Ask a Trojan: Rec Letters and Rushing Panhellenic as an African American
By Kelly Kinas ‘16
Panhellenic Recruitment starts August 20th with the Rules Symposium. You can apply here until then but you may have some questions now. I am totally here for you! I rushed my freshman year, was on the sister side of recruitment my sophomore, & was the VP of New Member Education on the Panhellenic Council last year (Junior year)!
So if you have any questions, just go to our ask box and ask away like s0phistique did! Her question was “What is it like for an african american student to rush a panhellenic sorority?”
So first off, I’ll answer the second question first. Recs (or recommendation letters) are not necessary at all for USC Panhellenic Recruitment. If you want to have some, great. Have none? No problem! They can only help. It’s not like in the South where you need to have a rec letter to get asked back to a house. Just be you.
Okay so the first question. I will say right out front that I am not African American. I have been through the rush process as I am, a mutt of everything European and white as they come, so I don’t have any experience in that.
But that being said, Panhellenic Recruitment is for everyone, no matter the nationality, ethnicity, religion, etc.
While I might not know what is it is like, one of my good friends is an African-American/mixed race woman in a sorority so I asked her.
She said, “I definitely think I had a completely different experience. I remember getting into groups with our RCs (Recruitment Counselors) and there weren’t many girls who weren’t white. And I’m completely used to that, I grew up in Colorado. I’m 4 different races so I’ve never taken on the whole ‘I’m only black thing’ (I’m Jamaican, Hawaiian, French, and Italian). But when the first sorority’s doors open and your peer in and see that wow I’m the only black girl here. You start to wonder why.”
Every sorority is different. Every experience is different. My friend chose a house not based on its “ranking” but based the sorority’s acceptance as her as a person.
In her words, “I picked a house that celebrates diversity and even if there aren’t as many people of color in the sorority, they have addressed and acknowledged people’s differences as beneficial.”
Is it different to go through Panhellenic Recruitment as a woman of color? Yes, it is. That fact sucks but it’s true. Will you be able to find a home away from home and a strong sisterhood to support you throughout your college years? Hell yes.
My advice is to go through recruitment, talk with your RCs, and find the sorority that values you.
If you feel like none of the Panhellenic sororities are the place for you, remember that there are non-Panhellenic sororities. There are cultural sororities, professional fraternities that accept males and females, and there are so many activities at USC that can give you a similar support system.
But I’m slightly biased towards one. Oops.
Rush PHC and Fight On!
