​Jordan Graham

In Winter Quarter of my Freshman year, I was elected into the position of Director of Community Service and Phianthropy for my sorority, Chi Omega. This position entailed planning our annual philanthropy, benefitting the Make a Wish Foundation. This position also required planning different community service events, and compliling community service events for our members to participate in.

 

Zest or passion for life

 

One of the many reasons that I chose to join Chi Omega in the first place was becasue of it's national partnership with the Make a Wish foundation. Every single chapter across the country raises money and supports either a local Make a Wish chapter, or the national organization. I wanted to take on this position because I have a very personal connection to the organization. As a result of my brother having cancer, he was granted a wish by the foundation shortly after going into remission. Our family was able to go to Orlando, Florida for 10 days with no expenses, going to all of the Disney Parks and Universal Studios. It was the trip of a lifetime, and for those 10 days my little brother was the star of the show, and was able to forget all about the two years of hell he went through to beat cancer. I will always remember that trip as a time that my family could just enjoy our lives, and forget about the years of pain. This organization gave that to my family, and I always wanted to be a part of making that happen for other people. Reconnecting with an organization from my past gave me a refound passion for helping children with diseases, and helping them feel like they can be normal kids. By taking this position, I was helping kids in need through a passion I found from a personal experience.

 

Take initiative and action to engage in leadership in a variety of settings.

 

This was my first leadership opportunity when I came to the University of Washington. As explained above, I wanted to feel like I was doing my part to support the Make a Wish foundation. Chi Omega's philanthropic efforts have not been as successful as we always hoped for, so when I toke over the position, I wanted to make a real change. My first order of business was to put Chi Omega on the map. We hadn't done many community service events before, so I wanted to give our members opportunities to volunteer at different local events. At the start of my term, Chi Omega decided to partner with a new local organization, the Plus One Foundation, a non-profit that supported therapy programs for adults living with neurological disorders. A group of girls volunteered at multiple events, doing art therapy with the patients that Plus One benefitted. Later on in the year, we volunteered at an auction that raised over $50,000 for the organization. Serving the community in a variety of settings really helped me reflect on my position as a leader within my sorority and within our community.

 

For our annual philanthropy, I wanted to do something completely different that would make our event more successful than it has ever been. In the past, we had done soccer tournaments, with meaningless activities that a lot of the participants never showed up to. My co-director and I came up with the idea of "Swishes for Wishes," a basketball tournament that fraternities would compete in with other competitive events that would raise money that would directly go towards Make a Wish. It was a complete rivival of our philanthropic spirit as a chapter, and our commitment to our national partnership. I spent months planning out the details of the weeks events, coordinating with the IMA for reservations, communicating with fraternities who wanted to participate, and motivating our chapter to be active in the execution of the event. This engagement with my leadership skills in a variety of settings within the community, to take action for supporting an organization I love and have passion for, taught me a lot about what my passion is in life, and how I want to be of service to people for my future career.