Citizenship

First of all, the Social Change Model defines citizenship as:

Not simply membership, but active engagement in community
Civic responsibility which works towards social change
The practice of good citizenship should and needs to happen at every level of the model

I believe I am displaying citizenship within the fraternity/sorority community by actively participating in our philanthropy and others' philanthropies.  Philanthropies aim to help others and work towards positive social change, so by participating in any events that are for philanthropy I am helping work towards positive social change and not just simply being a member of my sorority.  An example of this is when I will be going to the Columbus Speech and Hearing Institute this Saturday to help them out with organizing/setting up/carrying out a garage sale. I would also really like to become a guard for my sorority.  By being a guard I would become more actively involved in our ritual and be able to become more integrated into my chapter.  When members become more active in their chapters, I think it in turn adds to what the chapter as a whole can do to promote positive social change and its citizenship in the community.  I still feel that I could be doing much more to become a better citizen of the community; I think everyone in the fraternity/sorority community definitely has room to become more actively involved in their organization and/or community. 

I believe my sorority is displaying citizenship within the fraternity/sorority community also when it collectively contributes to any philanthropy.  The reasons are the same as before.  Also, one of the reasons why I wanted to join a sorority was because I believed they actively engaged in the community around them.  I knew they actively engaged in community service and that was one thing I wanted to be a part of.  However, I still believe there is much more we could be doing to be better citizens in the community.  I think that mostly, each sorority and fraternity tend to do their own thing.  They each have their own philanthropies and interests.  They do help and participate in each other's philanthropies at times, but there could be much more of this.  The reason I use philanthropy as my main example is because that's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of actively participating in the community and working towards positive social change.  That kind of goes to show that maybe there are more things we could come up with that effect positive change than just philanthropy.

Maybe this is because I am a newly initiated member, but I really don't know of many ways that the sorority/fraternity community displays citizenship within the greater university community.  Many of the individual members of the community are involved in many other organizations on campus, but I do not know of any ways in which the community as a whole collaborates with campus organizations to accomplish something or help them out.  I think this is wrong and really needs to happen more/ start happening.  It is obvious that the fraternity/sorority community needs to become closer together and start acting as one whole group to effect positive change in the world.  I don't think we are by any means to that level yet.  It all seems too separated to me, and I think that one of the goals of this class is to teach us how to combat this and  better our community.  I am not sure why this hasn't been adressed yet, but I think it is important to draw attention to this and make it a goal for the up and coming leaders of the community.