Get To Know Some Alpha Pis!!

With less than a month left until initiation, the newest members of AST have been busier than ever with meeting sisters, new member meetings, and for the majority of the Pis, adjusting to college! What else do the new sisters do outside of Greek life and school? Read more about what some of the Alpha Pis are passionate about with three new member spotlights!

Gemma Howard

Gemma (1st row, 2nd from left) and
club tennis!

A freshman living in Garber Hall in the Village, Gemma is an athlete on campus as well as an Alpha Sigma Tau. She made the competitive club tennis team and says that the team, Greek life, and school work take up most of her time on campus this semester. Through the tennis team she’s already travelled to South Carolina for a tournament where JMU played against several other schools including Alabama, UPenn, Duke, and Georgia Tech.

Other than the tennis team, Gemma has adjusted to JMU with grace…for the most part…ask her about an embarrassing recruitment story (if you know her, you know what we’re talking about).

So far Gemma loves JMU and says that her favorite thing is how genuinely friendly everyone on campus is, from the staff to the students and faculty, but if she could bring one thing to campus it’d be a Baskin Robbins. “As long as I can use dining dollars and get ice cream, I’m set,” she said.

Casey Smith

Casey (Middle) with her friends in Guyana!

Casey is a freshman from Connecticut who can always be seen with a cluster of Alex & Ani bracelets on her wrist. She loves being a new member of AST, saying her favorite part is, “all of the people here, everyone is so nice and so welcoming. I love having a family and group of people here for me at JMU because I live eight hours away.”

Casey’s time spent on campus outside of classes is mainly her involvement in Greek life so far, but she is no stranger to service projects and would love to continue in college.

“Something you wouldn’t know about me is that every April for the last three years I’ve gone on a community service trip to South America. Sophomore year I went to Ecuador and dug trenches for pipes to make aqueducts so the town would have running water. Junior year I went to Nicaragua. During their wet seasons half of the town can’t get to the other side because of a river, so tons of people couldn’t get to work or to the doctor’s office or anything. We built a suspension bridge to help fix that problem. Senior year I went to Guyana and helped to build a community center that has rooms for a kitchen, a library with a computer, a meeting room, a working bathroom, and a sewing room to make clothes!”

Casey also said these experiences have made her grow as a person and are completely eye opening. “It’s life changing because you see what most of the world is really like… I learned so much from every person I met.”

Janie Jacobs

Janie (Middle) with Pis Kylie Spandra
 and Kelly Colton

Janie Jacobs is a freshman Pi living in Potomac this year. Her favorite part of school so far has been AST, and like many of the new members she loved Big/Little week and is excited to have Alley Moore as her big. Janie is looking forward to initiation on November 9^th! 

Janie has brought her love of teaching and children to JMU and outside of Greek life is also involved in a program called Helping Hands. 

Helping Hands is a part of the Overcoming Barriers group on campus. Every Friday Janie goes to Cub Run Elementary School to work in Phys Ed classes with special needs children. They do activities with the children and focus on helping out the P.E. teacher.

“It’s such a rewarding experience to be able to help these kids with disabilities who can’t do a lot of things without assistance. It’s so much fun to work with them and see them learning new things from you!”Janie said.

As sister dates, social events, and meetings continue, it’s inevitable that the sisters of Alpha Sigma Tau will continue to be the unique and tightknit group of girls we are known around campus to be. The new pledge class is eager to live up to the reputation of an AST sister… never miss a chance to say hi to a Pi!

Written by: Emma Bleznak, Alpha Pi.