Citizenship

Citizenship to me means being the best person you can be to better your community, and by community I mean local, country, and world. 


I feel that my fraternity has huge part in my meaning of citizenship.  A common goal of fraternities/sororities is make better men and women, and they do this by instilling values in us that will help us become better people and better citizens.  Becoming better citizens entails a lot, it's anything from helping an elderly person cross the street to changing the world by trying to end world hunger.  It is hard to be a good citizen sometimes, it's a lot easier to be selfish.  It's a lot easier to sleep in on Sunday morning instead of waking up to go do Clean Sweep.  However if everyone did their part or just a little bit it would go such a long way.  To become a good citizen you ave to take on  responsiblty for you community, and I really feel like Fiji has taught me that.  It's alright ot be selfish sometimes but ultimately you have to give a lot back.  I really think Citizenship is summed up by the quote that one of the panelists told us a couple of weeks ago:
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others"

– Mahatma Gandhi

Video of the Week:



Believeland

Wow that game was insane.  For a second there I was ready to write a ranting blog on how Cleveland never gets a break, but finally today we did.  And we deserved it.  I still don't understand why we were even in that position.  The Panthers shouldn't of had the opportunity to kick a field goal. 

1.) Peyton Hillis is now The Chosen One. (I'll still give Cribs the King title)

2.) Jake Delhomme sucks.  He is horrible, he literally undid all of the work Peyton Hillis did.

The Browns are now 4-7 and while this is a horrible record we are 2-5 in games that were decided by 7 or less points.  So the season could have easily gone the other way. 

I guess if you take anything away from this post it's that:

1.) Peyton Hillis is amazing.

2.) Scores don't always show how close a game is.

3.) Cleveland is a solid team that needs to learn how to finish strong but we will win a superbowl soon.

Nothing is better than an Ohio State win over Michigan and a Browns win all in the same weekend, this just shows that's it's going to be a great week!

Fraternally,

Ryan Aguiar

Last Week's Panel

   I realy enjoyed listening to the panel last week.  I felt that their insight was very useful. 

  The first thing thing that the panel talked about that I liked was the discussion about understanding the ritual and oaths of the fraternity/sorority.  They touched on the point that these oaths, creeds, and rituals were all written over a century ago and we need to understand what they mean and how they are relevant to today's fraternities and sororities.  I thought that Jordan's idea of going through and line by line, breaking down what they mean in today's terms was a great idea.  I am going to try to implement that in my fraternity. 

   The second thing that the panel talked about that I liked was the fact that we talk about cross council relations a lot, however a lot of times we have issues within our own councils.  They talked about solving the problems in our own councils before trying have intercouncil relationships.  I think this plays into the fact there is a lot of hostility between fraternities.  Not so much on an individual base but when brothers of fraternities get together in a group there is a mentality that all other fraternities are bad.  This needs to change, we need to work together with other fraternities or at least respect them.  THis goes back to the concept that if we want to move forward and see positive change we need to fix the problems with ourselves first.

I hope that someday I will be on a panel like the one that spoke to us, and be a leader in the greek community for positive change.

Video of the Week:

Phi Gamma Delta: "Not For College Days Alone"

   Oath is a very important part of any organization.  Most organizations when you join you take an oath of some sort.  These oaths are usually somewhere along the lines of upholding the values of that organization and pledging your undivided support for that organization. 


     One of the phrases that is important to Fiji is "Not for college days alone."  This is important because when you join Phi Gamma Delta you are a Phi Gam for life.  And when joining you take an oath to always live by the values of Phi Gamma Delta in your every aspect of your life everyday.  This is basically reiterating what Tyler said in class that when you graduate you don't say that you were a Fiji but rather that you are a Fiji because of that oath you take.

     However oaths are complicated in some aspects.  Some oaths can be about specific tasks you are supposed to do but other oaths are about more of the intangibles.  The oaths that call for you to uphold values are really up to the person on if they want to follow the oaths and to what degree they want to do it.  As we saw last week there are a lot of incongruencies with the greek community as a result of people not following their oaths.
    I guess in my overall blog post the message that I want to portray is that although a lot of people say oaths, not a lot of people actually listen to the oath they take.  So I encourage people to pay attention to the oath and show a passion for that oath and live up to that oath you take to the best of your ability.

Here is the Video of the Week: I figured in honor of the Harry Potter release...



