The summer has come and gone, and the NU campus is once again packed with students looking to work towards a degree that will give them a head start in life through a career. I assume that most of you students want to score high grades, experience what college life has to offer, and eventually leave NU with a mark of your own. Unfortunately, most students – historically about 96 percent of you – will come and go without ever reaching your highest potential here on campus. I am writing to you, the vast majority of whom would never think twice about joining a fraternity or sorority.

I know this popular thought process through experience. I was one of you freshman year when I envisioned myself to be someone who would never join a fraternity. I knew about the hazing and the elitist attitude, and believed that paying for friends was something which I would never subject myself to.

Fortunately, I stumbled into fall rush by mistake, and to this day I still cannot believe just how wrong I was. I pledged a fraternity and experienced the best time of my life without ever being hazed. I thought my grades would fall terribly, yet they have risen dramatically.

Average students in a fraternity and sorority at NU statistically have received noticeably higher grade point averages than the all-male and all-female averages. Students who go Greek at NU are also more likely to be in a position of leadership in other organizations on and off campus.

Greek students learn the ins and outs of organizational behavior, public relations, human relations, finance, event planning, risk management, marketing, and many other aspects of the business world simply through the day-to-day operations of their respective fraternities or sororities. The average Greek student also participates in more volunteer community service in a college term than most of the student population will participate in their whole lives.

If all that doesn’t grab you, then hopefully this will: fraternities and sororities are social organizations, meaning that although our primary purpose is to support and maintain scholarship, we still manage to leave college having had the best times of our lives. We leave having met the most people we could have met and having created some of the strongest bonds of life long friendship that undoubtedly go unparalleled outside of Greek life. To put it simply, fraternity and sorority life will give you the opportunity and support to go through college with a sincere sense of purpose.

In order for all of this to continue to enrich the campus with student leaders, and enrich the lives of those who lead, I ask that you put all your stereotypes aside, pick up the nearest fall rush flyer, and give it a try. All rush events are normally free, are a lot of fun, most often provide free food, and so you simply have nothing to lose.

Here is my final point: If you don’t like it, join it and change it. If you think it isn’t cool, then make it cool. It’s all up to you. These are the best years of your lives; why not take advantage of this opportunity to make them even better. Hope to see you there!

-Dan Stepchew is a senior communications major, Greek Council Secretary, and a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity.