Toodle-loo Week Two! ADPi Internship 2K14

Greetings Earthlings, 

Our second week here at Executive Office has come and gone in the blink of an eye. 

Intern life is amazing at Alpha Delta Pi; not only am I learning so many new skills (not just how to use a shrink wrapper either - skills you wouldn't consider, like organization, focus, and versatility, how to work in a group, the list goes on...) but I'm also having FUN! 

On Tuesday, everyone in the office stopped for a hula hoop break! Reasons working for a sorority is better than your "average" job. 

Okay, well the reason behind the hula hoops. They're for a workshop/ice-breaker at IMPACT, which is a leadership training conference that we hold every even numbered summer for one upcoming chapter leader. 

IMPACT Alpha Delta Pi is a values-based program built around The Creed of Alpha Delta Pi. The IMPACT Alpha Delta Pi program allows emerging collegiate leaders the opportunity to learn how to address major issues facing Alpha Delta Pi and their chapters, to develop their leadership skills and to recognize how to affect the success of their chapter as a future executive officer. IMPACT Alpha Delta Pi also prepares these chapter leaders for alumnae involvement following their college years.

IMPACT Alpha Delta Pi is an intense living-learning community experience. The learning and sharing that occurs through informal gatherings and discussions (as a result of the environment) is considered just as relevant and important as the structured curriculum of the program. Sessions feature hands-on experiential activities and ample discussion time designed to assist each IMPACT Alpha Delta Pi participant in developing her desired leadership skills, in identifying new ideas, and in formulating concrete plans for the sorority and her future. Chapters fund an emerging leader from their chapter to attend and find the bonds created between undergraduates and alumnae through this interaction results in sustained communication and commitment.

IMPACT Alpha Delta Pi focuses on the following key commitment areas:

I – Influence

·  Commitment to Values

·  Commitment to Leadership

M – Motivation

·  Commitment to Collaboration

P – Purpose

·  Commitment to Community Building

·  We are Alpha Delta Pi: Commitment to Common Purpose

A – Action

·  We are the Future: Commitment to the Greater Good

C – Community

·  Group Commitment to the Greater Good

T – Trust

·  IMPACT Advance / Living the Vision

Anywho, we were taking the hula hoops to the training room (where everything for IMPACT is being stored) and the staff just casually decided to have a hula hoop break in the looja. The party got too big so we just headed outside. Maybe it sounds crazy but at least we know how to have a good time! 

On Wednesday, we had a Ritual workshop with Sally. Although we are all very familiar with our ritual, it is such a wonderful experience to get to learn and review. No matter how many times you hear or read or take part in it, you always find something new to love about Alpha Delta Pi. 

On Thursday, Kathryn and I worked at the phones. A seemingly "uneventful" day; we worked the phones and put together manuals and materials for colonizing chapter officers and new member plans. HOWEVER, I will tell you, that day, I fell so much more in love with ADPi. 

Read about it in my last blog post http://turntopaige394.blogspot.com/2014/06/why-alpha-delta-pi.html. I can't even begin to explain how much this sorority means to me but maybe that entry will give you a closer look. 

Friday we had the adventure any ADPi dreams of. Our Mission to Macon. 

Alpha Delta Pi was originally founded on May 15, 1851 at Wesleyan Female College, the first college chartered to grant degrees to women, in Macon, GA. Eugenia Tucker and her five closest friends sought even more than what her education consisted of (at the time, it was incredibly rare for women to even think of pursuing a college degree). These brave young women desired to form an association for personal improvement. They sought council from the college president, a professor, and a reverend - together they created what is today known as Alpha Delta Pi. 

The original name for the sorority was the "Adelphean Society."  Adelphean is derived from the Greek word meaning "sister".  The name changed to Alpha Delta Phi in 1905 and then, to Alpha Delta Pi in 1913.  The basic principles and ritual are much the same as those developed by our founders.

Alpha Delta Pi's founders were Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald, Ella Pierce Turner, Octavia Andrew Rush, Mary Evans Glass, Sophronia Woodruff Dews, and Elizabeth Williams Mitchell.  Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald, the acknowledged leader of the Adelpheans, was chosen their first president.  Within two weeks of the founding of the Adelphean Society by these six ladies, they were joined by 13 others to form the first chapter of the Adelphean Society.  These women paved the way for all other sororities and millions of other sorority women across the world.

