Rebekah Budlong

Rebekah Budlong, senior English education major, is an active member of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority here on campus. Rebekah has enjoyed being a part of the Greek community so much that she decided to run for a position on The Panhellenic Board. Currently as Vice President of Internal Recruitment, she just finished running the formal recruitment process. While recruitment takes a lot of time and hard work for everyone involved, imagine what Rebekah had on her plate while running the whole process!   
 
HC: What made you choose to run for this position on Panhellenic and be in charge of recruitment?
Rebekah: I ran for the VP of Internal Recruitment for Panhellenic because I wanted to impact the Panhellenic and Greek community before I graduated. I absolutely love being Greek and nothing could ever come close to taking the place of the friends I have made and the amazing experiences I’ve had. Since Greek life has given me great friendship, academic success and fun in my three and a half years being at Illinois State, I felt that I had to give back to such a great community and helping bring new women to our organizations seemed like the perfect place for me to start.
 
HC: What was your favorite part about recruitment this year?
Rebekah: I had two favorite moments during this past recruitment. One was when the numbers of registered women just kept climbing in the last couple weeks before recruitment. It was such a rush knowing that that many women were interested in being Greek and in talking with them I knew that this group of potential new members was going to not only be opened minded, but that they were going to have fun with the process.
 
Another amazing moment was when the new members opened their bids and the screaming and excitement happened! This year Bid Night started a little different as all of the bids were placed on the floor of the Brown Ballroom, and women had to search out their bid envelope. Then the best part happened when the women realized that everyone around them were actually in the same chapter and pledge class and then the screaming, crying, jumping around excitement began. It really touched me to see how happy these women were and that all my hard work of the past semester paid off right in that moment.  
 
HC: What did you learn from it and what will you miss the most?
Rebekah: I learned so much from facilitating and planning recruitment! I do have aspirations to go onto graduate school for my higher education degree, so my love and passion for Greek Life will stay part of my day-to-day life. Seeing women from all chapters come together for the common goal recruitment is and becoming as close as we did is inspiring in itself. I’ve learned that our sorority community has such great potential to be a strong collective group of women that we just have to come to the realization that we are all similar and striving for the same things: scholarship, sisterhood, service and leadership. Once all ISU sorority women learn and see how alike we are and how easy it is to have friendships within all chapters, as the Gamma Chi’s did this past recruitment, that’s when our community will have the spirit to lead us to accomplish anything. So with all of that being said, I miss my Gamma Chi’s, also known as recruitment leaders.
 
HC: Is there anything you would like others to know about going Greek and being a part of the Greek community in general?
Rebekah: I think that it is important for anyone who isn’t part of a Greek letter organization to know that it is never too late to go Greek! Being part of a sorority and fraternity changes a person for the better in so many ways! I can honestly say I would not be the person I am or in the place I am today without the Greek letters on my chest and my sorority sisters and fraternity brothers behind my back.