Live It. Love it. Alpha Xi.

So I started off this assignment by looking up Alpha Xi's mission statement to make sure I had it right. Apparently in class, I stood up and said Alpha Xi Delta's vision which is different than the mission.

The vision of Alpha Xi is
Inspiring Women to Realize Their Potential

The mission (to be honest I don't think I've heard this before) is

The mission of Alpha Xi Delta Fraternity is to enrich the life of every Alpha Xi Delta. We will nuture unity and cooperation, foster intellectual, perpetual and personal growth, exemplify the highest ethical conduct, instill community responsibility and perpetuate fraternal growth.

I absoulutely love this and am sad it's something that I haven't seen too many times before. (Im definitely gonna have to do something to change that). Anyways, how do we, the Psi chapter of Alpha Xi Delta live to fufill this mission? Let's take it from the top:

We will nuture unity and cooperation. I'd say my chapter does a pretty good job fostering unity within the chapter, and as of late has been putting in a huge effort to get to a point of unity within the community as well. I've always considered the strength of our sisterhood to be one of my chapter's biggest strengths and it's something I definitely take pride in. In reference to fostering unity in the overall Greek Community, I definitely don't think we are on top of it as we should be but recently we have taken steps to strengthen this. And that makes me proud too:)We just got a cross-council chair to help us focus on our relations with chapters from other councils and we have been working hard to be supportive of all chapters to provide a stronger sense of unity between Alpha Xi and the community. There's always room to grow, but my chapter is working hard to provide unity in every sense they can.

Foster intellectual, perpetual and personal growth: I think this one goes along most with our vision, inspiring women to realize their potential. How does Alpha Xi Delta help our women grow? Well, I'd say we do a lot of things. Our work with service helps us grow into caring and compassionate women. Our academic program stresses the importance of the knowledge we are attaining in college classes. We read our ritual in chapter to be reminded of how our founder's intended each member to grow. Our emphasis on leadership helps each member grow into a strong and confident women. I think personally, without Alpha Xi Delta there is a lot of growth I would have missed out on. I have become a leader. I have not only developed compassion for others, but now act on it all the time. I have learned how to be a friend to others and help them when they need it. I've also learned how to accept help when I'm in need. Alpha Xi has fostered this growth in me, as well as my sisters.

Exemplify the highest ethical conduct: This part of the mission could be emphasized a little more. I think it is pushed to exemplify the highest ethical conduct when wearing our letters or representing Alpha Xi. The thing that is sometimes forgotten is that letters never come off. Each and every member is representing Alpha Xi 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No one is perfect but that doesn't mean we can't all try to be:)

Instill community responsibility: This has probably been the biggest thing I have gotten out of Alpha Xi Delta. I have developed a love and passion for service that I never thought would happen. And it's the Ritual of Alpha Xi that did this for me. As I started to understand the importance of Ritual I went back through it and studied it. There's not a single ceremony that Alpha Xi performs that does not emphasize Alpha Xi Delta and her dedication to service in the community. Upon realizing this, I wanted to do so much more of it. My chapter was supportive of this, and we have so many programs in place to get involved with the community. We go to a dance every week at the Gillie Recreation Center for Seniors. Girls volunteer at ASAP, mentoring kids. I got connected with KIPP Journey Academy and love volunteering with those kids. There's a new service opportunity every day, and Alpha Xi Delta is great at striving to better the community.

Perpetuate Fraternal Growth: I think this one just means constantly working to improve Alpha Xi Delta and giving your all to her mission, vision and values. As a chapter, there are many people that would do anything in the world to better Alpha Xi Delta. Other's maybe would do a little less. I think the biggest thing with this is to hold people accountable to the fraternal growth. It should be a group effort, because no one individual can have full responsibility of the chapter's growth.

To end this blog: I think what makes the sorority and fraternity experiencewhat it is, is it's mission and values. If a chapter loses that, it's nothing more than a club or group of friends. A sisterhood is a group of people all working for a common goal (the mission of the fraternity) and having that common bond is what makes sisterhood lifelong.