Pursuing Knowledge and Friendship Through Reading
Author: Ashley J. / Editors: Bella B. and Ariana W. / Photos: Abby W.
In Delta Zeta’s (DZ’s) purpose, they aim “to unite its members in the bonds of sincere and lasting friendship, to stimulate one another in the pursuit of knowledge.” The Alpha Sigma chapter of DZ at FSU embodies this through their book club, which fulfills this purpose by uniting its sisters and encouraging their pursuit of knowledge.
Sydney V. and Kelsey W., both from DZ’s pledge class of 2019, were always talking about the books they were reading together, and they came up with the idea to create a book club and talk about these books with more of their sisters. At the height of the pandemic, they approached DZ’s former Academics Chairman, Danni G., who helped their idea become a reality. They arranged the first meeting on Zoom, and it has been a success ever since! The meeting was unexpectedly busy, and it brought together members over a shared activity during this isolating time.
To this day, the book club is still connecting DZ’s members. Sydney comments that it was a great opportunity to meet sisters with which she might not otherwise have crossed paths. “It was like you could come and make a friendship over the book club or the shared book because that’s a good starting point for something to talk about.”
Members would share that month’s book with each other, and then have fun and engaging conversations during meetings. Sydney and Kelsey came up with questions for the meetings, but they also generally wanted to spark conversation over a shared book. They would ask compelling discussion questions, like what movie character would the book character be. The discussions would even lead the women to sometimes gather to watch movie adaptations of the book in DZ’s TV room.
Many of DZ’s members comment that the book club has helped them get back into reading. Before creating the book club, Danni had just recently rediscovered her love of reading in her sophomore year of college, and she wanted to share that with her sisters. “It brought me so much joy and actually allowed me to relax and be stress-free during a semester full of hard classes. If a book club would help someone like me get back into reading, then I really wanted to help start it.” This goal was a success! Kelsey says that she loved reading when she was younger, but it had been a while since she had read; the book club helped her get back into reading and find her love for it again. She says, “It got a lot of people to read a lot more books in the past couple of years. I started saving all my books on Goodreads, and it was fun to go back and see all the ones I had read.”
The DZ book club has helped bring its members together over a shared love of reading. It has allowed its members to rekindle their love for reading, and to find that love with their sisters. DZ’s members are pursuing knowledge through reading, but also creating friendships by reading together.