The following post was written by guest blogger Natasha Shahani, Delta Tau–Chapman University.
Throughout college, Alpha Gamma Delta and the Alpha Gamma Delta Foundation gave me many leadership and personal development opportunities. So, when I heard about the Inspire the Woman Alumnae Series coming to Los Angeles, I quickly registered and booked a flight!
I was a little nervous Sunday afternoon on my way to the hotel. It was raining, which we all know makes traffic even worse in LA, and I was running late. I didn’t know if anyone I knew was going and I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Nerves quickly turned to pure joy as I saw familiar faces—ones who inspired me to get involved with Alpha Gam as an alumna.
After a few minutes of catching up and meeting other sisters, we took our seats. As the guest speaker, Mindy Sopher was introduced, I couldn’t believe how much she had accomplished. In addition to countless awards including a lifetime achievement award from the Association of Fraternity Advisors, she even has a day named after her in North Carolina! She may be a Kappa Delta, but she completely lives out this line of our Purpose: “To welcome the opportunity of contributing to the world’s work in the community where I am placed because of the joy of service thereby bestowed and the talent of leadership multiplied.”
Mindy started her session with words that really resonated with me: “Our Founders do not care if we remember their names, they care if we remember their values.” All the women in the room were a testament to that.
Mindy began discussing confidence in her own life—times when she was and times when she wasn’t. As a group, we also shared our personal experiences. Although we are all sisters, not having confidence is not something you necessarily want to admit to yourself. I was very uncomfortable. However, other sisters’ courage in sharing their moments made me brave enough to share mine.
There we all were, laughing and crying, sharing moments from our lives with one another. In that hour, we built one another up with confidence through compliments, love and support.
I’ve known some of the women whom I exchanged stories with for over ten years while I had just met others–I left the room feeling so supported. Not only did I meet new sisters and learn from a very intelligent woman, I also walked away fully confident having gained more sisters I can count on. I hope they feel the same about me.
“Our sisters bring out the magic in us.” Mindy was absolutely right. After only meeting five minutes beforehand, who else could share your highest of highs and lowest of lows?
Thank you, Alpha Gamma Delta, for opportunities like this one, but more importantly, for sisters who bring out the magic in me.
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