The word fraternity has it’s own connotations and meanings depending on who are. Sometimes it implies a quality experience filled with support and fond memories from relationships built through the fraternal experience. Others view the word to mean the stereotype that the media, red Solo cups and Sperry shoe brand have created. What a business fraternity offers is an experience that goes completely beyond all common fraternity stereotypes.

I came into second semester of freshman year feeling a bit idle. As a business student, you don’t like to be bored often. You like to be challenged, always moving forward, constantly meeting new faces and making new connections. I had just joined Chi Omega, gained 200 new beautiful sisters, yet I still felt like I was missing something.

My roommates actually convinced me to rush the business fraternity, and from the get-go, I was entirely skeptical. It’s all a very intimidating process, seeing collegiate students all in their professional get-up, interviewing you and monitoring how you are doing as a pledge. I can honestly say, however, that NOTHING has been a more rewarding experience than rushing Delta Sigma Pi.

One thing that people take for granted about brotherhood is how effortless it is. You are brought together with people that you probably would have never interacted with before, yet you develop a bond unlike any other. My brothers became my family, the people I can 100 percent be my weirdo self around. They inspire me to be my best self, whether it’s in the professional world or the day-to-day goings-on.

You grow exponentially within a business fraternity. It’s indescribable how much those brothers have had an impact on not only my professionalism — helping me to get ready for that oh-so-daunting post-college stage — but also my leadership. I found myself wanting to get involved and speak my mind much more than my usual just go-with-the-flow type of self ever would.

When you go through rushing a business fraternity, you’re with men and women who have a genuine drive to be a part of that organization. We aren’t here for the coveted title of frat star. I personally don’t wear polos, but you totally can. We put in nine weeks of pledging, learning the ins and outs of Delta Sigma Pi, in order to become official brothers, and it is so incredibly worth it.

My brothers, I can already tell, have become kind of like the equivalent of good friends from high school. They are the people who let me be independent, let me do me, but will still be the ones that I can always come back to, and I will always want to.