When I took an oath to uphold my fraternity’s eight purposes I made an oath to more than that. I made an oath to respect, treat with value, and care for each member. An initiation oath is a promise to keep the secrets of the fraternity, to promote the fraternity, not to join another fraternity, and for the new brother/sister to improve himself through the fraternity. This initiation oath is to connect the new member to the brotherhood forever.
As I took on my own oath I realized that I have to carry that out every single day. When I go to my chapter meetings, go to class, plan events, participate in community service, interact with other chapters, when studying, and wearing my letters I am putting into action what I said I would uphold: academics, professionalism, serving the university campus and community, responsibility, self-growth, promoting inter-fraternity relations, etc. I see my oath in everything I do. Here is a look at how one of our chapters puts into practice our oath.
An oath is also a promise that someone makes to himself/herself OR to another person. In my eyes, an oath in terms of the fraternity life is a lifetime commitment to the organization and brotherhood/sisterhood. As we all know, being part of a fraternity or sorority does not end after graduation. It carries on for life and that means that as an adult, as a professional, and as a person each one of us is personally responsible for carrying out our respective organization’s purposes, mission statement, and values.
A perfect example of a person that continues to follow through with his fraternity’s purposes and mission statement is one of my fraternity’s founder: Juan Casimiro. He is also the founder of the Casimiro Foundation, Vice President of Programs and Global markets for Excent Corporation, a Big Brother to three elementary students from Miami-Dade Public Schools, and many more unbelievable things. His biggest project is his Casimiro Foundation which is a youth development organization providing a variety of gifts and services to communities in developing nations around the world. His foundation’s “mission is to proactively foster education and social entrepreneurship globally. Seeking to accomplish that mission as part of an effective sustainability strategy, the Casimiro Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that empowers and prepares students to be global leaders.”
The oath that this founder took 25 years ago still continues to exist today. This is what I look up to and hope to see many Greek members follow this example. An oath is a guideline a new member follows throughout their service to the chapter during their undergraduate involvement, and is a lifetime commitment.
I like how you gave an example of someone holding strong to their oath! I did the same thing. I think its very inspiring to see people like that and it makes me question how I can do more! Good job on this blog =)
ReplyDeleteI've heard of Casmiro Foundation before--it was interesting to see it pop up in your blog!
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