Lit Review #2

2) Long, Larry D. "Unchallenged, Professed Core Values: Do Undergraduate Fraternity/Sorority Members Actually Benefit In The Areas Of Scholarship, Leadership, Service, And Friendship?." College Student Affairs Journal 30.2 (2012): 15-30. ERIC. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.

3) Summary:  Before this article was written, there had been not much prior research on whether fraternity membership can lead to certain skill development such as scholarship, leadership, service and friendship. The study was conducted on members of greek organizations in 15 southeastern universities. Results showed that fraternity members excelled in areas of critical thinking, management, skills, and career skills. Other skills that were enhanced through greek life include friendship, interpersonal skills, scholarship, leadership, and service. Although all these skills were not drastically enhanced by greek life, members of greek life did show AT LEAST some moderate improvement over non greek members. 

4) Larry D. Long - Is currently an employee at Michigan State University in the student success department. He has previously held high positions at MSU such as the Community Director and the Student Life Coordinator. He has written many articles on topics of student life ranging from articles involving greek life, to college dormitory experiences, to student success based on living arrangement. Larry has masters of arts degrees in student affairs, admin, sociology, and educational psychology.

5) Key Terms:

Friendship: although friendship is a very basic term it is a large part of this article, The study conducted shows fraternal members have increased sense of belonging and friendship with others. Friendship translates to other skills such as interpersonal skills which can lead to career success.

Leadership: Another basic term but a essential one in this article. Fraternities give individuals excellent opportunities to hold leadership positions and obtain practice in being a leader.

6) Quotes: 

"This is significant because social integration is associated with persistence (Allen, Robbins, Casillas, & Oh, 2008; Lohfink & Paulsen, 2005) and strong interpersonal abilities are associated with career success (Myers & Larson, 2005; Sermersheim, 1996)."  Page 23

"This confirms the conclusions of previous research that found fraternal organizations provide many opportunities for students to serve in leadership roles" Page 24

"The results of the current study revealed members reported gains pertaining to the espoused values. Respondents rated their fraternity/sorority experience as excellent in producing gains in sense of belonging and peer interaction and good in developing study skills, critical thinking, commitment to service, management skills, and career skills." Page 26

7) Value: The topic of my paper is about how being in a fraternity can help develop soft skills of its members and prepare them for future success after college. Although this article does not specifically discuss soft skills it talks about how fraternities benefit specific traits, traits that can be considered soft skills. Soft skills are considered more traits such as interpersonal skills. This article discusses how fraternities can benefit specific skills such as friendship and leadership. By developing friendship it can help interpersonal skills and people skills which ties in with soft skills. This article helped validate a belief of mine that fraternities benefit individuals with many useful life skills.