The Kadenza

Hello from Bowling Green State University!

This year is proving to be a great one for Alpha Xi. Last night, we held our First Degree and pinned 18 membership candidates. Each of the candidates are proving to be great potential sisters and I am so proud to be helping them on their way. Also helping these MCs are their bigs who were just revealed last night!

Something new that our chapter tried as an ending to our First Degree was a Big Sister-Little Sister Ceremony, which is what I really want to share with the District in this article. Using an old ritual book as a starting point, members of our chapter put together a short ceremony which involved a reading done by the VPM that discussed the importance of family in TBS and the love and support that your family can provide for you. After the reading, the littles picked up a white flower and handed it to their Big Sister who in turn read them a short pledge, expressing their dedication to them as a Big Sister and as a friend.

One of the reasons why we wanted to implement this new ceremony was to really encourage the bond between Bigs and Littles. Being a Big is no small task and all too often, the significance of it is forgotten or not as well shown as it should be. A Big Sister is someone who really connects the MC to the sisterhood and helps them on their path to becoming an active sister in the bond. They must be great role models to their Little and show them what being a sister is all about. All of those things were discussed in the ceremony and the pledges and I really think that the message was conveyed.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy and appreciate the ceremony and I hope that it becomes a tradition in our chapter!

Thank you so much for reading this and from the sisters of Alpha Xi to your chapter, we hope that everyone is having a great year.

If anyone is interested in receiving a copy of the script from the Big Sister-Little Sister ceremony or a copy of the Pledge, I would love to share it with you! Either comment on this post with your email or email me at shammer@bgsu.edu expressing your interest.

ITB,

Sarah Hammer

Alpha Xi Vice President of Membership