In Reflecting on this Session: Citizenship

Coming to college, I saw Citizenship as boring hours spent
picking up trash, helping at my towns Journeys End Ministries sorting canned
goods, or cleaning my church hall. It was just an activity I had to accomplish
to receive extra credit in my High School Government class or to help me look
better on paper for the colleges I was applying to.

After joining Phi Rho, the required community service hours
just seemed to become a nuisance. Between school, work, other chapter stuff,
and the other groups I was involved with, it always seemed near to impossible
to find time to get my hours in. Once I took over as president, I tried to make
myself enjoy doing community service in effort to get my girls (especially the
younger members) to appreciate doing service, but the hours still felt like
more of a nuisance than anything.

Then this summer, I started helping with events like
"Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day" and other events that sparked
my interest. I then realized that service is fun if it's something I enjoy, and
teaching middle school girls about airfoils was something that definitely
interests me. Now I try to do events that I would enjoy. Working with the Women
in Engineering program helps me easily find events to help with.

With my chapter, most my members still see Citizenship as a
form of punishment Greek Life imposes on its members. Although some of my older
members are starting to see Citizenship the way I am. One of my members just
became the secretary for another organization in the College of Engineering and
a different member just started volunteering for a WiE program that helps with
a middle school robot competition every weekend. My hope is to encourage the
rest of my members to do things that inspire or interest them instead of just
picking up trash.