The UCLA School of Nursing is like a small family. Despite this, it can be hard to connect with nursing students in other cohorts, but ATD, the Nursing fraternity at UCLA, brings nursing students of all cohorts together. Here is Alpha Tau Delta aka ATD: Greek life, but make it Nursing’s version!
Sofia, BSN 4, ATD President, member for four years, says “I think it would be really easy to go through our nursing program not ever meeting nursing students outside of your cohort. ATD allows us to meet all of the other nursing students.”
Traditional Fraternity vs. Professional Fraternity
ATD is a professional fraternity, so let’s break down the difference between a traditional fraternity and a professional fraternity!
Traditional fraternity/sorority:
- Social Focus: They often emphasize social activities, sisterhood/brotherhood, and community service.
- Traditions: They typically have initiation rituals, traditions, and a structured hierarchy within the organization.
- Membership: Membership in traditional fraternities is often for life and extends beyond college years.
- Networking: Networking is a component, but it’s usually less focused on specific professional interests.
- Activities: Activities may include parties, philanthropic events, sports, and other social gatherings.
Professional fraternity:
- Career Focus: Professional fraternities are geared towards students pursuing specific career paths, specifically nursing with ATD.
- Networking and Career Development: They provide networking opportunities, career development resources, and connections within the industry or profession. ATD has panels with nurses across an array of specialties with opportunities to gain insight into what they entail!
- Education and Training: Professional fraternities offer workshops, seminars, and events focused on skill development and career advancement.
- Professionalism: Professional fraternities emphasize professionalism, leadership, and academic excellence related to the chosen field.
What’s alpha tau delta (ATD)?
ATD is the only nursing fraternity on campus. When you think of the word fraternity, or “frat”, you might be less inclined to think of an organization that is fully focused on preparing you for your future career, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. With this professional nursing-exclusive organization, students are committed to working together to promote their personal and intellectual growth through education, networking, and guidance.
We also get families in ATD! Members join a family of bigs and littles. The “big” is an older member of the frat who serves as a mentor and guide to a newer member. The big offers the little support, advice, and assistance as they navigate their fraternity experience. The “little” is a newer member who gets support and feels assured since their big was in their shoes before! This creates a tight bond between students of all ages and a lifelong network.
Bts of ATD!
Although ATD highlights the importance of giving back and serving the needs of others, nursing students need to prioritize a work/life balance. ATD helps them with that!
We have an intramural sports team, so it’s fun to see the competitive side of fellow cohort members! We also do a lot of fun bonding activities such as hiking, yoga, picnics, and seasonal potlucks.
The ATD presidents, Kevin and Sofia (BSN 4s, Class of 2024) also shared some of their favorite parts of being in ATD:
Kevin:
“It’s a good time; it’s a professional fraternity, we don’t have any kind of house. The most stable location we share is our school of nursing auditorium. So it’s very different in that we don’t haze, we don’t throw crazy parties or anything like that. But we do have social events, community service, events, fundraising, events, and professional events as well.”
“It creates a support system for people within the realm of nursing. This is what we serve to do. We are here for the members of the school of nursing. I would say it falls in line with more of an organization rather than a Greek fraternity.”
“Compared to the premed frats, the premed ones are much more prestigious in their own part. ATD is unique since we are the sole nursing fraternity. If you’re already in the school of nursing, there’s no big pressure. You’re not competing with hundreds or thousands of applicants. You can just join and there’s no reason to not try, especially if you’re in the school of nursing. It’s a great network to be a part of, and I highly recommend it.”
“ATD has got the most participation as far as any clubs or organizations at the school of nursing and we bring the cohorts together. I’ll be walking out of class say, “Hi” to a bunch of BSN 3s or BSN 2s as a BSN 4 and my classmate will look at me and say, “Oh, how do you know them?” and I say, “ATD, I know these people through our organization!” Our club advisor, Professor Totten, was an ATD member, a different chapter when she went to school, so it spans over different schools as well. We’ve done partnerships with Cal State LA and we’re in the works of doing one with UCI.”
“I can name at least 3 or 4 individuals that I can reach out for help on anything on a career basis just from ATD and that is a priceless resource to have!”
Sofia:
“I’ve been a part of ATD since my very first quarter; I joined as a freshman! The BSN program is really small with 40-50 of us. Taking classes together every quarter for four years, we grow really close and it’s wonderful, but I also wanted to meet nursing students from other years and gain mentors. I think the mentorship that I found in ATD was one of the biggest things that has helped me because I was able to look to older nursing students who were a year or two older than me and just really use their guidance and their wisdom as they have navigated the program, whether that was little things like, how do I study for this class or how do I be successful in this class? But also bigger conversations like, what nursing do I want to do? Especially once I got to clinicals, even just having the emotional support of like, this was a really hard day, and I don’t know how I handled it. Just getting advice about that aspect of nursing is also really important because I feel like other nurses and other nursing students really understand the unique challenges of being a nursing student, and so having that support from them is huge.”
“I became really close with my bigs, and they became mentors and also friends. It was just really nice having older, familiar faces in the school. And then I also had littles as I got older, and it was really sweet to be able to mentor them and answer their questions and help them out. The family system is a really cool thing that we do that I think sets us apart from other nursing organizations as well, but that’s a similarity with Greek life.”
“We’re very big in service and professionalism and camaraderie. I would say that that maybe sets us apart from the typical stereotype of Greek life. And then comparing to other professional frats, like the pre-med ones, I’d say it’s way more similar to professional pre-med fraternity. We’re smaller because it’s just nursing students, so that’s really nice is that you get that space to just be with other nursing students. I’ve talked to a handful of people who are pre-nursing, like they want to join the Master’s Entry Clinical Nursing program or the MECN program.”
advice from atd presidents
Our outgoing presidents also shared some advice!
Kevin: “A shift in perspective. We’ve already put in a lot of work, just to get into the school and program, but ultimately trying to shift my perspective to be open towards the wide amount of options and opportunities there are within the field of nursing. A good piece of advice a mentor gave me was to not limit yourself and essentially strive for opportunities. That will give you the most options as you grow throughout your career. When I was trying to decide between specific departments, my mentor gave me a piece of advice and he told me to try and increase the opportunities that I would have later on through that decision.”
Sofia: “I think if you are a nursing student at UCLA and you are looking for a place where you can develop as a professional, network with nurses and nursing students, and really grow academically and professionally, but also have a safe place where you can find a mentor that will help you in nursing school and find friends who will go through this journey with you, I think ATD is absolutely the place to be. Getting involved early and taking on those leadership roles can be huge for the development of your professional career as well!”