Blog 5

Kyle Keogh

Research Proposal Assignment

Michael Goeller

The Positive Impacts of Going Greek

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Greek life has been around since the 1800s and has become a very important aspect to college life. The Greek life community is filled with hundreds of thousands of current members and alumni. Although Greek life has been around for over 200 years it still gets a bad reputation. Many common issues brought up with it are excessive drinking, drug use, sexual assault, racism, and poor academic performances. While yes this does happen occasionally there are so many other advantages and positive impacts that the Greek community provides. For starters Greek life provides countless hours of community service and raises millions of dollars in philanthropy. A large majority of Greek students perform community service on a weekly basis. They provide help to the surrounding community and have a positive impact on thousands yearly. That is just the start to the impact that Greek life has. It also allows young college students to have an opportunity to grow and hold leadership positions. This is very important for a young college student. Holding these positions give them a sense of responsibility and helps them become a better leader. These are all traits that employers are looking for when looking for new employees. Greek members achieve high level as academic success as well. Most presidents and CEOs of fortune 500 companies were once in Greek Life. The impact of Greek life could go on forever. It allows students to socialize with new people constantly and develop their social skills. Students in Greek life have been studied and when looked at further the students apart of the Greek Community score higher in many different areas compared to Non-Greeks. This includes academic success, campus involvement, and development of different skills. These are just a few examples but there are many more. Even though there is the occasional hiccup in the Greek community, its overall positive impact outweighs the negatives. .

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Why should the greek community be allowed to continue to operate on a national level? As well as what is the impact on development and growth on its members?

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The most important concepts and ideas from the academic articles are the facts that they bring up about how Greek members grow and develop their skill sets. A very important idea brought up in one article is cognitive development. One article does is depth study on the impact that joining Greek life has on the development of student’s cognitive development. Cognitive development is an important aspect of college and joining Greek life can help develop these skills. Greek communities that emphasize and promote academics have members with a much higher growth rate than Non-Greek. Another important term that goes along with this idea is espoused values. When a Greek community implements a high standard of espoused values the impact on its members is more significant. A Greek community that values academic success, involvement, and leadership abilities will help members develop greater cognitive skills. In the study that discussed cognitive development it concluded that the institutional culture has the greatest impact on its members. With that being said in order for Greek members to really grow and develop to their full potential there must be a strong culture that emphasizes learning in place.

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The academic articles that I have looked into have mostly provided important information on what impact Greek life has on students. So far they have all looked into studies of students in the Greek community and Non-Greeks and compared the impact on joining Greek life. I found two very important cases that have discussed the impact on growth for Greek members. The two cases look at different areas of growth but both are equally important. As stated above the one case looks into the development of cognitive skills. The other article looks into the growth of leadership, friendships, community service, and academics. This another important case because it discusses how joining Greek life makes members more active in their community and gives them areas to increase their leadership experience. The case goes on to explain how Greek members volunteer on a weekly basis and put in more hours than non greeks. Also it gives members their first opportunity at developing their leadership skills. The case goes on to explain how Greek members gain abilities related to personal and social issues, gains in communications skills and critical thinking, and gains in job-related abilities. These abilities and skills help all Greek members to grow and become more successful in the future. Going forward I would like to find more evidence on the success of Greek Members after they graduate to further prove their growth in college helped them become successful in the workplace.

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Experimental Economics, vol. 49, 01 Apr. 2014, pp. 63-70. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.socec.2014.02.003.