By Madeleine Thompson

From Friday Jan. 18 to Saturday Jan. 19 the 23 presidents of Kenyons 13 Greek organizations gathered at Camp McPherson in Danville, about half an hour away from the college, to prepare for the new semester.

Christina Mastrangelo, director of Student Activities and Greek Life, conceived the annual retreat, now in its third year. New Assistant Director of Student Activities for Leadership, Sam Filkins, attended this years retreat for the first time.

Topics on the menu this year included rush, organization strategies, group images and upcoming events for the semester.

We rarely get a time to talk about the state of Greek life at Kenyon in such an enclosed environment, said Delta Kappa Epsilon President Colin Finnegan 15.

We got a lot done, and I think it was beneficial. Mia Barnett 15, co-president of the Archon Society, emphasized that the main focus of the retreat was leadership. We worked on … ways to be a great leader, Barnett said. We talked about leaders we admire and leadership qualities that we would like to have. There was a lot of candy.

The retreat bolstered the unity of the new presidents, according to Alpha Delta President Andrew Tint 13 and Zeta Theta Pi President Kate Lang 14.

I was a little bit nervous about getting into it but now I feel way more confident about being able to implement some of the suggestions that [Mastrangelo] had for us and kind of improve our organization in more ways than I thought possible before, Lang said.

Tint agreed, emphasizing the positive evolution of the retreat since its first year. I think [the retreat] has changed in the last three years based on what the needs are currently, Tint said.

This year was much more about perception and individual leadership. It was a way to create a more cohesive unit.

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