Justina Choe ’12, VP of Recruitment

Since we know that recruitment is on every girl’s mind this week, Her Campus Emory decided to sit down with this year’s Vice President of Recruitment to get a behind-the-scenes look at the craziest two weekends of our semester.
 
Name: Justina Choe
Year: Senior
Hometown: Upper Saddle River, NJ
Major: Finance and French
 
HCE: What does your job entail?
JC: My role is to organize all recruitment events, both in the fall and spring semester like Sorority 411, Novemberfest and Formal Recruitment in January. A major part of my position is also to promote all of the sororities and the benefits of being a sorority woman to encourage as many girls as possible to go through recruitment. I also oversee the ISC Recruitment Board and our recruitment counselors or Pi Chis.
 
HCE: What made you want to be so involved in recruitment?
JC: I became really involved in recruitment my junior year as recruitment chair for my chapter. It was definitely one of the more stressful positions I’ve had at Emory, but I think it’s one of the best to have in a sorority. You get to play an integral role in recruiting the next pledge class and it definitely brought me closer to a lot of girls in my sorority because of all the time we spent together getting ready for recruitment.
 
HCE: What was your experience like when you went through recruitment for the first time?
JC: I’m from New Jersey and the only exposure I had to Greek Life was from movies or T.V. shows so I wasn’t planning on joining a sorority when I came to Emory. I didn’t even know much about the Greek system here before I came. But my three best friends/hall mates and I decided to go through recruitment. I remember being really anxious and tired the entire time. And I was also nervous about joining a different sorority than my friends, which ultimately ended up happening. But that was the best outcome for me; I couldn’t be happier in the chapter I’m in now and it’s not just talk when people say the system does work.
 
HCE: What sparked your involvement with ISC?
JC: My chapter has had a strong involvement in ISC since I joined as a freshman so I’ve always had an idea of what the organization is and does. And after being recruitment chair last year, I realized how much I liked being involved in recruitment. I wanted to get involved in a different aspect and ISC gave me that opportunity. Plus Kris Cole was my suite-mate last year when she had won the election for ISC President so she definitely helped push the idea that I should run for VP of Recruitment.
 
HCE: Have you enjoyed your time in ISC?
JC: I’ve really enjoyed my time and my position this past year and I would absolutely recommend being involved in ISC. It’s easy for people to become very focused on their own chapter and forget that they’re a part of a bigger community. Even just our weekly exec meetings were a great time because we’ve all become friends throughout the year after working so closely with each other. You also get to meet and work with different chapter officers and people outside of Greek Life, so it’s been an amazing experience.
 
HCE: Is recruitment different this year compared to previous years? How so?
JC: I think recruitment has been different this year from an organizational standpoint, at least from the position of ISC because we now have 7 sororities. With more girls going through recruitment and less chapters, it has impacted the scheduling aspect of my job and I’ve had to make more changes than I think others in my position have had to do in the past. I also think the sororities, especially the recruitment chairs, have taken a more active approach to make sure everyone follows the rules so I feel like we’ve had a less catty recruitment thus far, which has been really great.
 
HCE: How would you say recruitment is going so far?
JC: I think recruitment is going amazingly! We had over 400 girls sign up and everyone seems to be having a great time, despite the torrential downpour we had to deal with on the first day. Chapters across the row are having very high return rates for each round so if all goes well, I hope to see as many girls as possible joining a sorority on bid day.
 
HCE: How many people are on your recruitment team?  What do they do?
JC: The recruitment team is made up of three people on the recruitment board and two Pi Chi trainers. The recruitment board is primarily responsible for helping me organize recruitment events and the PR aspect of recruitment. This includes designing and ordering apparel, ordering enough food for everyone during recruitment, making flyers/booklets and many other tasks. The Pi Chi trainers are responsible for training all of our 35 Pi Chis and making sure they are prepared to handle any situation that might arise during recruitment. My recruitment team has been unbelievably helpful this year and kept me from getting too stressed.
 
HCE: Do you mind being neutral for an entire semester?
JC: It’s actually easier than most people think, even though it does limit your wardrobe choices. You have to be careful about being in pictures for date parties or mixers and not posting any of your own pictures. But after being recruitment chair and a member of my sorority for almost 4 years, it was a nice break to be Greek neutral.
 
HCE: What is your favorite part of recruitment?
JC: My favorite part of recruitment is skit night, especially this year because I get to see all of the chapters’ skits. I think it’s the perfect night to show off each chapter’s personality and it’s a comedic relief after the stressful first weekend. I also feel like I’m really going to like bid day this year because that means my job will be over and the pi chis and the rest of ISC get to celebrate with all of the girls at Revelation.
 
HCE: What advice would you give to girls going through recruitment?
JC: My 2 biggest pieces of advice would be to relax and not listen to other people. I think it’s hard for girls going through recruitment to remember that joining a sorority won’t be the defining moment in their lives. A lot of girls get so wrapped up in recruitment like what to wear, what to say, what to do and what not to do that they freak themselves out and get really stressed. It’s important to just be yourself and stay calm. It’s also really important that people don’t let their friends or boys impact their decision because they’re the ones that are going to be in the chapter. Girls ultimately need to decide for themselves where they best fit in and where they would be most happy.