Angels Abroad!

MD Gamma has a few sisters abroad this semester! Junior Emily D. is currently attending University College of London and shares her experiences so far.

This semester, I'm taking some time away from Hopkins and my MD Gamma sisters to study abroad at University College London.  I've been across the pond for almost three weeks now and so far it's been a great experience.  Studying abroad is giving me the opportunity to take courses that I wouldn't have had access to at home, such as Art History in London, in which class is held in galleries around the city, and Politics of the European Union. 
    In addition to my academics, I've had ample opportunity to explore the city and soak up the culture and history.  A few new American friends and I have adopted the tradition of Cultural Wednesdays.  Since class schedules tend to be particularly light on Wednesdays, we use the day to pick interesting sites around London to visit.  On the first "Cultural Wednesday" we climbed The Monument to the Great Fire of London, and last week we visited the Tower of London and Tower Bridge!
    Over the next few months I will continue to explore London, and I will also venture out to other places in Europe.  I already have plans in the works for trips to Spain, Scotland (where hopefully I will see MD Gamma members Pearl and Nicole, who are studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh), and Ireland.  I also have a couple of friends from Hopkins and my hometown visiting over their spring breaks, and my parents are visiting in April!  It will be nice to be able to show everyone around my temporary home as I become more and more familiar with the area.
    Thus far, most of the people I've met here are Americans also studying abroad.  Coming in mid-year makes meeting people challenging, but I'm looking forward to meeting more full-time British students as time goes on.  One thing is for sure, I miss my Pi Phi sisters!  I wish MD Gamma all the best during the upcoming Sisterhood Week and Spring Recruitment and I can't wait to meet our fabulous new member class when I return.

Oh the places you'll go!

Our angels at here at Maryland Gamma are well traveled! Check out some photos from the places our sisters visited this past winter break.

Vanessa in Israel

 

Devin, Sarah and Jess in Las Vegas.

Georgia in China!

Georgia talks a bit about her time in China:
Since I was studying abroad in China this fall, I decided to travel around the country during winter break. I spent three weeks traveling through China on planes, 24-hour trains, and overnight buses (on which you get stuck sleeping in a bed with strangers if you don't claim a bed early!). I went to incredibly modern cities whose skyscrapers light up in different colors and designs at night, countryside far enough removed that public long-distance buses are waved down like taxis by farmers, and industrial cities with smoke stacks interspersed between super tall apartment buildings. First, I went south to see the rice terraces in Yunnan Province. I ended up getting lost hiking through the terraces and got a lot of strange looks from local farmers. From there I went to see the unique karst landscape (strangely pointy little mountains) in Yangshuo. I went biking around the countryside and explored a cave. I spent Christmas in Macau, wandering through the colonial Portuguese-style buildings and Christmas lights. I visited a friend in Hong Kong for New Years where I saw the fireworks and ate my weight in dim sum. Next, I went back to Beijing, where I had been studying, and made friends with the owner of the dumpling shack for whom my friend is currently interning. Lastly, I went to Harbin, which is so far north that your camera battery will die from the cold. There I wandered through the ice festival and saw intricate snow sculptures and giant ice buildings with colorful lights in them. Even though I'm still I a little surprised I made it out alive what with the many mistakes I made (you can never get travel plans exactly right in China; it always take a little improv), it was an adventure of a lifetime and I'm really glad I took the initiative and went.

"Some things are just worth it."

On November 19th, MD Gamma initiated 10 new angels! Shari, a sophomore transfer student, shares her experience joining Pi Phi and the Hopkins community.

