Lynchburg, Virginia

The Town

    The town of Lynchburg has a lot of history. It is a historic battle site, the battle of Lynchburg. One of the advisers, Cherie, took me to lunch in the downtown area at the best sandwich shop! We had a fantastic time. She even took me to visit the grave site of one of the sorority founders, Louise Cox Carper. It was very cool to see  I loved getting to see the beautiful brick homes that had so much character. Lynchburg was small town, but not too small. The campus was beautiful as well! The campus has so much on-campus housing. I was amazed at all of the options the women had.

The grave site of Louise Cox Carper, one of the five founders.

 

Time with the Women

    The women at Lynchburg College were so awesome! We had a great time hanging out and watching movies, TV shows, and crazy YouTube videos! If you have some free time, this is the video that was stuck in our head the whole time I was there: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJeG-GGH114 It is funny, but kind of weird! One of the women who lived in the chapter house made us chocolate chip cookies EVERY DAY! They were so delicious I could not resist! She even made some in the shape of my initials (photo below). I love staying with all of them. They referred to each other as "squid" and by the end of my visit I became an official "squid". I was so happy to get to know them and I hope to see them all in the future! What a fantastic second visit! I am still trying to get used to the humidity of Virginia. The temperature on my phone never seems to be accurate, or at least it is not what I expect.

 

The cookies they made especially for me! Yumm :)

Look at this cute little kitten! Angie had taken in two kittens as a foster mom from the animal shelter. I knew my little sister Jaclyn would be jealous!

 

I'm off to Radford, Virginia to meet a new group of women and continue my journey on the road!



Marshall, Missouri

    I had such a great time at my first visit. I went to Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri. The women there were amazing! The school was a major athletic college and majority of the students were there on athletic scholarships. I was very impressed at their capabilities of managing a college sport, school work, work, and a sorority! I was very blessed to have met the women their. They were all so friendly and kind.

Town

    The town of Marshall, Missouri is a very small town. They had an Applebee's and all of the fast food restaurants, but every thing else was small town. We ate at a small town restaurant named Luke's. They had amazing burgers! I love small town food places! WalMart was where everyone went to kill time. The campus was a large part of the town, and it was beautiful. All of the buildings were brick and the campus was small, so you could walk the entire campus in five to ten minutes.

My Stay

    I stayed at the chapter house at Missouri Valley College. Many of the women lived in the house. I was pretty spacious. I even had my own room! We had a sisterhood event at the house which was a lot of fun. We played Apples to Apples, which was a riot. Afterwards we walked to Dairy Queen for some ice cream! While we were their, one of the members shoved ice cream in her friends face, and while she was laughing she leaned back and dunked her hair in my sundae. We all had a good laugh! Luckily I was finished. I told all of the women that I would remember them forever! Your first visit as a leadership consultant is one that you will always remember!

This is me with a few of the women in front of their chapter house.

 

Flight to Virginia

    My flight out of Missouri was definitely an interesting one. Well, first we had to leave at 3 AM to get to the airport! I arrived around 5 AM. The airport was packed at 5 AM and the line to check luggage took 30 minutes. After that I had to wait in line for security. I almost missed my flight! Once I was on the plane, a baby was crying right behind me and kept kicking my seat. The poor mother was trying to quiet her down. Luckily, she fell asleep once we took off. The sunset was beautiful to watch as we flew through the clouds. I wish I would have taken a picture. Once I arrived at DC I had a nice little wait. The airplane that I boarded had no air conditioning! We were all sweating to death! The flight was delayed 30 minutes so that they could stop one engine and start the other to pull in some cool air. Once I arrived at Charlotte I had missed my flight to Roanoke, and had to wait an hour for the next flight. The good news is it gave me time to grab some lunch! I was starving! The flight to Roanoke was nice and short and the view was beautiful from the plane. When I got my luggage I was disappointed to find the zippers had been ripped off of my front pocket and there was a small tear. Unfortunately, I didn't know you had to talk to the luggage people immediately. I was tired and just wanted to get settled in. I have officially learned my lesson though. After a long day, I had finally arrived at Lynchburg, Virginia! I was ready to start the week!

Last Day in the Office

    It is our last day in the office and we are all excited to start our journey on the road, but sad to leave each other for such a long time. We are all told to trust our training and believe in ourselves because we are smart, young women who are capable on taking on all of life's challenges. Well, I choose to believe it! I couldn't believe how quickly I bonded with these five amazing women. They are all so intelligent and all have amazing talents. Each woman has taught me something different and I hope to carry those lessons with me on the road. I know we will stay friends for many years, and I couldn't be more excited!

We wore all black to "mourn" our last day together until November.

Sisterhood

    I have been reading the posts on Facebook from my chapter sisters, about their sisterhood and excitement during recruitment. It has brightened my week to hear all of those wonderful things from them! It does make me miss my chapter and wish I could see their bright, beautiful faces, but I have also accepted that I have started a new journey. I will always have their sisterhood and love to support me in my travels and what life has to throw at me. I am such a proud alumna and I hope they continue to stay strong in their sisterhood and remember what the sorority is all about!

See you in October!

