One night during Recruitment at Michigan State University, sophomore Olivia Kennedy, Michigan Gamma, peered outside to see that it was pouring rain. Opening her umbrella and setting off for her dorm room, she encountered another woman who got stuck in the downpour with no raingear. Olivia, the good Samaritan that she is, offered to share her umbrella with the woman on that dreary night, chitchatting about college life along the way. They parted ways, but that would not be the end of their interaction.
“It was Bid Day, and I was so excited to join Pi Phi. And I look over and there she was, the girl I had walked back with that night! She was my new sister! She shouted, ‘Wait, are you the umbrella girl!?’ And I responded, ‘Yeah, that’s me!’ It’s just so funny how those little things work out. You could call it karma, but I really believe that Sincere Friendship can be found in other areas outside of the Fraternity, sometimes before you even know it!” Olivia said.
Since joining Pi Phi, Olivia has grown and taken on leadership roles in the organization; she was elected Chapter President last December. She says she never envisioned herself in this position before; she much preferred quiet leadership over more prominent roles. “But the previous Chapter President really took me under her wing, and allowed me to see the potential I had to lead the other women,” said Olivia.
Her leadership style can be summed up by one of her favorite quotes that hangs on the wall in her room; interestingly enough and in similar fashion, Mother Teresa also put a version of this poem up on a wall, in her children’s home in Calcutta:
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
(From The Paradoxical Commandments by Dr. Kent M. Keith)
And finally, Olivia answers a few just-for-fun questions:
This or That
Seaside or Mountaintop?
Laundry or Dishes?
Early bird or night owl?
Football or Basketball
Sweet or Salty?
Dog or Cat?
Mac or PC?
Pulp or no pulp?
Introvert or extrovert? Ambivert!
Silver or gold?