“I think it was a fluke,” laughs Maeghan Hermansson, as she explains how she became president of Kappa Beta Gamma, one of the few Greek letter organizations at SFU. “My older brother, who is in the fraternity at the University of Victoria, got me in touch with [their sorority]. At the time, I thought, ‘oh, Kappa seems like a good fit for SFU.’”
Maeghan claims she was “super shy in high school.” Coming from a graduating class of only 130 people, community has always been a large part of her education. When it came to university, SFU was the only fit for Maeghan. “I missed the city,” she admits.
As someone who enjoys helping people, she knew that the school’s Health Science department would feed her desire to do so. “A big thing for me is the ability to learn how policy works, taking classes on mental health [and] infectious diseases,” she explains. “It’s just kind of cool to put all of the aspects together instead of just looking at the one principle.”
Maeghan understands that there are many ways to help people, which is why creating the Alpha Gamma chapter of KBG was so important to her. “It’s so frightening to not know anybody . . . you make friends in class, but after the semester is over you don’t really see them anymore.” Maeghan wanted to change that. She understands that “joining a sorority isn’t for everybody,” but she admits that doing so helps “you break out of your shell.”
It takes one person to start something, but it takes so many more than that to finish it.”
– Maeghan Hermansson
Overall she believes it is “nice to have that support system around you for all the things you do.” She found it hard when people around her would talk about transferring to a different school — they would tell her that they wanted to go and “have a blast at UVic.” She couldn’t help but think, “You could have a blast here!”
It’s the we that stands out most as Maeghan speaks of the sorority, one that she played a founding role in. “We are Kappa Beta Gamma,” she begins. “We also go by KBG. [There are] 17 active chapters, and we are currently expanding in the States and in Canada.” The sorority itself was founded in 1917 at Marquette University in Marquette, Milwaukee, with the aim to promote leadership skills for young women.
There were originally just 12 members, but KBG has since expanded immensely, and has had an impact in the lives of many female SFU students. “We have girls from White Rock, Ladner, Coquitlam, and North Vancouver. We have girls that are international students . . . It doesn’t really matter where you come from, as long as you see yourself staying at SFU.”
Maeghan saw an opportunity for SFU to develop a better community around campus. Starting the organization wasn’t easy, and although Maeghan would “say [she] did a lot of the leg work” in the beginning, she would not have been able to do it without the help and support of the other girls. As she puts it, “It takes one person to start something, but it takes so many more than that to finish it.”
So, the question remains: what exactly does Kappa Beta Gamma do? The president wants to put a stop to the idea that it’s just about socializing. “Yes, it is a social thing, you do make a lot of friends. But you also make professional connections.” Meaghan herself has been offered internships as a result of her involvement with the sorority. Volunteering is also an extremely important goal for these young ladies, who meet regularly each semester to have a “brainstorming session” to make sure everyone is on the same page.
“Right now our goal is to get more involved in the community. We work with School Building Schools. We have done a lot of volunteering with them . . . We were involved with Relay for Life last year with a bunch of other Greek letter organizations at SFU, as well as getting involved with the Special Olympics,” she says. “It’s so nice to see people of all abilities getting involved and having fun. Everybody is laughing and having a good time, which is great.”
For Maeghan, the job has its own rewards. “I love helping people make friends,” she smiles. “We actually have a house full of girls who live together, who met through the sorority, girls that went through rush this semester. Whether they found out that [our sorority] was for them or not, they met friends, and that’s a huge opportunity for everybody. Sometimes, it just takes that push to help make friends.”
This year if you have a Movember bake sale, you should try and actually give the money to the Movember cause. Instead of just using the Movember name which tricks people and then just keeping all the money for the sorority. You do an awesome job with the sorority and work really hard, so it would be nice if the sorority actually stands for what the say they do.
I love how quickly the community forgets that this same student group hosted a “G.I. Joes and Army Hoes” party early this year.
Ugh.
In comment to the Movember Bake Sale I would just like to point out that the sorority never hosted one. I’m not sure where this information is coming from but t is completely false. Many of the girls donated their own money to the cause but there was never a fundraiser for it. Just wanted to clear that up 🙂
What do you mean misinformation, they for sure did have a bake sale during November of last year. They did not actually call it a Movember fundraiser, but they did have posters with cupcakes that had mustaches which does clearly lead you to believe it would be a fundraiser for the Movember cause, when it actually was just to help the sorority raise money for fees. It’s the truth and I’m not saying that the people in the sorority are bad, but there is no reason to try and cover up a mistake that they never took responsibility for. And I talked to Maeghan about it and she did apologize, because yes it did in fact happen. But I just feel like something like this should be publicly known.
In response to Anna’s comment, I would like to say that focusing in on only the negative would be unfair. The sorority admitted to making a mistake with the chosen name but I don’t seem the need to dwell on it. They contribute so much to the community in the form of volunteering and I don’t see why we shouldn’t celebrate that. If the Peak chose only to write about negative aspects of the sorority that would be extremely unfair and biased so it is great to see this article. I don’t think a mistake made in the past should discredit all of the amazing things they are doing right now.