The Nicholls Greek community will celebrate its National Ritual Week, which begins March 3, with a guest speaker on March 6, as a reward for winning Phi Mu Fraternity’s National Ritual Week Award.
Anthony Naquin, biology sophomore from Houma and member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, was approached by one of his fraternity brothers who encouraged him to enter the National Ritual Week contest, Phi Mu Fraternity Nationals. Naquin composed a video explaining what ritual means to various members of the Greek community here at Nicholls. In the video, Naquin described ritual to be “unifying, personal, essential, universal, sacred, enriching and defining.”
Scott Pellegrin, education senior from Bourg and member of the Kappa Alpha Order, said that the video was really fun to make because it gives a “behind the scenes” look at Greek life.
Rituals are something that sororities and fraternities base their organizations on. Victoria Verdin, Sigma Sigma Sigma Ritual Chair, spoke about why her ritual is important to her and her sorority.
“Ritual is important because it defines what your sorority and fraternity is all about,” Verdin said
Bianca Brown, education senior from Shreveport and president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., explained that sorority rituals are personable and never changing, which is what makes them special.
“I thought to myself that even though Nicholls has a very small Greek community, we do a lot of things right that most campuses don’t,” Naquin said.
He commented that Greek life across the nation is often publicized in a negative light, carrying the stereotypes of wild, partying college students. However, the good that each Greek organization does is often left out of the public eye.
“We have the ability to be a close-knit Greek community,” he said. “We are able to form that brotherhood, so I thought it would be easy to showcase how we live out our values by interviewing people personally.”
Phi Mu’s National Organization has chosen Rick Barnes to speak at the University. Barnes, who is a member of Farmhouse Fraternity, a nationally acclaimed educational speaker and founder of Rick Barnes Presents, Inc., will speak on March 6 in a free event for Nicholls Community.
Barnes earned his bachelor’s degree at Texas Tech University and went on to receive his Master of Liberal Arts degree at Texas Christian University. Barnes has spoken at more than 2,000 colleges across the nation and is known for delivering powerful messages to diverse audiences.
When Naquin found out his video was chosen as the winning entry for the contest, he said he was overcome with excitement.
“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it,” Naquin said. “I was told that they narrowed down the finalists and that we had won out of 20 people across the nation. That was pretty amazing that little Nicholls was put on the map like that. It’s so good to be able to bring something like this on campus right now as we are faced with all of these budget cuts, and it’s hard to spend money on programs.”
Before Naquin joined Greek life, he had to choose which fraternity fit him best.
“When I went to Rush, I was stuck between two fraternities,” Naquin explained. “One was [filled] with people I went to high school with and knew really well, so naturally I was drawn to that. I was also drawn to these people who I had never met, but I felt more comfortable and I felt like I belonged with them.”
Naquin said he realized that his ritual was already being lived out through his decision to choose Sigma Alpha Epsilon as his fraternity.
“Subconsciously, the values that each fraternity lives out – you’re drawn to that even though you don’t know it,” he said. “You’re drawn to the fraternity that lives the same values that you hold.”
Naquin’s video “Ritual” can be found on YouTube on his personal account, Anthony Naquin, or by scanning the QR code in this article.