    Before deciding to join Pi Phi, I never really understood the need to join a Greek organization. I honestly could not comprehend the desire to sport neon shirts with Greek letters and call genetically dissimilar girls my sisters. However, after becoming an initiated member of Pi Phi I realized that Greek life is about a lot more than the physical symbols that can be seen around campus. As a sophomore transfer student, I came to Johns Hopkins knowing very few people. During my first week of classes, I would ask friendly people I met generic questions such as “Where are you from?” and “What’s your major?”. I also always made sure to include the question “What organizations do you participate in on campus?” to try to discover interesting things to get involved in. The link that connected all of the nice girls I met within my first few weeks here was three simple words: Pi Beta Phi. Realizing that I had nothing to lose by trying out the sorority, I figured I would give it a shot. I would like to thank my impulses for telling me to take a risk that day because I could not be happier with the result of my experience.

Ilana and Shari at Pink Party!

    As a new member, I immediately felt welcomed by every girl in the sorority. I opened my Facebook to find a number of messages filling up my inbox all from Pi Phi girls telling me how happy they were that I was choosing to join their sorority. This sense of enthusiasm and positive energy made me smile, knowing that this sisterhood was more than nominal. These girls would be there to support me. In addition, as a new member I attended meetings to learn about Pi Phi history, rules, and PanHellenic Council as a whole. I found these meetings so interesting that I often caught myself saying things to friends like “Don’t you think it’s interesting that Pi Phi was coined as a Fraternity?” which would immediately delve me into a long story about the history of Pi Phi.
    I also really enjoyed our first cookieshine, when all of the girls surprised the new pledging members outside of our meeting with loads of candy, cupcakes, and enthusiastic cheers. This show of happiness and enthusiasm further reinforced in my mind that joining Pi Phi was one of the best choices I had made since coming to campus a few months earlier. Interestingly, later on in the process, all of the pledges were interviewed by members of the AAC about what we liked and disliked about the new member process. When the woman turned to ask my opinions I had literally nothing negative to say. The only thing I could think of was that I wished I had more time to get to know all of these amazing and diverse girls better.
    As a newly initiated member, I couldn’t be happier with my decision to join Pi Phi. The girls are kind, genuinely caring, and continue to surprise me each and every day. When I receive a text on my phone from a sister just wishing me a Happy Thanksgiving, always with an enthusiastic smiley face, or run into a sister to eat with on campus, I truly feel like a member of the Hopkins community. Pi Phi has truly helped to make my transition to Hopkins a million times smoother and I could not be more grateful for that. I am now proud to be a new member of Pi Phi and sport our colors and letters around campus.
    On initiation day my friend saw me walking in a white dress and heels towards Charles Commons, where initiation was held. He stopped me and proclaimed, “I didn’t know you wore heels. I thought you said they were uncomfortable and painful.” To which I instantly retorted “Some things are just worth it.” In this case, Pi Phi is one of those things.

These are a few of my favorite things...

Aishwarya Rajagopalan was inspired by our win at Greek Weekend last month and tells us why she is grateful for Pi Phi!

Originally, I wrote a post exclusively about Greek Weekend, but in thinking about how gratifying it felt to take the title of Greek Weekend Champions, there were too many emotions to simply focus on the mechanics of the event. Instead, in the holiday spirit, I want to share a little list of the many things in Pi Phi that allow me to experience gratitude each day. Obviously this isn’t everything –I would be writing for years- but it’s a start, and I hope it will spur your own “list”.

Getting pumped for Powderpuff

First, I am thankful for the fact that my sisters are talented in every single way. From running the ball down the whole field to score touchdown after touchdown to baking lemon squares that taste like a little bit of heaven, I find myself learning more and more about the world through their involvements and my own!
I am grateful for our ritual, and how it binds us together once a week. We come to Chapter Meetings not only because we have to, but also because it connects us to thousands upon thousands of women who live the same values we strive to keep as our own. So if there’s one source of comfort in stressful times, it’s the fact that I know that somewhere along the way, I’m becoming a nobler woman, and thousands of women are doing the same.

Nap time at Pink Party?

