By Yael Evan

From their girl group and peer mentors, a group of students on campus learn the meaning of sisterhood. 

Starting in the spring of 2022, senior Chloe Connely, member of the Chi Omega chapter, decided to invite Empower students to her sorority house for a weekly girl group, after learning about one student’s eagerness to be involved with Greek life. 

Empower is a program on campus for students with disabilities who are non-degree seeking. Their schedule consists of meeting with mentors, taking development classes and internships to prepare them for the real world. Empower students never had the chance to go through sorority recruitment, which motivated Connely to help them find their place in the Greek community.

“I think visibility is everything,” Connely said. “Seeing them in the house and just getting to know them and falling in love with the girls, people are much more impassioned to include them.”

After learning the ropes from Connely, Kappa Delta member, sophomore Maddie Leighr, made it her mission to give Empower students a glimpse of her sisterhood.

“Right now we are working one on one with the Empower program and just trying to get the girls more involved in Greek life,” Leighr said. “We invite them over once a week and we just play games, get to know them.”

For one Empower student, being a part of girl group makes her feel included on campus.

“My friends are in it and it’s fun getting to know people and being in the fancy house, which is a bonus cause it’s like we would never get to do this stuff if it weren’t for you guys, ya know we’re always the outsiders,” Mac Rex said. “They’re not paid, they want to do it, they want to get to know us, they don’t care that we’re unique, different or quirky.”

Girl group meets every Monday at 5 p.m. in the Chi Omega House and every Wednesday at 7p.m. at the Kappa Delta House.

Semester after semester, Connely said she’s seen the safe space it’s created for the girls.

“I think being a part of a sisterhood and having a friend group and being involved weekly allowed them to just kind of open up,” Connely said. “Some of the girls are really shy and over the course of this past year, I’ve seen them start to share a lot more about their lives. We’ve been kind of talking about things that are difficult to talk about, like mental health struggles, stress and safety on campus and (trying) to be a big sister to them.”

Leighr says she wishes the girl group would pave the path for Empower in Greek Life in the future.

“I’m hoping this will kick start something more to where we can get them even more included in Greek life and hopefully just see more sororities see the importance in inclusion,” Leighr said.