VIDEO: Community and friendship are major benefits of Greek life at MSU Denver. But not the only ones

Community. Leadership skills. Friends to rely on. A second family.

Those are just some of the benefits that Metropolitan State University of Denver students say Greek life gives them.

There’s another huge benefit, too: sticking around.

Statistics indicate that students who are active in fraternities and sororities are more likely to stay in college. Their grades are better too. The grade-point average of active MSU Denver fraternity and sorority members from spring 2023 to fall 2024 was 3.08, said Armando Rijo, assistant director of Fraternity and Sorority Life and Student Government in the Center for Multicultural Engagement and Inclusion. Among students who left Greek life during that time, the average GPA was 2.89.

Senior Journalism major Shania Rea said members of her sorority, the Eta Pi chapter of Sigma Sigma Sigma, hold each other accountable. “We’re all here to have sisterhood and to go to yoga, but at the end of the day, we want to see you cross the finish line to graduate,” she said. “So it’s definitely showed me to be accountable and to study and work for it.”

Numerous nationwide studies confirm that participating in extracurricular activities corresponds to higher grades, a greater likelihood of staying in college and higher graduation rates. And students who participate in Greek life specifically are more likely to graduate in four years or six years.

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Students say feelings of community and family within Greek life contribute to their success. While investigating ways to get involved on campus, transfer student Rajina Caparachini found her way to the Upsilon Zeta chapter of the Sigma Lambda Gamma national sorority.

“The sisters were just extremely inviting,” said Caparachini, a Psychology major minoring in Dance. “It kind of felt like family right off the bat. And so I right then and there decided this was the organization I wanted to be a part of.”

She is more than part of it; she’s a leader, now in her third year as student coordinator of fraternity and sorority life.

None of that is what initially drew Benjamin Chairez, a Computer Science major and member of the Alpha Gamma chapter of Nu Alpha Kappa. “The reason I joined was because I wanted community at school,” Chairez said.

He realized that at a so-called commuter campus, finding that community was especially important. “I knew it (could be) just going to class and then straight home,” he said, “and I didn’t want my life like that.”