I love that our headquarters has put so many structures in place to give us the support we need as a developing chapter. Working with Panhellenic can be challenging sometimes, just because I don’t always have the answers, but our AAC and Regional Team has never failed to offer insight into everything from mundane questions about recruitment policies to the more exciting Greek Weekend planning. It also doesn’t hurt that we have an incredible LDC who makes herself available to us pretty much any time for just about anything, from a cup of coffee to life advice. 

Champions for the second year in a row!

I guess I should take a moment to say that I’m really grateful for all the shirts I have accumulated over the year. It is so nice to not have to do laundry once a week anymore! Also I love the fact that every Wednesday, when Panhellenic women wear our letters, we show that Greek women are involved all over campus, whether it’s volunteering to teach computer literacy, or calling alums to re-establish connections to Hopkins at the Phonathon.

Date party!

I am forever indebted to Pi Phi for the opportunities I have received to develop myself as a leader on campus. Whether it’s serving as a Greek Weekend delegate or working on a private Bikram Yoga class for my sisters, I am cultivating a skill set that I just don’t get in the classroom: the servant leadership model. As a hopeful physician, my whole life will be dedicated to being that servant leader to my patients. I can only work with their goals, and I must always put their interests first. I never imagined that Greek Life would have such a profound impact on my professional goals.
Above all these –and the thousands of other aspects of Pi Phi that I cherish –I am most appreciative of the bonds of sisterhood that I have forged this past year. There’s a reason that we had such high participation rates in the Greek Weekend events- we genuinely love spending time together. At the Cook Off, so many sisters huddled around our tasty treats and even prepared me a plate of snacks as I worked check in; it was cold, but we all came together for a delicious afternoon. At Powderpuff, we packed the stands to cheer on our fierce athletes and took the trophy for the second year in a row. Most recently, we crowned a second Pi Phi as Hopkins Top Model. Beyond these accomplishments are the little things that make sisterhood so special.

Our newest angels!

It’s the hugs on a bad day, the smiles on a good one, the laughter in the library, and just seeing someone else in your letters on campus. Pi Phi is everything to me, and this holiday season, I hope you will take some time to reflect on what it means to you too.

Dancing The Night Away

MD Gamma has had a busy semester, including two date parties! Our first, themed Beauty and the Geek, took place in September.

 Caitlin, Allison, Elizabeth and Sasha dressed to theme!

Anna, Aishwarya and Dia, some of the beauties!

In October, we had our Halloween-themed date party!

Madalyn, Aishwarya, Kaitlyn, Emily and Emily in costume.

Vanessa and Brittany make quite the pair!

Stay tuned for pictures from our formal in December!

Pi Phis plant for peace on 9/11

Ali ('12) and Jenny ('14) enjoyed forging paths and planting seeds for sustainability and solidarity to commemorate 9/11.

Unlike any other weekend, when most students opt to sleep in after late nights of going out or studying, MD Gamma’s Alexandra Cohen, ’12 and Jenny Ferentz, ‘14 dedicated one Sunday morning to doing something different — on September 11^th, these sisters chose to perform community service at Hopkins Hillel’s Urban Garden. 

The girls, along with ten other JHU students and seven members of the local Baltimore community, spent an hour preparing soil and planting several Fall species, including lettuce, arugula, chives, cilantro, spinach, beets, and radishes.  The primary goal of Hillel’s Urban Garden Community is to harvest and serve the ripe produce at holiday meals later in the semester.  It also aims to educate various student groups on the importance of sustainable food growth and more importantly, on the interconnected nature of environmental stewardship and faith-based action.

