Alpha Phi is known for many things. Some know it as the first sorority to have a sorority house. Others may know it as the first sorority to have a website. Many may know it as just another sorority full of girls on a college campus. However, I bet you did not know that Alpha Phi is also the first sorority to have a Women's Leadership Conference.  

Over the summer, I had the pleasure of attending a session of the Conference.  On June 4, I arrived early at Charlotte Douglas International Airport to fly by myself, for the first time. I was heading to Indianapolis, Ind., to the Emerging Leaders Institute (ELI) at Butler University. I had no idea what to expect, especially, being a new member of Alpha Phi.

As I arrived at the airport in Indiana, and headed to where I was supposed to be, I saw a wave of Alpha Phi shirts and we all boarded the bus to take us to the chapter house at Butler University. At my session of ELI, there were 51 girls from all over the United States and even three girls from Canada. We chatted and started to get to know each other, but little did I know that these girls from across the United States would become some of my closest friends. ELI really changed my life in two major ways.

First, I learned so much more about the organization that I was so passionate about. We did many beneficial activities that helped me learn about Alpha Phi, as well as about leadership and what it means to be a leader. Everyone helping with the program was so passionate about everything, it was a breath of fresh air to be around so many people who were so committed to this program.

Over the five days, we took part in numerous activities, starting with really getting to know all the girls and the leaders that were there. We practiced working on a team and got in touch with our competitive sides when we went to a challenge ropes course. We worked on learning how to identify our strengths, our personal values, how improve listening skills, how caring confrontation is sometimes necessary, about women's leadership development, how to identify our personal passions, and what to do when values collide.

Alumni made presentations about what Alpha Phi meant to their life and even had a session about how to keep rituals the way our founders intended them to be. We were broken down into small groups, called Silver Circle groups, where we would really reflect on everything we were learning and open up about our experiences. I learned an incredible amount and I believe being part of this leadership conference helped me grow as a person. 

The second way I was affected by ELI was the friendships that I made. Because we came from different chapters and schools all across America and Canada, each and every person was so unique and different. Somehow, we all meshed together perfectly. If you told me that I would make lifelong friends at a five-day leadership conference I would have said that you were crazy, but to my own disbelief, I know I did make lasting friendships. Not only did these girls become my friends, they gave me the opportunity to learn how other chapters did things and, in turn, I could apply these to my own chapter and make improvements.