Marywood’s sorority chapters, Alpha Sigma Psi and Zeta Phi Delta, founded in 2013 and 2001 respectively, are eagerly adapting to the new school year ahead of them.

Alpha Sigma Psi President and Senior Music Therapy Major Sara McCarthy said the sorority’s mission is to uphold a sisterhood that appreciates friendship and promotes loyalty and service.

McCarthy said she was drawn to the sorority because of the friendliness of the sisters, saying that she and her roommate attended recruitment for their freshman year. McCarthy also said that she enjoyed the process and accepted the bid.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, both sororities were service-oriented with a requirement of 12 hours of community service per semester for both houses. Members of Alpha have been given a minimum of two or three service projects to do throughout the semester. The volunteer hours requirement and amount remains the same for Zeta. However due to COVID-19 required library study hours have been cut for both sororities.

“Obviously school comes before extracurriculars, and that was a big part of being in Zeta, upholding a really good GPA, and the only way you can track that is if you had girls logging how many hours they were in the library and stuff, so we had to cut those [requirements],” said Miller.

Alpha volunteers with organizations like NativityMiguel, Griffin Pond, the Ronald McDonald House, and the Jude Zayac Foundation.

Zeta Phi Delta President and Senior Health Services Administration Major Cassidy Miller said she remains optimistic that recruitment will begin this semester.

“We have recruitment in the fall, usually, which we’re hoping we can still do, to some extent,” said Miller.

On the other hand, McCarthy said she hopes to resume recruitment at a normal level in the spring semester.

“We usually recruit girls this semester, but just because of everything, we’re hoping maybe things would be better next semester so we can do something in person,” said McCarthy.

As a result of COVID-19, the sororities have adapted their recruitment activities, both online and in-person, by hosting events such as karaoke nights and icebreakers during a three-day recruitment process.

“I didn’t want girls to feel super stressed on top of already having to do this whole semester online,” said Miller.

Miller also said they’re trying to make Zeta as in-person and as much of a community as they can, but due to the circumstances at hand, they had to cut many activities out, including in-person meetings.

According to McCarthy, there are many more benefits from joining these sororities than just volunteering— those involved also gain life-long friendships and find a true sense of community.

“My main friend group are all girls who I met through the sorority,” said McCarthy. “Everyone is super sweet, very dependable, so if you need anything, whether it’s like ‘Hey has anyone taken this class, can you give an opinion,’ or ‘Hey, does anyone wanna go to Dunkin,’ you’re always gonna have girls you can reach out to, who you can depend on to be there for you, no matter what the situation is.”

Zeta Vice President and Senior Marketing Major Cameron Clark also said the service hours look great when job-hunting.

“It’s a big resume-builder,” said Clark. “We’re doing so many service events, that’s a great thing to put on your resume, all these different things you’ve been involved with.”

Students interested in joining either sorority can fill out this interest form provided by the Office of Student Engagement to receive future emails about opportunities to become involved.

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