Monday, August 29, 2016

Fall Recruitment 2016 for a Spring 2016 Pledge

If you had asked me if I was interested in joining a sorority a year ago, I would have told you not in a million years. But somehow, in a matter of just a few months, I found myself joining Delta Zeta. I don’t know how I got here but here I am, sitting in my sorority house as I type this.  Although I did not rush in the fall like most people do, I accepted a bid in the spring when recruitment was much calmer, and it was one of the smartest decisions I have ever made. I have truly bonded with my sisterhood, and I am thankful for this opportunity to be able to call myself a DZ.

Rushing in the spring is tremendously different than rushing in the fall. Fall recruitment is so much more intense, whereas spring recruitment is more laid back with much fewer people involved. I’m the type of person who does much better with calmer crowds, so I’m glad that I did it when I did. However, there are a few downsides to rushing in the spring, one of them being I have never gone through the official recruitment process and have absolutely no idea what it’s like. So as fall recruitment arrives here on campus, I find myself nervous about the next few weeks—almost as nervous as I know some of the potential new members (we call them PNMs) must be.

 Things in the sorority house right now are crazy. Everyone is scrambling to get together with their committees, make crafts for our soon to be new members, and making sure that each round of recruitment goes smoothly so we spark a lot of interest in the PNMs. Again, this is my first time going through recruitment, and I’ve got to say I kind of feel like a chicken with its head cut off.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s all very intriguing and exciting. I’m pumped that we’ll potentially have a bunch of awesome girls join our sisterhood by the end of this recruitment process. I’m mostly just a little nervous that I’ll do something wrong, and I’m praying that recruitment goes exactly how we are hoping it will go.


Until formal rounds are over, I’ll just be taking things one day at a time and hoping for the best. If you are even somewhat interested in joining a sorority, don’t hesitate to give it a shot! You might be surprised by just how much you can fall in love with a sisterhood. Go Greek!


Saturday, August 27, 2016

Content Monster

As I was reading the chapters of "The Art of Social Media" for this week, one topic that the author touched on stuck out for me more than all the rest, partially because he continuously referred back to it as the chapters preceded, and that is the concept of content creation versus content curation. The section I am referring to is found on pages 16 and 17, which is the beginning of Chapter 2 titled “How to Feed the Content Monster.” These concepts are a perfect way to introduce the chapter, mostly because the author gets right to the point and tells you the two exact ways you can feed this “Content Monster”, which is basically discovered new and interesting content to share each week.

I really liked how the author was so upfront and honest about how it can be really difficult to repeatedly go back and try to find new and interesting content that not only the audience is interested in, but also the writer, since there’s no sense in writing about something that doesn’t spark at least somewhat of an interest inside of you. Content creation, as the author put it, is basically exactly what it sounds like: the creation of new material, specifically posts, pictures, or videos. As a writer for both Odyssey and a hobby, I know all too well that this can be a difficult task, and finding inspiration that others will want to read about is hard. But I had never really thought about the second option that the author states in the way he says it: content curation. Basically, it’s searching for material that people have already written about and summarizing it, then sharing it. Not only does it give the writer something relevant to write about and discuss, it also provides the original piece with more publicity and gives the writer more credibility. The author called it a “win-win-win”.

As long as I am in the business of writing and sharing articles, I will always be needing to feed the Content Monster at least once a week. Although it can be a task, this chapter gave me some positive tips on how to satisfy its hunger, especially with the initial two ways to do so as I discussed above. I took a lot out of chapter two (especially from the portion where he listed off several useful websites for blogging with a description of each—that is just so helpful as a blogger!) and I look forward to reading the remainder of the book.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Welcome to Odyssey

If you’ve scrolled through Facebook any time in the past year or so, you’ve probably seen at least one or two articles with the URL “theodysseyonline.com” Maybe you’ve read a few, maybe you’ve even shared a few. But have you ever stopped to think about what Odyssey really is?

I can most certainly answer those questions for you, as I am the Editor in Chief of ONU’s Odyssey team. Odyssey started as an idea by former college student Evan Burns, who realized that the media only targets and shares the stories that they think people want to read. He wanted to create a platform where people, specifically millennials, can write and read and discuss topics that are truly important to them—not just something someone else thought they cared about. Thus, Odyssey was born, and soon enough the site was gaining around 60 million page views each month.

One of the most unique parts about Odyssey is that each article that you see was written by someone not unlike yourself—mostly average college students. Odyssey has over 600 communities across the country filled with team members that are passionate about all kinds of different topics. Each team member, or “Creator”, submits one article per week and shares it all across social media with the hopes that people will read it and share it across the nation. People do go viral sometimes, but even when an article only gets ten shares, their writing is still reaching hundreds and hundreds of people, which is pretty incredible. Plus, despite the amount of shares an article receives, all Creators are writing about whatever they want to write about, which means they have the opportunity of sharing their passions.


Odyssey is a social media platform that aims to revolutionize the way that stories are told online, and you can be a part of it. If any of the above information sparked an interest in you, please do not hesitate to request an invite onto our team here at ONU! If you have any questions regarding Odyssey, feel free to ask me at any time. I am always willing to help! I hope that you consider joining us in this amazing opportunity!