This past year I was fortunate to serve as the president of my sorority at Saint Louis University. During this time working with Panhellenic presidents around the United States, it became very clear that leaders of Greek organizations are suffering from the vicarious traumas of being a leader, friend, therapist, mediator and event planner. Like all students in the US, leaders are subject to increased risk for mental health concerns.

Sorority president is a role that is often over looked as popular or frivolous, but it is rather detrimental without proper communication of resources from national organizations. After reading some research, it is clear that mental health is a huge struggle on the rise in college students around the globe.

I plan on culminating my communication skills learned here at Saint Louis University the past four years in this project to conduct interviews and qualitative research that’s results will lead to an informative webinar which will be sent to national Panhellenic organizations along with a survey of effectiveness. This project will highlight the effects of communicating resources, removing stigma behind “weakness of mental health”, and managing conflict within a multi-level organization.

This webinar and research that will be shared with Greek national organizations will educate on effective communication of resources to college leaders in sorority life. This could potentially decrease the feelings of isolation, depression and lonely thoughts that so many peers of mine have gone through.

Barbara Heidkamp would like to thank her faculty sponsor Jennifer Ohs for their support on this project.