Richardson discusses how Sigma Gamma Rho aligns with her values

SAVANNAH DUNN SAVANNAH.DUNN.21@CNU.EDU

Christina Richardson, a CNU sophomore, is the founding member of a new organization to campus, Sigma Gamma Rho. The technical term for the chapter is Neru at CNU until chartered.

Sigma Gamma Rho is one of the Divine Nine sororities under the National Pan-Hellenic Council and has been dedicated to serving the community for over a century.

Established in 1922, Sigma Gamma Rho originated in Indianapolis, Indiana with seven young educators, and in 1929 “became an incorporated national collegiate sorority,” according to the sorority’s website. “The dynamic women of Sigma Gamma Rho have built and sustained a well-known and well-respected reputation for leading positive change to help uplift the community through sisterhood, leadership, and service,” the website says. Richardson knew she wanted to be a part of Greek life at CNU, but did not feel that the existing organizations were the right fit for her. “A simple google search made me realize that another sorority existed that more so aligned with my values and views,” Richardson said. After reaching out to her sister, Richardson was able to get into contact with the alumni chapter President at Old Dominion University.

Richardson said, “From there I contacted numerous people in order to get the chapter founded. It was a very lengthy process but it was definitely worth it.”

Throughout the process of bringing the chapter to CNU, Richardson struggled because she was not allowed to talk about it. “It was really hard especially when you’re with your closest friends. You just want to talk to them about the whole thing and want to get their support when it comes to it,” Richardson said.

“Pretty much the only support I had was my sister.

That’s why she was so instrumental and that’s why I gave her a shout out during the neophyte presentation because if it wasn’t for her I probably wouldn’t be here right now.”

To become a chartered chapter, Richardson must recruit at least four more members. She plans on connecting with more students through the involvement fair in the fall.

“One thing about Sigma Gamma Rho is that we are always more quality over quantity so even if we don’t hit the amount of members to charter the organization this fall, I am still looking forward to doing community service with those members and just being able to do work on the campus and introduce some leadership development on to the campus that people might not be aware of and just introduce some events on to campus,” Richardson said.

The slogan of Sigma Gamma Rho is “Greater Service, Greater Progress.” Service to the community both locally and nationally has been the large focus for the organization and one that drew Richardson in. Richardson put emphasis on the difference between philanthropy and service: “Philanthropy is kind of fundraising in order to receive funds and giving those funds to the organization which is helpful, but service is actually getting down and doing the dirty work for the organization that may not be the coolest thing to do, but it is needed for whatever the organization is.” That is one of the things that Richardson says she loves about the sorority. “Everyone is willing to put their best foot forward regardless of what it is.”

Out of the many organizations that Sigma Gamma Rho partners with, a big one is March for Dimes, a national nonprofit organization to help mothers and babies no matter their wealth, gender, race, or geography. Richardson said, “We work very closely with that and we have a lot of national projects that we work on in order to help support that.”

“ One of the ones that I thought was the coolest is that we have a partnership with the US olympics swimming team for a program called swim 1922,” Richardson said. The program helps the black community learn how to swim. “Historically because of different things with Jim Crow and people pouring acid inside of pools, it sparked a lot of fear in the black community to not learn how to swim. I believe it’s about half of the black community that doesn’t know how to swim and the goal is to try and help with that,” Richardson said.

When asked what she wanted to highlight, Richardson said, “I would definitely highlight a little about [the] National PanHellenic Council because it’s really cool that I get to work with those individuals and make the black Greek organizations a lot bigger on this campus.”

Richardson also mentioned that she is excited to work more with NPHC, NPC, and IFC. “It is really cool to see where it all goes -when we [collaborate] together.”