Chemical engineering junior Kendall Mueller, a member of Alpha Phi sorority at The University of Texas, said that while some find it tough to balance Greek life and a rigorous major, she’s managed to pull it off well, allowing her to gain a lot from her Greek experience at UT.

“People said it’d be really hard to do engineering and a sorority at the same time, but I did it anyway,” Mueller said. “Whatever it is, if you're passionate, you should do it, because I’ve been able to do it, and on top of that, I’ve been able to hold leadership positions in the sorority too. And it hasn’t affected school at all.”

Mueller, who serves as director of external events for her sorority, said the secret to her success has been staying focused, which she does in part by surrounding herself with other girls in Greek life that are pursuing the same major.

Mueller joined Alpha Phi the first semester of her freshman year, something she said helped her a lot with getting acclimated to UT coming from San Luis Obispo, CA. “Being from California, I didn’t know a single person that was going here,” Mueller said. “But, I decided to go through [recruitment] and it was great because as soon as school started I automatically had a good group of girls to hang out with, people that were very similar to me. And so it helped me to get involved right away.”  

Mueller said she chose UT because it met the criteria she was looking for in a university: a big school, in a city, with good athletic and academic programs. 

She said since coming to UT, she’s discovered just how much she loves sports. “I never really realized I loved football until I came to UT and went to some of the games, and now I won’t miss a game ever,” Mueller said.

Mueller said she really enjoys her job as director of external events, which includes planning the sorority’s social events, because it involves keeping in contact with other Greek organizations. “I love it. It’s really fun to keep in contact with people,” Mueller said. “I’m really outgoing, so I guess that's probably why I got the job. But, it’s cool to be the contact for everything and be able to plan stuff for the chapter.”  

Mueller lives in her sorority house and said she likes how it allows her to easily stay involved with what is going on in the sorority. “It’s fun to be around all my friends at one time, and you kind of get a lot more involved with everything,” Mueller said. “And you also get really close to the freshman that most people don’t get to know so much as they get older, so it’s cool being able to talk to everyone.” 

Mueller said she just got an internship for this summer in Dallas with Frito-Lay, working to maximize the efficiency of its factory operations, and she either wants to enter the engineering field after finishing undergraduate or go to grad school for patent law, depending on how she likes working in the field. “I’ll base it on this internship,” Mueller said.