Student Spotlight: Kimberly Murphy

During her past five years at NEIU, Kimberly Murphy has been involved in many aspects of extracurricular life.  From being a University Ambassador to Vice President of SGA to President of Theta Chi Omega, Murphy has not only kept herself busy as a student leader, but has also learned a lot along the way.

M.J. -Where did you start and where did you end up with SGA?

K.M.-My first year I ran during the spring election for speaker of the senate which was pretty much the secretary of SGA and held the position for one year and then the following year I ran for vice president and became vice president of the student government and I was that for the whole year from 2007 to 2008.

What was your best experience with SGA?

Probably just the experience of working with strangers and becoming friends in a lot of aspects and yeah just the idea of working with people you don't know anything about and having a common goal and understanding roles.  I have a lot of friendships out of SGA and I think learning how to figure out your goals and how to represent the student body is real challenging, so coming together to do that and figure it out, it's not always easy and it's endearing though that that was always the goal and we were always trying to achieve that because I think that's the most important thing.  We never gave up and even if we didn't totally achieve it, we never gave up on that.

So what was your next step after SGA?

Well I decided to be president of Theta Chi Omega, multicultural sorority.  I joined Theta Chi Omega in the spring of 2007 and you have to be a member for two semesters so one year later in the spring of 2008 I was elected president and that's my current position.

What attracted you to the sorority?

I don't know, I guess just the idea of being a network of girls.  I really like the idea that it's a lifetime commitment, that once you're in, you're in for life, that I have my letters, I can put them on my desk when I'm 60 and that I'll only keep gaining more sisters and kind of having a really strong network of women to lean on and to be there for you and that never goes away.  You're in it for life, you've joined something for your whole life.  I just don't think we have networks like that in our society or in our lives.

What has been your best experience with Theta Chi Omega?

I think really becoming organized.  In October we had a Founders' week where we had an event every single day and just being organized enough to pull off an event every single day and having fun events and always meeting new people.  There's always new women joining and there's always someone there for you and you can do fun things together.  I just think in terms of campus life, having our Founders week was a huge accomplishment for us and also we made chapter status this year.  So achieving a chapter letter was a huge accomplishment as well.

What was the most surprising thing that you found out about Greek Life?

I think what's kind of surprising in comparison to other universities is that our Greek Life at Northeastern is very united.  We have a United Greek Council, but not only that.  I've been working with the Greek Week committee this year for 2009 and last year I was the chairperson of the committee and I didn't have a lot of support and this year a lot of the Greek organizations have come together and been supportive and I think at other campuses Greek organizations are very competitive and very against each other. We're different at Northeastern because we are a commuter school and we face different challenges as Greek organizations.  I think we all unite about that.  We can have a camaraderie among ourselves even though we're all different.  And of course we all push our own organizations when we're recruiting and stuff, but we don't recruit negatively, we don't put each other down.  I just think we're very positive and united that way in terms of Greek life.  It's one of our goals as a sorority to have better communication with Greek organizations and so to see that it's easy for us on this campus, it's not a far-fetched idea.  

What do you think is the most common misconception about Greek life at Northeastern? 

I think people don't even know there's Greek life at Northeastern.  I think a common misconception at Northeastern is that we can't even have frats or sororities because we don't have housing.  You know, just because you don't have housing doesn't mean you can't have a sisterhood or a brotherhood.  Another misconception is I guess maybe openness.  A lot of the Greek sororities and fraternities are very open to members and not as exclusive as they seem.  That's just a general misconception of Greeks, is that they're intending to leave others out and I don't really think that's true.  I think we all try to be as inclusive as possible for people who are interested. 

What was it like to go from being a member to being president?

That was a huge leap for me personally because everyone kept asking me if I was going to be president of SGA because I went through the two positions below the president, but I just really wanted to be president of my sorority because I really think I had valuable leadership qualities that would help our sorority grow and blossom.  The hardest challenge is splitting the professional and the personal.  We're all sisters, and then to enforce the rules and be a professional, it's the hardest thing about being the president, is being the enforcer.  That's what I wanna do and it's something I struggle with, enforcing the rules and regulating and mandating and kind of being the one that comes down on regular members.  Because with regular members, we can all keep each other in check, we all know the rules, and if one person says it to another, it's a little different where if the president says it to you, it feels like you're in trouble.  At the same time, I was elected by my sisters and they wanted me here for a reason.  It just doesn't always feel like I can uphold it all the time.  The hardest struggle is being consistent with it and trying to be fair.  It's something I will try to do and I think the future presidents will try to do, and it's not always easy. 

Why do you think it's so important at a school like ours that students get involved?

I think it's important because I've always thought of it as a resume builder.  And that's not necessarily the only reason I've done it but I think you just need to work with other people and we are so fortunate to go to a campus with so many diversities here and so many different kinds of people.  And to just have an opportunity to learn about other people and learn their life stories I think really helps keep you stay more open-minded and less judgmental.  You just can't be judgmental at Northeastern.  You won't have any friends.  I just think that those are such big life lessons that in your career and in your jobs you're not always going to be able to work with people you like and you can't judge them for it and you can't hold things against people, and I think I've really learned that here at Northeastern.  You learn to listen.  And being involved is just such a realistic experience for the future and I think we have such a hard time in college listening to methods and theories and we don't know how to apply them.  But when you're involved in a club or organization, you're applying collaboration, you're doing what you will be doing in the future.  Maybe you don't realize it yet, but I think a bigger life lesson than any class you'll take is learning how to work with people. 

If you could give the student body any advice, what advice would you give them?

My advice as a fifth-year college student is do it.  Reach for your goals.  I struggled academically from being involved, but I don't regret that because I do think I got a lot out of my clubs and organizations and it's important to focus on academics, but I think it needs to be more than that.  And maybe you learn the lesson the hard way, but that's okay because you can still recover and you learn from things.  It's all about learning and growing.  And don't hesitate because you only have this time now.  People just always tell me enjoy college and do college while you can, and I think especially because we're a commuter school and we don't have an environment that fosters being involved.  I mean, you have a part time job, you have a family, you take public transportation, you have clubs, and it's like, if I ever had a free moment to breathe I could tell you what that feels like, but I don't.  But I don't regret that and I like that my life is so busy because I feel like this is the time.  I've talked to a few people who miss college because, whether they regretted doing something or not doing something or just miss that they used to do something that they don't get to do anymore, this is the time and you only have now and just do it.