P.S. this is kind of random but I'm obsessed with this song so I figure I would post it:

Not Another Frat Movie

   Okay as I was thinking about this blog prompt I was thinking about the incongruencies of the greek community, and how those incongruencies hurt the community. 


    First there is problem with new member processes that invloving hazing.  I never understood the process of hazing.  Some say it's to build a strong bond but I think that's a lot of bullshit.  I don't understand why you would want to degrade a person that someday you would want to call your brother.  I think the pledge process should be more focused on building your potential brother up and making him a better future brother rather than breaking them down and then letting them in. 


   Second I wanted to touch on an addition to the traditional social trend that we have.  It seems that the main way we interact with sororities is by having TG's with them.  And don't get me wrong I Love TG's but I think it would be nice to have some other events where you're not in an alcohol prone setting so you can acctually remember who you were talking to the night before.


    And the third thing that bothers me is the lack of respect for other fraternities.  There is many times when people make fun of other fraternities or talk bad about them.  There's one thing to have a friendly rivalry between fraternities but it's another thing to talk shit and not respect them.  Even if you had a bad experience with one or two people in that fraternity I'm sure not everyone is like that.  I really hope to see a more cohesive greek community in the future.


     I titled this blog Not Another Frat Movie because I realized that all of the incongruencies adds to the poor image of the greek community to the non affliated world.  And there are so many movies out there that supposedly portray the fraternity and sorority life that are just so ridiculous.  So I thought that incongruencies fed into these stereotypes.

****Since Eli has a quote of the week I figured I would out do him by having a video of the week:

Mission Statement

MISSION AND VALUESPhi Gamma Delta is dedicated to developing men of character within the academic setting, with the aim that they will become fully contributing members of society. In pursuit of this mission, the Fraternity promotes five core values:

Friendship, which brings us together and is the basis of our brotherhood.

Knowledge, the primary reason our members attend college and the key to a fuller, richer life.

Service, in recognition of our obligation to give back to the campus and community that foster our growth.

Morality, our commitment to do what is right in all our relationships.

Excellence, the achievement of the full potential of the chapter and the individual members.

      Okay I know some of you might be thinking that the first part of this post looks exactly like Eli's and it is but it's copy and pasted from Fiji's website.  Also I'm not going to talk about all the morals for the sake of sounding redundant.

      Our chapter is congruent with the mission statement in many ways:      -We hold that "Friendship is the sweetest influence"
      -We hold scholarship as our number one priority.
      -We try very hard to raise money and awareness for our philanthropy.
      -We try live our day to day lives based on our morals.
      -We strive in every aspect of our lives to achieve excellence.

      Our chapter is also incongruent with some aspects of the mission statement:
      -Sometimes it's hard to be a good friend to everyone in the chapter all the time.
      -There are times when we think TGs are our number one priority instead of scholarship.
      -Everyone doesn't always give 100% towards service.
      -A lot of times we are faced with moral decisions and we don't always choose the right answer.
      -Sometimes people get comfortable where they are at and forget that we should always be pushing
       to achieve our full potential.

      Now of course these are my thoughts and opinions and in no way reflect exactly what our chapter is like but hopefully it gives you an idea of some ways our chapter is congruent and incongruent with our mission statement.

     ***Just adding on to the value of Excellence here is the video of Fiji's Variety Show Performance:

     

Teach For America

     When I was thinking about an organization that displays it's values well to the public, one organization came to mind: Teach For America.

      I picked to write about Teach For America because I really care a lot about what they do.  TFA's main value is Education, more specifically to put an end to EDUCATIONAL INEQUITY.  Educational Inequity is the reality that where a child is born determines the quality of his or her education and life prospects.  Teach For America attempts to solve this problem by recruiting recent college graduates, training them, and then placing them at urban schools that are at need of better quality education.

      I found out about Teach for America and their values from my friend who works for the organization now.  When I heard about TFA I really liked their value that just because you were born in a certain location or into a low socio-economic class doesn't mean you should be deprived of a good quality education.  The fact of the matter is that our whole life we always hear about equal opportunity but in reality we all start off in different places with advantages or disadvatages.  Teach for America is trying to remove those disadvatages in the field of Academics.

        If anyone is interested in learning more about Teach For America you can go to http://www.teachforamerica.org/ .