Both originally from New York, Ali and Jenny found additional meaning in Sunday’s planting event.  Reflecting on the day, Cohen shares, “…9/11 has been marked by mourning and remembrance of the heroic Americans who lost their lives in terrorist attacks against our country.  As a New Yorker, I feel particularly effected by the tragedy, but I also recognize the incredible humility of those who came together to strengthen and rebuild our great Nation’s pride and security.  On this, the tenth anniversary of September 11^th, I found it important to vow to never forget the events that took place on that horrible day in history, but to also act to build community and work towards the betterment of American society.  I chose to plant in Hillel’s Garden on 9/11 to recognize the potential for renewal of hope in America and in the world.  As our seeds will sprout into healthy and lush plants, America, too, will continue to grow out of this era of fear, and will hopefully one day experience peace with its current enemies.  It was important for me to act philanthropically on 9/11 to show my solidarity with those who remember our fallen and those who wish to build, or plant, a stronger society built on Fraternal values.  It also doesn’t hurt to know that in a few weeks I’ll get to eat some tasty vegetables that I planted!” 

Appropriately, Ferentz wore a t-shirt marked with a large peace sign. She spoke of the experience, "The leader of the day gave us a kavannah (in English, "intention") for our planting – to think about something that we want to exist in the future that the plants we were putting in the ground could grow to represent. At first, my mind went directly to hope and peace, but then I decided that the seeds I placed in the earth would stand for unity and a commitment to believing in a tomorrow more safe than today. I am so happy I was able to participate in this activity on such a landmark memorial for my generation." 

The Garden planting event was part of an initiative through the Jewish Volunteer Connection of Baltimore and Kayam Farm in Reisterstown, MD.  Participants citywide elected to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 by contributing to a variety of community service projects.  To follow the growth of the Hopkins Hillel Urban Garden, ‘like’ the Facebook page here.

Other Chapter members marked the day by attending a Commemoration event and candlelight vigil hosted by Johns Hopkins University Muslim Association (JHUMA), Hopkins Hillel, and Students Educating and Empowering for Diversity (SEED).  Jenny attended the planting and the campus-wide commemoration event.  “The 9/11 ten year memorial service was an important event to go to as a New Yorker, an American, and as a "9/11 baby."  I definitely felt like a part of the Hopkins community as the night went on, and overall it was a unifying and meaningful event.”

— Ali Cohen

Pi Phis are everywhere!

We may have been far apart this summer, but Pi Phi was still dear to our hearts! Whether its wearing your letters or chatting up a stranger, our sisters have found that the Pi Phi connection extends way beyond our chapter. Here were some of our experiences this year:

Kristin B.
I was walking through my neighborhood and saw an older woman struggling to carry groceries from her car to her house. When I stopped to help, we began talking and I mentioned I was a Pi Phi. She got really excited and said she was a Pi Phi as well, started talking about her college days, and all the Pi Phi songs and events. It's neat to see just how lifelong Pi Phi is!

Nicole C.
It was right after Initiation and I was walking to class in the morning. The girl behind me commented that she liked my Pi Phi bag and it turned out she was also a Pi Phi. She's a JHU grad student from Virginia Tech. She wished us all luck and was happy for us.

Anna H.
I was working in retail over winter break, just a few weeks after we had gotten initiated. There was a customer who was wearing a JHU sweatshirt, so I started chatting her up. She went to JHU Med School, and when she saw my Pi Phi lavaliere, she recognized me as one of the new charters, and was super exited for us. I expected active members to kind of know that we just started a chapter, but it's really cool that alumnae keep so up to date and involved, too.

Emily K.
I went to the pool with my friend and wore our Homecoming tank top. And older woman stopped by and asked if I was a Pi Phi and proceeded to tell me that she was too. She went to Florida State University and lives in Las Vegas now. She was hilarious and sweet, and told me that she was excited for our chapter. She said that we have an enormous and amazing network of women across the country with Pi Phi and wished our chapter the best!

Christina W.
I was visiting law schools and feeling very overwhelmed by everything. When chatting with an alumni of one, I felt an instant connect. Willing to share her law school experiences with me, it wasn't surprising to learn that she was a Pi Phi at Stetson University! Later, I was helping with a book drive in NYC and was wearing my Pi Phi sweatshirt. Turns out a lot of the volunteers and teachers were Pi Phi alumnae - always continuing to support literacy!