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Monday, October 7, 2013

Emerging Leaders Institute




Alpha Phis across the nation and at the Beta Mu chapter here at The University of Alabama thrive on five values: Sisterhood, character, service, scholarship and loyalty. The common ground that all five of these values have is leadership. Alpha Phi offers each member a chance to proclaim their leadership through a program called, emerging leaders institute, commonly known as ELI. ELI joins at Butler University in Indiana to help Alpha Phis learn how to be an effective leader and also allows all the sisters to come together from across the country and even Canada!

The Beta Mu chapter was lucky enough to send four of our amazing sisters to experience ELI! Paige Trotter, president of the Beta Mu chapter, Sara Lyerly, VP of Risk Management, Allison Floyd, VP of Chapter Operations and Geordan Saindon. It changed each of their lives for the best and has helped open doors to bigger and better things! Paige Trotter explained that ELI is what encouraged her to run for Chapter President because of the resources, community, and support she got there. The girls not only learned how to become the best leader possible but they had fun while doing it! Geordan Saindon stated, “Each night there’s a fun activity like the talent show where you get to bond with everyone that’s there and there was always two desserts.” Allison Floyd also had the time of her life stating, “We all couldn’t help but think this was going to be a long five days…it turned out those five days weren’t long enough.” From all of the meetings the women had to all of the fun filled activities and socializing the girls were exhausted but were absorbing the information they were given like a sponge. Saindon said, “They go into intense details about things such as ritual and initiation, and it was interesting because there’s so much meaning behind it all that you would never know about.” As each day went on the meetings began getting deeper and deeper as you get closer to your sisters from different chapters; Floyd had mentioned that, “it wasn’t the activities or the power points that made us better leaders, it was getting to know each other on a personal level and listening to one another’s points of view.” Saindon agreed with this statement completely and talked about one of the most life changing experiences with the ELI program, when they had to complete a high ropes course that helped each woman conquer their fears and had to trust their sisters at the end to let go.

Each Beta Mu member had an extremely positive experience at ELI and became a great leader. Each individual who attended has come back home to Tuscaloosa and benefited our chapter in positive ways! Sara Lyerly talked about how amazing her experience was and how she was shocked how quickly she bonded with the other Alpha Phis stating, “Whenever I have a question about anything or want to visit another school I know I can call on the girls I met at ELI for anything!” Saindon followed up saying, “As soon as I got home I began missing the awesome girls I got to meet, and I still keep in touch with the majority of them!” All four of the Beta Mu girls who attended ELI said it was a life changing experience and highly recommend it to any Alpha Phi! Applications for Summer 2014 will be available mid-December through the link provided below.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Phis Overseas



Grae Adair in South Africa


Alex Chandler, Blaire Cunnane, Amanda Schott and Jacqui Walker in Italy




Here at The University of Alabama we thrive on excellence of oneself and as a community as a whole. A handful of Alpha Phis took the opportunity to better different communities off of The Capstones campus by traveling and studying abroad during the summer semester. These ladies got to embark on an adventure that they will remember for the rest of their lives!
Vice President of Member Education, Grae Adair, traveled to Capetown, South Africa to explore the unknown and complete credit hours for her public relations major. She chose Africa, “because I wanted to explore somewhere new and different than what the normal study abroad experience is (which is Europe). I felt like Africa is somewhere I probably would not have the chance to go to anytime,” Grae commented.  Global Lead ran her study abroad program; Global Lead is an organization that students from multiple different universities can use when they travel abroad. “Global lead is probably the only study abroad program I would recommend,” Grae stated, “it has all the components of different study abroad programs put into one and you really get the most out of the trip because you have the opportunity to do so many amazing things.”  She described her trip to be shockingly eye opening and helping her reflect on her plans for the future and learning more about herself along the way!

Grae wasn’t the only Alpha Phi who had an unbelievable experience; Jacqui Walker, interior design major, chose Florence, Italy and was in shock at how she felt so at home there and was dreading leaving: “It was almost impossible to say goodbye. I really fell in love with every part of the Italian culture.” Jacqui commented on how she had learned so much in the past years about different churches and artists and, “to see the actual piece or building I studied was unreal.”

There were other Alpha Phis in Italy too! Amanda Schott (Vice President of Campus Relations), Alex Chandler and Blaire Cunnane all joined Jacqui on her adventure as well! Blaire Cunnane talked about their rigorous schedule of classes from 9:30 to 1:30 Monday through Thursday and on the weekends the students would get to travel to different cities in Italy. “We visited Milan, Rome, Venice, Sienna, Pisa, Greve, Chianti, Tuscany, the island of Elba and Cinque Terre,” Blaire stated. While all the cities were a new journey each time, Blaire said, “I wouldn’t have wanted to study in any city other than Florence, there was so much to do there!”

Each of the girls got to explore different cities in each country and every girl highly recommends taking advantage of the study abroad programs offered at The University of Alabama and at other universities across the country! We’re so happy our sisters made it home safe and ready to take on another year at UA!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Life is sweet as an Alpha Phi



At Alpha Phi, we love to have sisterhood events. Our recent sisterhood, "Life is sweet as an Alpha Phi", was a favorite among the members.