Editor’s note: This story previously misquoted Amelia Kolb in her description of “stepping.” The Herald regrets this error.
Dozens of WKU students interested in joining a Divine Nine organization gathered in DSU on Thursday to learn more about the different organizations and their rush process.
To start out the Greek 101 session, the group played a round of Kahoot. The questions ranged from WKU NPHC facts to National NPHC facts. Amelia Kolb, assistant director of student activities, also addressed the difference between strolling and stepping.
“Stepping is more like rhythmic stomping and clapping and strolling is more of that staying in a line, uniform dances,” Kolb said. “NPHC life is more than stepping and strolling, that’s something that we want to emphasize as well. Of course it is a fun part of fraternity and sorority life but it is much more than that.”
The Divine Nine are tight knit groups of like-minded individuals. This is largely due to their selective rush process, which looks very different from traditional Greek rush.
Potential new members will attend sessions with their desired fraternity or sorority. PNMs are not required to attend every session, just the ones they are interested in. It is recommended that PNMs do background research on each organization before attending their session. Once accepted by an organization, PNMs must keep it secret from their friends and family until Probate.
“Probate is different for every organization, but the new members who are kind of coming out to the community are going to come in usually with something that is hiding their face and who they are,” Kolb said, “The new members will come out one at a time, they will kind of show their face and their name. They might do a series of performances or shout out their fraternity or sorority history of the organization that they have joined, to show the community ‘I’m in this organization and I know the history.’”
The tight-knit ness of these organizations are also due to the smaller chapter sizes and the amount of time that they spend with their organization.
“For somebody that is new and interested in joining, they don’t understand that sometimes it can be a lifestyle,” Avery Wells, community service chair, said. “My biggest recommendation is to look at your schedule and really think about who you are as a person and what’s your strong areas and what’s you areas of growth. If you can truly dedicate 20, 30, even sometimes 40 hours a week.”
NPHC is very involved with philanthropic work. They are constantly raising money or collecting donations for places in the community that have need. When joining these organizations, one can expect to join in on highway clean-ups or work with schools in the community.
“It’s called the Adapt School Program, basically what we do is just go out to the school and we’re mentoring the kids we’re aiding in different life lessons before they go to their regularly scheduled classes,” Isaak Kidd, the Chaplain, said. “You’re aiding them and teaching them everything about life so that way, when the time comes, they can use the things that they’ve been taught and apply it.”
Joining an NPHC organization is a life-long commitment. Alumni are still very much involved in their organization and it is much more common to have more Alumni initiates.
“Not only are we ininiating people in college and then having them pursue active membership after college, but we are initiating and actively recruiting people after college to come and join our organization as professional individuals,” Wells said.
Those interested in joining an NPHC organization must attend a Greek 101 session. There are two more sessions available this semester, one on Jan. 29 at 4:30 p.m. and the next on Feb. 6 at 5:00 p.m. in DSU 2123.
News Reporter Izzy Lanuza can be reached at [email protected]
