International President's Viewpoint

Thriving — this word seems to be permeating social media as well as other things I read or hear lately. I don’t know if it is a direct result of the pandemic, but for whatever reason, a renewed sense of wanting to thrive, not just survive, appears to have gripped many people. I know it has for me.

Two years ago, I took advantage of the opportunity to retire after 30 years of being an educator. Since retiring, it has been fun to devote more time to the things I want to do versus what I have to do. It’s fair to say that I’ve been focusing on things that contribute to a sense of thriving. In addition to volunteering for Alpha Gam, I’ve found joy in spending time with friends and family, taking long walks, reading and serving as an election worker for my county. My husband and I also began prioritizing travel — my only request of him in these travels was to visit Alpha Gam chapters. He readily agreed, and I’m enjoying visiting Alpha Gam chapters in different parts of the United States, and learning more about members' Alpha Gam experience. I’m nowhere near visiting all the chapters. Still, I hope to reach over half of our active collegiate chapters by next summer, when my time serving as International President concludes.

At the start of the pandemic, I worried chapters' membership numbers would suffer, but more importantly, if the quality of the Alpha Gam experience would suffer. These visits have shown me that while COVID-19 has impacted all of our chapters in different ways, it did not take away our connection to the Purpose or one another.

In fact, I’m finding our collegiate sisters are finding great ways to thrive in their Alpha Gam experience. I know this not just from my visits or updates about our chapters, but also from the Dyad Strategies survey data, which we ask our collegiate members to complete every year. For the second year in a row, our sisters have indicated that they value their Alpha Gam membership experience and ranked elements of their experience higher than other National Panhellenic Conference peers — indicating our focus on providing direct support to collegiate chapters and officers during the pandemic is contributing to our organization's ability to thrive.

Thriving is not limited to our collegiate sisters. The Foundation recently concluded the fifth annual Day of Giving and reached a record level of contributions! What a way to show when we work together we can make a difference! If you haven’t given to the Foundation recently, I hope you’ll consider making a gift. In addition to supporting our philanthropic cause of Fighting Hunger, the Foundation also has other initiatives that specifically help our members thrive, through leadership development, scholarship support and financial need. Each gift makes a difference in our collective and individual ability to thrive.

It’s no accident, then, that one of the themes of this issue of the Quarterly is thriving. Alpha Gamma Delta, at its heart, is an organization that exists to provide support to one another, to help one another thrive. When our members thrive, so does our organization.

I remain thankful for each of you for helping Alpha Gamma Delta thrive.

Loyally in epsilon pi,

Dr. Lee Woodham Langub International President Gamma Alpha–University of Georgia