By Jackie Graf
With all of the excitement of Greek Week and the upcoming Greek God and Goddess competition, a lot has been going on around campus regarding Greek life. Greek Week and Greek God and Goddess are great events for the entire community to unite with one another, and are a perfect opportunity for first year students to get a taste of Greek life as well! Katie Stack, the VP of Programming for the Panhellenic Executive Council, gives us some insight into the planning for the week and the exciting events coming up!
Her Campus: So Katie, can you tell us a little bit about what Panhellenic does?
Katie Stack: Panhellenic is the governing council of the six Panhellenic chapters on campus (Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Phi, Delta Gamma, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Pi Beta Phi).
HC: What do your specific duties include as the VP of Programming?
KS: So as VP of Programming, I’m in charge of all of the event planning and programming for the Panhellenic community. So I use events as a way to unite the Panhellenic community and market Greek life to students in a positive way.
HC: You were really involved in the planning of Greek Week and Greek God and Goddess. What was your favorite event during Greek Week?
KS: Each event during Greek week was planned by representatives from each of the four councils on campus, which are IFC (Interfraternity Council), MGC (Multicultural Greek Council), NPHC (National Pan-Hellenic Council) and Panhellenic. One of the nights we put on an intramural night, where teams were made up of people from across all four councils. The teams played sand volleyball, flag football, and tug of war. During the tug of war, the rope broke, so the teams came up with the idea of playing limbo, which was really funny and stuck throughout the entire night. What was fun about it was that we didn’t have a back-up plan but the tams came together and it was really nice to see everyone having such a good time with everyone else at the event.
HC: What is your favorite part of Greek week?
KS: I would say my favorite part of Greek week is that people get the opportunity to meet people outside their chapter and council. I was fortunate enough that I was able to form friendships with people outside my chapter through planning Greek week, and I hope that the events led to new friendships for other people too.
HC: What are you looking most forward to about Greek God and Goddess?
KS: I’m really excited to see all of the dances because they’re usually really fun and a lot of them are really funny. Everyone gets so excited about it, and it’s another great way for all of the houses to come together!
HC: What other things are Panhellenic planning this semester in terms of events?
KS: We have the fall speaker coming up at the end of October. Panhellenic is pairing up with Kappa Alpha Theta to bring Stacy Nadeau to campus to give a presentation about “embracing real beauty”. I’m really excited about this because she was a part of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, and having a positive body image is so important for women on college campuses. I think she’ll be really inspirational and empower everyone who goes to hear her speak.
HC: What is your favorite part of being on Panhellenic Executive Council?
KS: There are so many reasons! One of the big things is that it has definitely challenged me. I’m really interesting in PR and event planning so this has been a really great learning experience. Plus I’ve gotten to know the other seven women on exec and it gave me the opportunity to form such close relationships with women outside of my chapter.