Headquarters BBQ

    After FEA Field Staff it was back to work! We started back to office with training, but on Tuesday we held a BBQ for all of the consultants in the Indianapolis area. It was a hit! We had over 100 people attend. It was awesome to get to show off our beautiful headquarters and socialize with the consultants a little more. We even got to meet some consultants who were unable to attend the FEA Field Staff conference. We still didn't have our schedules, but we were able to discuss where the others were visiting. I even got to talk to and Alpha Gamma Delta who is visiting Pittsburg State University! I told her she needs to make sure to hit up the Mall Deli! It is cool to hear who is visiting your college. It was definitely a fun end to July, and a great way to build more relationships.

New Consultant

  And how could I forget our new addition, Jordan! She is a Texas girl who attended school in Arkansas. She has been the perfect piece to our puzzle. She definitely has that southern sass, and has dealt with being thrown into the mix with such poise. And she is my new roomie! Jordan will be working with our colony at Boise State University. She is going to do amazing! (Jordan is the one in the white sweater on the far left)

FEA Field Staff

    FEA Field Staff is a conference put together for leadership consultants from different greek organizations. There were leadership consultants from different fraternities and sororites; some travel all the way from the southern states to attend this conference. There were over 250 consultants present! It was a great way to network and introduce ourselves to other consultants that will be traveling to the same colleges that we are traveling too, and just make new friends in general. We got to listen to some fantastic speakers during the three day conference and to attend some helpful workshops.

Favorites

    Some of my favorite parts of FEA were:

• Learning about social excellence and how to facilitate deep conversations with strangers. Practice makes perfect! I have always know that I am a shy individual and that talking to strangers makes me uncomfortable, but I was able to step outside of my comfort zone a bit and talk to people and get to know them on a different level. I will still need to continue to work on this skill, but I can do it!
• Learning about cliques and bullying. Everyone assumes cliques are bad, but that isn't necessarily true. We develop cliques because we want to surround ourselves with people we are comfortable with, and that is OK. Cliques become harmful when they start to bully.
• Learning the importance of remember someones name and connecting with them. I never thought how important it is to remember someones name. I know that when someone remembers my name that I feel important to them, but I have never thought that others would feel the same. That should have been obvious to me! I now focus on learning names.
• Becoming friends with the Alpha Sigma Tau women. They are amazing women and we were able to create some great bonds while at FEA. We have continued to hang out after FEA and stay in contact!

    I just highlighted my favorite parts of the FEA Field Staff conference. I could spend days talking about all of the information I learned, so I thought I would shorten my entry to just my favorite parts. And it didn't hurt to be surrounded by cute fraternity men :)

Risk Management on the Road

    We were able to attend a conference called Risk Management on the Road this past month. We had some amazing speakers come to talk to us about our upcoming travels and the trails we will encounter. All of the speakers had great messages to share, but there was one that really resonated with me.

Real Beauty

    A woman from Chicago, named Stacey Nadeau, came to share life changing experience with us and remind us that women coming an all shapes and sizes and that is perfectly OK. While Stacey was in college she was scouted to be a model. She thought that was impossible since she is a size 10 and had curvy legs. She decided to go to the model auditions anyways. It turns out, she was being scouted for Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign. This campaign was to change advertising and photo editing forever. They wanted to use women of all shapes, sizes, ages, and ethnicity without editing their images to distort their bodies or faces. This was something that was unheard of in the advertising world, but Stacey was about to be a part of a major change.
   She appeared on TV shows, such as Oprah and the Today Show. They were interviewed and ridiculed, but all of them truly believed in what they were doing. They were changing the image of beauty. They were getting people to talk about what beauty really is and how the media gives women these unrealistic expectations that even movie stars cannot live up to. I wanted to share her message with everyone!
   What Stacey was saying, about insecurity and unrealistic expectations, was something that really hit home for me. I have always felt insecure about my body and have constantly ridiculed myself for not being "perfect". After listening to her speak, I realized it isn't about looking like the women in the magazines or on the billboards, it is about being happy and healthy. It is about eating right and exercising, but understanding that I can enjoy some ice cream every once in a while and not feel guilty. I need to stop "fat talk" and stand to accept who I am. I think that is something that every woman, young and old, should know. That losing that ten pounds to be a size 0 isn't going to make us happy. Another thing is that women need to stop judging each other. We need to help one another in changing the image of beauty to something more realistic. If we judge one another, and expect for women around us to look like models, we will never make change.
   I hope Stacey's message is spread and the Dove campaign continues to be successful in their movement for change. I think every campus should hear her speak! For more information about Stacey and her journey you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter or visit her website: www.staceynadeau.com

Stacey is the woman on the far right. This is the picture that started it all!

National Convention

Day Four

    It is amazing how the sorority is something that women care about for the rest of their lives. During our awards dinner that night, I was able to hear stories of women who have become successful because of the support of their sorority sisters and who were able to over come major obstacles in their lives because the sorority gave them the support and life skills to over come it. I am so proud to say that I am a member of this accepting, generous, and fun organization. I couldn't have picked a better bunch! At the awards banquet, my collegian chapter was awarded the Crown of Excellence Award. I could not be more proud of my chapter sisters and the volunteers that helped them to grow into the wonderful women and chapter that they are today. I know that everyone worked very hard and that my chapter was very blessed! I had a wonderful time while I was there, and I hope the women to follow will love being a part of it as much as I did. After the Convention concluded we packed up and awoke early the next morning to begin our long drive back to Indianapolis. It was an amazing week filled with learning and sisterhood that I am so happy I got to experience!

Dede and Jean: both past national council volunteers and two of the oldest attendees of National Convention. They have been friends for the past 65 years and have attended every National Convention and local sorority event since becoming friends. That is amazing!