MD Gamma goes to UIFI

We were lucky enough to send two of our fabulous leaders, Vanessa Valdivia and Natalie Copeland, to the UIFI (North American Interfraternity) Conference. Natalie shares her experience below:

I spy a Pi Phi sweatshirt and a Pi Phi house.

The adventure that was the UIFI conference began before I even got on the plane to head to Indiana.  While waiting for the very small (as in I had my own one-person-row) plane I met another participant, a Beta Theta Pi from University of Connecticut.  We traveled to Indiana and rounded up even more Greek participants after we reached our destination where there was no bus or person insight.  We eventually took over the main food court in the air port and waited for awhile. That was probably the most down time we ever actually had. 

            Once we reached the Alpha Delta Zeta house, where all 77 (men and women) were going to sleep, the real adventures began.  We set up our bunks and we were off.  From making paper bag “mail boxes” to being thrown into your smaller “chapters” of 10 or 11 people, the conference started with crazy jump-roping games and team building exercises.  From there, my chapter bonded, and throughout the week we were drawn into an intense, honest and dark discussion about the current reputation of the entire Greek system across the country.   

            The two lead facilitators eased us into the serious aspects through discussions of morals and values by first having us move around a room to show who agreed, or disagreed, with simple things like “Is it okay to go 5 miles over the speed limit?” and so on.  After two horrible videos and a serious discussion later, no one really wanted to talk about the Greek system any more.

            As a pick-us-up for the next day, the facilitators had us perform some community service.  My group went and helped out around a preschool at a local women’s shelter.  The children were all adorable and no older that 5 or 6.  We took them to a park and played, which was nice.

            Now, I’m not going to say we resolved everything that we had talked about by Friday and all left feeling good.  Rather, I was more worried leaving UIFI than I ever was actually going there.  Still it was a great experiences and it made me consider how the rest of the world views the entire greek system, not just Pi Phi.  Even though we talk about wearing “our Pi Phi hats,” it’s more than just a “Pi Phi hat”  — it’s an entire larger community of individuals that we are representing and not always representing in the  best light. The main question that UIFI left me and a lot of other participants with was: How can you change this negative stigma? 

            Overall, the entire experience was amazing. Coming from Hopkins with such a small greek population it was eye-opening to meet a large group of individuals from many different organizations. I am really glad that Pi Phi allowed me to have such an opportunity and I can’t wait to see all of my sisters again in the fall!