The first stop on our tour was Rosehill Cemetery. Now, maybe you're like... um why the heck did you go to a cemetery!? Well, for two reasons. 1. Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald is buried there. I mean, she was the founder of this incredible organization with over 150 active chapters and tons of members in the US and Canada. The least we can do is pay our respects to her and thank her for something so wonderful. 2. It was where many members of the Adelphean Society took their walks and spent their "free time" to escape the rigid world inside Wesleyan. 

                                  

Next stop, The Cannonball House. This house survived the Civil War. Literally. A cannonball flew about a mile in, through a window and landed in the floorboards. Lucky for us, it didn't explode. 

The Cannonball House is the Macon home most closely associated with the Civil War as it was struck by a wayward cannonball! The Union artillery was probably trying to strike the Hay House nearby which was thought to house some of the Confederate Treasury. The house was slated to be razed and replaced with a parking lot. The Macon Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy purchased the property in 1962 to save it from demolition and to provide for itself a chapter home. There were two additional parlors with no furnishings.

Since the destruction of the “Old Wesleyan building,” both Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu had a set of Victorian parlor furnishings from their parlors at Wesleyan. It turned out to be the ideal situation for each. The Adelphean and Philomathean parlors from “Old Wesleyan” were recreated at the Cannonball House.

An interior view of the Cannonball House's Adelphean Parlor

The Cannonball House, fully furnished, opened its doors to visitors in 1964. The Sidney Lanier (Macon) Chapter of the UDC no longer meets at the Cannonball House. In 1999 the Friends of the Cannonball House (FOCBH) assumed responsibility and ownership of the property. The Cannonball House operates as an independent house museum, hosting over 10,000 visitors per year.

There are several items in the Adelphean Parlor that were original to the parlor at Wesleyan Female College. These include:

- 2 carved mahogany chairs with blue needlepoint seats

- Mahogany and glass vitrine

- Many books with Adelphean Society bookplates (in secretary)

- White marble mantle (removed from Wesleyan)

- Gold leaf mirror above mantle

- Chandelier

- Interior shutters (taken from Wesleyan)

- Stained glass transom (taken from Wesleyan and installed above the door.

Other items that you will want to see include:

- Portraits of our founders

- A portrait of Alice Culler Cobb, Adelphean 1853. (Mrs. Cobb founded the Women’s Missionary Society of Georgia in this room at a gathering called by Mrs. Holt, the original owner of the house. (A plaque in the room states this.)

- Pastel drawing of the original Wesleyan Female College

- Diamond-shaped silver cake basket given to Minnie Bass Burden, an Adelphean, for her wedding in 1880. She in turn presented the basket as a gift to the restored Adelphean Parlor.

               

Last, but certainly not least, we visited Wesleyan Female College itself. We were able to look at programs and pictures, as well as copyrights of our brand from as early as 1888! It was incredible to see what a presence we left not only in Macon, Georgia, but around North America.

We as Alpha Delta Pi focus on four main points, scholarship, service, sisterhood, and self. With these four points in mind we can count on the support of our sisters to be women of character. This has remained true with every Alpha Delta Pi for over 160 years and the traditions hold strong and true. Even though there is no longer Greek life on Wesleyan's campus, we are an ever-present source and symbol of leadership and positive change throughout the community. 

There are several items on the present Wesleyan campus that commemorate our beginnings as the Adelphean Society at Wesleyan.

The Adelphean Bench, silver gray marble and engraved with names of founders, is located near the library. The bench, designed by Emily Langham, Epsilon, was presented to Wesleyan College in 1926, in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority at Wesleyan.

The Memorial Fountain is located in the center of the quadrangle. The Alpha Delta Pi coat-of-arms is engraved on the large slanting block at center. The names of the founders of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority are engraved on the stairs leading up to the fountain. The fountain, of white Georgia marble, was presented to Wesleyan in 1936, as a gift to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the chartering of Wesleyan College in 1836.

On our weekend, we went wild and went to SIX FLAGS! We all had a ton of fun screaming our brains out on roller coaster after roller coaster! 

All in all, I would say that week two was wonderful in every which way.

See ya in week three baybeeeee!

Loyally, 

Paige