Thursday, August 29, 2013

Keep Calm and Live For More

                      Here we go again! The start of another school year, but this beginning is bitter sweet because it is also my last year as an undergraduate student.  This year we have all been called by Magis, which asks us "to do and be more" or as Father Curran defines it, live greater. I can't help but feel like there isn't a better theme for me to start my last year at Rockhurst with than this one! Along with this new theme, we welcome another large incoming freshman class to campus as well. I want to give a warm welcome to the class of 2017. Enjoy your time here because it flies by, try to make the impact you can but really take this time to grow and learn more about yourself. Become that man or woman you have always wanted to be! This year promises to be an exciting conclusion to my undergraduate time here, as well as an exciting time for Rockhurst!

 As the new president of Order of Omega, I am excited to help usher Greek Life into a whole new light on campus. Order of Omega is a leadership honor society for those that are in Greek Life, both sororities and fraternities. Here at Rockhurst we wanted members who care about Greek Life and want to see a community grow within Greek Life, but Order of Omega is not based on just Greek Life. The organization also wants to help benefit the school and those who are unaffiliated, by helping with different things that represent our three pillars of Learning, Leadership, and Service, something that is ingrained in the makeup of Rockhurst. When we looked at these pillars we tried to think of different things that we could do that would affect both the Greek Community and the Rockhurst student population. We decided on doing an all Greek Service Project, since the school already does Finucane, which is open to anyone to participate. We saw a need to create a project that would help to unify our different Greek organizations and we felt that uniting the chapters through service would be a great way to live out our Jesuit values and to create memorable experiences.

                This summer the Vice President of Order of Omega, Emily Mazzoni went to a meeting about volunteer services that are all located around the Kansas City area. Here she learned about lots of different projects that needed our help, however because we were looking at having a larger group her at the project we had to make sure the program could handle a large number of people. Emily and I talked about the projects and narrowed it down to three organizations that had the space we needed, and feasibility to create the project. Right now, the Order is finalizing plans to volunteer with one of the three options and we could not be more excited! Stay posted for more updates about my senior year, and how the All Greek Service Project is going!