"Attacking" my Feature Story

I think I'm going to take the "Trend Story" approach to my first feature story for my beat. Tigerthon is a very popular event at other large schools (including Penn State) but is called a different name, obviously. Many Greek organizations at these schools are very involved with the event.

I plan on interviewing the President of Panhel (the president of all of the sororities) to get her input on the event and how Towson is trying to make it a bigger event. Also, I want to ask her how Greeks are trying to get more involved in this popular event. There will also be many other sorority and fraternity members at the event so I want to get their opinions on the event as well.

Ideas for my Feature Story

At first I wasn't sure what would be a good story to cover for my first feature story but then I remembered a very important event going on at Towson this up-coming Friday: TIGERTHON! According to Towson's website, TigerTHON is a 12-hour community service dance marathon held on campus to raise money for Johns Hopkins Children's Miracle Network. This year TigerTHON will begin on Friday, February 27 at 5:00 p.m. and last until Saturday, February 28 at 5:00 a.m.

Towson's Greek Life is required to attend this fundraising event and participate with another Greek Life group of the opposite sex in dancing. I will be at TigerTHON the entire night so I plan on taking pictures, interviewing a few different people from Greek Life and potentially getting a video of groups dancing! This will definitely be a very entertaining event!

It's That Time Again...

The beginning of the semester only means one thing for Greek Life at Towson: time for recruitment. For this blog I'm going to focus on the sororities of Towson University. Each fall all eight sororities participate in the formal fall rush. However, in the springtime, depending on if each sorority met quota or not, they may have a formal or informal spring recruitment.

This year only four sororities participated in spring rush. Alpha Gamma Delta, Alpha Omicron Pi, Phi Sigma Sigma and Zeta Tau Alpha were the four groups that decided to add more women to their sorority.

Spring recruitment began on Friday, February 13th, where all the Potential New Members (PNMs) were able to go to the University Union and meet all of the sororities at Table Night to get a feel for a first impression of each different sorority.

"We didn't participate in spring rush this year because we met quota in the fall," sophomore Jenny Balsamo said. "Recruitment is very stressful so it's nice to be able to take the semester off."

Each sorority got the option to choose to hold their events on or off campus. They also were able to decide if they wanted to just hold their parties over Valentine's Day weekend or hold events throughout the entire week.

*Originally posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009.

Towson's Zetas Recognized Nationwide

Okay so it's a little cliche that I'm talking about my sorority for my first beat but the semester just started, so there hasn't been a whole lot of Greek news in The Towerlight. Themis is the nationwide magazine for sisters, alumni and parents for Zeta Tau Alphas across the U.S. Each ZTA chapter sends in updates, photos and achievements to the magazine in hope that it will be published in on of the four issues sent out each year.

In the Winter 2009 edition Iota Delta (Towson's Zeta chapter) was recognized for their amazing dedication and efforts shown at the 1oth anniversary of the Redskin's Think Pink game. 70 members of Towson's ZTA attended the game at FedEx Field on October 12. At the game more than 42,000 Think Pink ribbons were handed out to Redskins fans thanks to the ZTA sisters.

I agree with the reporter that what we did was remarkable and very inspirational but I think it would add more to the article if there was a quote from one of the Zeta sisters. Philanthropy events mean a lot more to us than people would expect and hearing a direct quote from a sister about how the day affected her would probably be more heart touching to the reader. There is a picture of someone places the pin on someone's chest but I think a more effective picture would be one of the sister's interacting with the fans before the game. Seeing how many people supported us and our efforts to help fight breast cancer is ultimately breathtaking.

*Originally posted on Tuesday, February 9, 2009.

My Beat!

The beat I chose to select for this semester is Towson University's Greek Life. I'm in a sorority at Towson, so this is a topic that is of interest to me. Not only do I have to be aware of what other Greek organizations are doing on and off campus, but I must attend all mandatory events for their philanthropies.

My beat will not only cover my sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, but all other sororities and fraternities on campus. I feel like this beat topic is the best choice for me.

*Originally posted on Sunday, February 8, 2009.