To some, an away WT football game provides the opportunity for a good time and a road trip. However, Greek life uses the time in order to improve upon their leadership skills.
This year leaders of Greek life will attend an away football game for their annual Greek retreat.
“For the Greek leadership retreat we’ll take off Friday and come back Saturday,” Kirby Weaver, vice president of Order of Omega and committee chairman, said.
Each day involves activities in order to develop leadership skills among the attendees.
“Friday night we have breakout sessions and on Saturday we have a few more breakout sessions, and then our guest will talk to us and we will go to the game and then we will go home,” Weaver said.
Along with breakout sessions, the committee selects one leader each year to attend and speak at the retreat.
“We usually take a teacher or adviser from campus that has good leadership skills so that they can talk to us so what we do is each fall semester, we go to an away football game,” Weaver said.
Although the students do have fun during the retreat, they ultimately go to improve both themselves as well as improving the chapter.
“Within the breakout groups, each group member is from a different chapter organization, so you get different points of view. This is important because every chapter is different, every chapter has its pros and cons both externally and internally,” Weaver said. “We want each chapter to have representatives go in order to improve Greek life as a whole and to improve individual chapters. It’s a good way to reflect on your chapter and reflect on what can be improved in each chapter.”
Although there is not yet a set theme for the retreat, the committee is actively planning and considering their options.
“We are still brainstorming on what we will do exactly this year. It will most likely be recruitment, because we feel like all the chapters could improve on it,“ said Weaver.
The retreat focuses on leadership in a group setting and offers students a unique insight on different points of view.
“The difference between this and other leadership events on campus is that even though this is strictly Greek, you get to adjust your strong points and weak points, and adjust those and sit down and realize what my chapter does that others do not,” said junior Biochemistry major and Greek Retreat attendee Brian Pantoja.
The retreat also provides unique leadership experience.
“You learn not only how to be a leader but also how to apply your leadership skills. It was a good experience to get me out of my comfort zone and my favorite part about it was getting to pair with other chapters to find out what worked with each,” vice president of Zeta Tau Alpha Ashlee Adams said.
She is also ready to apply her leadership ability to the planning process as Greek life prepares for their retreat.
“I am going this year and we just started planning it and I’m excited to be a part of putting my opinions in and seeing how it turns out,” Adams said.
The Greek Retreat is an event that Greek life looks forward to and develops leaders among the Greek community.
“Greek life gets you out of your comfort zone, and it opens up doors and opens up your eyes to other things. It’s a challenge to do something different, to take initiative, and to be a leader. When you look at our presidents in history only two of them were not Greek. So just that opportunity of being a leader and being Greek is something unique,” Pantoja said.
