are Pi Phis.

Early on, Pi Phi taught me that not only was friendship important, but leading, serving others, and giving back to those around you were also important virtues. From the various leadership positions I held in college and particularly those in my alumna years – I have had the opportunity to grow and to learn what it means to lead and serve. My experiences serving on the executive board of the alumnae club in Charlotte, North Carolina, as an Alumnae Advisory Committee member at Wake Forest University (NC Gamma), and as the Collegiate Province President for the Eta Province were great opportunities to give back to Pi Beta Phi and to meet amazing women.

Now that I have two young children, it is important to share with them what Pi Beta Phi has taught me. Not only do I sing them Pi Phi songs as lullabies (“Pi Phi Anthem”, “Remember” and “Speed Thee My Arrow”), but I also hope that I am instilling a sense of serving others and making friends along the way. I know that Pi Phi has helped me to be a better volunteer – I am active in our local Junior League, The Children’s Museum, our church, and my son’s school. But even beyond volunteering, I also believe that I am a better wife, mother, and friend because I am a Pi Phi.

Pi Beta Phi teaches to lead, to serve others, and to help better those lives around you. I can’t think of a more meaningful way to demonstrate these Pi Phi values and to help further the legacy of our organization than to give back to our own sisters and friends and support the Pi Beta Phi Foundation.