Greek Week Speaker

David Stollman speaking to the first audience about being good leaders.
Photo by: Michael Quibuyen

This year's Greek Week speaker was a breath of fresh that came to both challenge, improve, and grow the greek community. David Stollman, who is a well known speaker for CAMPUSPEAK and former greek member, spoke about growing chapters and creating beneficial leaders. The event took place at Wilson High School where two sessions of David's talk took place. "Sometimes I tend to forget the things greek week speakers talk about, but I was definitely amazed by the things he had to say and I know they will stick with me" said Andrew Silaj, who is a fraternity member and IFC Recruitment chair. His passion for the Greek community shined through, and his honesty and interactive style helps him to connect with and impact his audience.

His "buy in or get out" philosophy spoke to almost every chapter on the Long Beach State campus. Stollman spoke mainly on the image of greek life, and how many of the bad reputations are built on truth and need to be taken care of. "Just imagine how much more we could actually accomplish if we were part of the solution instead of part of the problem" he said. Stollman also offered valuable lessons and stories not only from his own experiences but also from other chapters he has worked with in the past. He shared funny stories about his fraternity days, spoke on hazing, and got the audience to relate. Then he proceeded to explain that many of those binge drinking nights and hazing practices were the main reasons that his chapter no longer exists on his former college campus. This type of raw honesty made the whole room go silent and actually "buy in" to what he was saying. He also encouraged chapters to reach out to him on either Twitter and Facebook with questions or even comments on the presentation. Saying, not only am I a greek life speaker I am currently a sorority advisor so I have definitely have experiences on both sides of the spectrum.

Overall, Stollman's message was successful and definitely affected the mindset of the greek community. One chapter President, Annie Williams, said "He was a really moving and entertaining speaker, I know that we he spoke about definitely impacted my chapter for the positive". His approach was entertaining and his words were simple, but his message had a lasting impact.