Greek life has certain stereotypes that do not always hold true. Some may include girls being mean girls to each other, lots of drama and too many spray tans.  

However, one of the goals of Eastern’s Panhellenic Council (PHC) is to uplift other women, not only in Greek life on campus, but elsewhere as well.  

Kylee Keele, a junior special education major, joined Greek life this past fall after transferring from a community college. She thinks that many of these stereotypes are not true.  

“Honestly, I never realized how Greek life was here like it’s not as stigmatized as you see on TV where you think it’s all super crazy,” Keele said. “Everything is very laid back and that’s why I joined. I never saw myself as a sorority girl, but I realized I was very chill and more accepting and non-judgmental. It wasn’t anything crazy. It feels like it’s very laid back. I don’t get stressed out by being in it. I think people just maybe just think of the words for the girl and then just have those assumptions from those movies from the TV shows. And like even the bigger colleges you know, like down south, they take it very seriously. Whereas here, it’s definitely just not that perception. I don’t think anyone’s going to really get away from that, like perception until they experience it themselves.” 

While many might not think that community service is an important aspect of Greek life, each Panhellenic organization, or sorority, has an organization that they do community service or charity work for. This is called a chapter’s philanthropy, and some philanthropies include Girl Scouts and Polar Plunge.  

Keele enjoyed doing community service in high school, and wanted to continue in college, but the COVID-19 pandemic hindered that experience. However, in her role as the Vice President of Community Service, Keele gets to empower women with her love of community service. 

“COVID definitely made community service really not be as much [work],” Keele said. “I was very much into community service when I was in high school [in a] small town, there’s not much to do. So definitely the connections and being able to branch out more for my chapter and the other people in the Greek community was a great step up. And that’s kind of what I wanted.  I didn’t want to be just excluded or just be known as that. I want other people to know me and it helps with sororities, too, because you don’t really get to communicate a lot with [of the other sororities]. The frats and sororities mostly like will talk and whereas like sororities don’t really [talk during] Greek Week. You’re paired with the fraternities, you’re not paired with another sorority. So you don’t get that but like in PHC, there’s more interaction. I feel like with all of everyone, not just fraternity and sorority,” 

As a special education major, Keele ends up being pretty busy between her schoolwork, homework and this position. However, she tries to empower others in Greek life, especially sororities, to go to events. The biggest way she tries to embody that is bu going to events herself

“I go to events when I can,” Keele said. “I am very busy being in being a special education major. So well, I get a lot of volunteering [opportunities] with people with individuals with disabilities. I feel like I like as I’m telling people about other volunteer opportunities. I am attending them like the Martin Luther King service day. I went to both of those sessions and made sure others knew about that. I definitely help go out when I can.” 

Katja Benz can be reached at 581-2812 or at kkbenz@eiu.edu.