After Beth Holloway was recognized in 2009 for being Phi Sigma Rho's first Lifetime Achievement Award winner, I asked her to write something for our blog. Here is what Beth wanted to share with us!
Sara DaSilva
National VP of Alumnae Affairs
"When Sara asked me to be a guest blogger, I wondered what on earth I would blog about. It seemed too cliché to write about Phi Sigma Rho and what it meant to me while I was in school. I could write about my reactions to being the first Phi Rho Lifetime Achievement Award winner, I’m not sure anyone would want to read such an emotional post about how I was humbled and honored and really not sure if I was the really the best pick given the amazing accomplishments of many of my sisters.
So it took me awhile to decide what to write. And while I was thinking about all this, I was having a conversation with my husband about renovating our kitchen, and what that would mean. I was sitting there trying very hard to picture what it might look like when it was done. Then I thought of the many other remodeling projects I’d been through, and how it was hard to remember what the room looked like in the before state. And it occurred to me that Phi Sigma Rho is a bit like that remodeled house. I would never presume to describe what being a Phi Rho at Purdue was like for the founders and the first few pledge classes. But I suspect that it was different than it was for me, as a member of the Eta pledge class (6th class if my counting is correct). As it is now different for the current members of the Purdue chapter, which is currently going through a remodeling of sorts.
As someone who is so comfortable with my memories of Phi Sigma Rho, it’s hard for me to envision a new, refashioned Phi Rho. One with a house in the Acres where all the sisters live, and so much like the other, traditional Panhellenic sororities. And yet, that was the vision we had all along. Someday, our Phi Rho sisters will look back and wonder what the sorority was like before the house. And Phi Sigma Rho will be forever changed. But a common thread weaves us all together, creating a beautiful tapestry that respects our history, celebrates our present, and leaves space for our future, and that thread is sisterhood. To the current actives – you have the luck to be living through the “mess” of the remodeling process; try to enjoy it and don’t mind the dust too much! And to all my sisters, past, present, and future, Phi Rho Love forever."
Beth (Reesman) Holloway
Purdue Alpha, Eta class
