When sophomore Elise Matson, a strategic communications major and member of the Delta Zeta sorority was chosen as the head of the 2013 Greek Week Planning Committee, she knew she wanted to change the way Greek Week was run.
Along with nine other members of the Greek Planning Committee, Matson decided to incorporate all of their philanthropic experiences into one goal and make a scholarship for an incoming freshman based off of the money they raised from the week’s competitions.
“This award will be from Greek Life, but there are no-strings-attached,” said Matson. “We’re not telling you [that] you have to rush, but it’s just from us because I think we are trying to better DU and not just ourselves, and it will be good for us too because hopefully they will want to rush and see that Greek Life is pretty cool.”
The scholarship will be available to any incoming freshman and is partnered with DU’s Office of Financial Aid so any incoming freshman will be able to apply on the financial aid website once it has been set up, according to Matson.
In total, Greek Week raised $3,345 for the scholarship. The money raised was from the penny wars competition throughout the week, the ticket sales from Wednesday night’s Talent Show and from the entrance fee for teams to sign up for the talent show.
Greek Week kicked off on Monday night with a DUGS cookout on Driscoll Lawn at 4:30 p.m. followed by the Greek Week opening ceremony in Davis Auditorium. Throughout the week, Greek members participated in a Bromance Challenge, intramural sports challenges, a Talent Show and a Greek God and Goddesses Competition. The talent show featured bag piping, choreographed dance, a magic show and karaoke to a full crowd in the Davis Auditorium.
Thursday night’s closing ceremony brought an end to the week-long competition, but the winning team went home happy. Team One, including Lambda Chi Alpha, Kappa Sigma and Delta Delta Delta, received a trophy with their fraternity and sorority names engraved. Their names will also be written on the individual scholarship once an incoming freshman has been chosen. Along with the trophy and honor of the scholarship, Chipotle also donated 75 burritos to Kappa Sigma for being the winners of the talent show and one lucky winner received an ipad as part of a raffle event from Wednesday night’s event.
In the past, the winners of Greek Week were thrown a bar party; however, Matson wanted to do something more meaningful.
“I wanted it to be something cooler and more beneficial than a bar party,” said Matson.
