Being a leader is more than being elected or appointed to a job and getting a title. Holding a leadership position means a woman is so passionate about an activity that she wants to help it succeed in any way she can.

The women of Virginia Theta are certainly passionate, and many are using the skills they developed as Pi Phis to lead numerous campus organizations to success.

With an undergraduate population of about 1800, Washington and Lee University students have ample opportunities to hold leadership positions. And the women of the Virginia Theta chapter have taken student involvement and leadership to the next level through their unprecedented involvement. 

Pi Phi leaders are familiar faces in the surrounding communities of Lexington and Rockbridge County. Sisters run tutoring and mentoring programs in the area elementary, middle and high schools. They head the group English for Speakers of Other Languages. Two sisters founded and chair the First Book chapter on their campus. A Pi Phi is also the president Women in Technology and Science [WITS], an organization that hosts monthly labs for the younger girls with the hope of fostering a love and understanding of the sciences.

Senior Rosemary Kelley is a shift leader for The Campus Kitchen project, an organization that feeds the hungry in Rockbridge County. She said what she has learned as a member of the fraternity has translated to her volunteering and contributed to the way she handles her role as a leader.

“Being a Pi Phi teaches you how to work with a very diverse group of girls,” Kelley said. “It teaches you compassion and consideration for everyone’s values and opinions.”

            This is a common theme among the sisters. Fellow senior Dorothy Todd, who served at Virginia Theta’s Social Chair before transitioning to Standards Chair, said her leadership roles in Pi Phi have helped her become more confident.

            “I was the type of person who wouldn’t even call a store to see what time they closed,” Todd said, adding that now she has no problem picking up the phone.

Todd said that self-assurance has also translated to her role as captain of the women’s cross country team.

“[Being on Exec] taught me to go ahead and take risks,” she said. “I also have the confidence to ask the coach for things the team wants and to make suggestions.”

W&L Pi Phis are also leaders in the campus arts, directing Shakespearian productions and holding high positions in other student-run theater troupes. Pi Phis’ names are everywhere in the university’s media, and sisters edit the school’s newspaper, The Ring-tum Phi, news magazine, InGeneral, literary magazine, Muse, and liberal-arts magazine, Gnosis.

But, more than merely holding titles, Pi Phis are dedicated to their work. And people notice, said Stephanie Hardiman, who served two terms as Vice President of Member Development. 

“I think we have a great reputation on campus of being people who not only seek out leadership positions but also as those who can do them well,” Hardiman said. “I think they see us as women who are true to their word and their intentions and conduct themselves with integrity and class.”