Courtney Sola’s involvement around campus makes her a shining influence throughout Elon University. She held the Director of Recruitment position this past year, and helped in changing the perceptions and format of sorority recruitment. Sola shifted the focus of recruitment towards the Potential New Members’ values, which enabled meaningful conversations between affiliated and unaffiliated women during formal recruitment. Continue reading to see the impact Courtney Sola has made throughout her past four years at Elon.
Name: Courtney Sola
Hometown: Madison, North Carolina
Age: 22
Year: Senior
Major: Strategic Communications
Where do you see yourself after graduation?
After graduation I see myself living in the Carolina’s or moving out West. I hope to work in a university department following graduation, and then I plan to attend graduate school in a few years to get an M.Ed in Student Affairs.
What are you involved in on campus?
For campus involvement, I am involved with sorority life (Sigma Kappa), which led to my involvement with the Panhellenic Executive Council as the Assistant Director of Recruitment and then the Director of Recruitment. I have also been involved with the Office of Admissions as a University Guide for the past three years, and then a Campus Visit Assistant this year. I am also the Communications Co-Director of the Senior Class Giving Committee and a member of the Presidential Student Leadership Advisory Council.
What did you do during your time as Director of Recruitment?
Wow, I did so much! As the Director I had three main responsibilities: training and managing our Recruitment Counselors, educating and managing the Recruitment Chairs and planning and executing pre-recruitment and recruitment events for potential new members. Within those three overarching responsibilities, I had a lot of tasks, such as planning retreats, making schedules, creating educational materials, approving and editing plans, and most importantly, making sure that all Recruitment Counselors, Recruitment Chairs and all potential new members felt confident going through the recruitment process!
What was your favorite part about this position?
I loved a lot about my recruitment position, such as the responsibilities I was given and the relationships I was able to make with the women in our Panhellenic Community. However, I would have to say my favorite part about my position was everything that I got out of it. I learned a lot about myself, my leadership capabilities and higher education (which was especially rewarding because I want to work in higher education in the future). I loved being able to see how I changed throughout my position, but especially this year, how our FSL Office was able to change the perceptions and format of recruitment. This year we really focused on values based recruitment, and were able to help facilitate those discussions by providing trainings for potential new members and affiliated women. We also altered the recruitment schedule to allow PNMs and organizations more time to talk in order to help have these meaningful conversations. Though those seem like little changes, it made the biggest difference during the week of recruitment when it came to PNMs and organizations conversations. It was fun to be able to lead an entirely new format of recruitment this year, and could not have done so without the support and help of our recruitment counselors and professional staff.
What was your favorite part about being a Pi Chi?
My favorite part about being a Pi Chi was being able to meet all the wonderful women from Panhellenic and NPHC organizations. The women I have met through being a Pi Chi are some of the most amazing, genuine and kind-hearted people I have ever met; they all make me incredibly proud to be a Panhellenic woman. Not only was the support I received from them in my position uplifting, but also the support they provided for each other was heartwarming. It’s amazing to see how women from all different organizations, that have usually never met each other before, can create such a strong bond just over three weeks. I also love that the relationships do not end after Pi Chi – we all keep in touch and see each other whenever we can.
What is one piece of advice you would tell a first year coming to Elon?
Whenever talking to prospective and first-year students I always tell them to make sure they become involved with campus and the student body. It is through being involved that students are opened up to new opportunities, are able to find their passions, make new relationships and most importantly, learn the most about themselves. No student should want to leave Elon as the same person that they came in as – everyone should want grow as a person. The best way to grow throughout your four years is to invest yourself in new opportunities, take advantage of them and learn from each experience.