As an Irvine local, who attended high school across the street from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), California Eta Alara Abbasi thought she wanted to get away. It was a chance meeting on campus and an energetic mother that led to Alara’s decision to stay close to home for college.

During her senior year of high school, Alara visited a number of colleges as she weighed her options. After a second visit to UCI, Alara fell in love with Aldrich Park, the central park and heart of campus, which made the decision more difficult. Alara and her mother sat outside UCI’s Langson Library, where she cried distraught and torn about where to attend college.

Alara claims that her very energetic mother can make friends with anyone, so she saw four young women walking by and grabbed them. “My daughter is in high school and she needs to make a decision on where to go to school, ” she said. Without questions, these four women spent 45 minutes discussing UCI. “These women were ambitious, accomplished, intelligent scholars with jobs and research,” Alara said. “One of them mentioned that something that helped her was her sorority, but I had no idea what that meant.”

After she said goodbye and thanked them, Alara knew she wanted to be surrounded by women who were genuine and made her feel welcome as if it were normal to be crying on the steps of the library. Alara went online to look through all Panhellenic sorority chapters until she found the one she believed the women mentioned: Pi Beta Phi.

When Alara arrived on campus, she felt insecure and intimidated by the amount of work associated with her studies, including the Campuswide Honors Program, but she knew she wanted to go through recruitment. At the campus Involvement Fair, she was hoping to get a glimpse of those four women who had helped her make the decision to attend UCI. As fate would have it, three of the women were out tabling for Pi Beta Phi, remembered her name and asked about her mother even five months later! They encouraged her to sign up for Panhellenic recruitment, which she did immediately. She loved the energy at Pi Phi and joined in fall 2013.

Alara truly believes in the network and support system of thousands of sisters in Pi Beta Phi. “Remember we’re all here, connected by one bond,” she said. “We share the same values and have something special in common with each other. Trust in that. Have faith in that.” Alara is currently serving as Chapter President and I know the chapter is in good hands with her passion and leadership.