Since 2001, Sigma Gamma has been an exclusive group amongst senior and freshmen girls, but now, that’s no longer the case.  

Sigma Gamma, a club at Hershey High School, is a group comprised of females whose mission is threefold, according to Sigma Gamma club advisor Shari Stuckey. They are to give back to the community through service, be positive role models to younger women, and promote unity amongst the classes. Participation is the key to success, but since it was lacking among freshmen and senior girls, the club was opened to all grades.

This year wasn’t the first that Stuckey noticed the lack of participation in the club. Out of ten years that she has been advising, she has seen this pattern appear every year after Christmas time. According to Stuckey, event attendance begins to dwindle down after the holiday break until there’s nearly no one showing up.

Lack of event attendance doesn’t just frustrate Stuckey, but also her leadership team. Sigma Gamma’s leadership team, comprised of 11 senior girls,  does a lot to insure that the club runs smoothly, such as coming up with the club event ideas. It meets every Tuesday morning before school to plan exciting events that people want to be involved in.

Additionally, the leadership team runs the events. Stuckey believes that they are very determined and committed. “Once these young women make up their mind to do something, they follow through with it, which is really nice,” she said.

Because the leadership team is so determined to make Sigma Gamma the best it can be, they would spend their time planning what they thought were engaging and exciting events, yet nearly only five people were showing up, despite having so many people committed to the club. The leadership team also began to notice that sophomores and juniors were feeling excluded.

Because of the lack of participation and the exclusiveness to just seniors and freshmen, Sigma Gamma was opened up to all grades in hopes of uniting all young women in the school.

Stuckey believed there was also a rift between the classes, where freshman were afraid to talk to seniors, or sophomores were afraid to talk to juniors. Because of this gap between the groups, Stuckey believed it just made sense to bring everyone together.

However, people were not just told to join the group, they were also told to resign. Sigma Gamma sent out a form which allowed people to quit the club if they desired. According to Stuckey, telling people to resign was not supposed to make people feel bad at all.

She wanted to ensure that the club was comprised of truly committed people. Stuckey said she completely understands that seniors are busy with applying to colleges, playing sports, and taking difficult classes.

“I think we have to learn to prioritize things, and so Sigma Gamma for some people might be the thing that has to go, because they’re doing so many other things,” she said. Stuckey wanted girls to understand that it was okay if they no longer wanted to be apart of the club, and the only thing they needed to do was give her a heads up by resigning.

In a larger sense, Sigma Gamma isn’t just about bringing together seniors and freshmen, it is about helping young women break down barriers and realize that if they work together, they can accomplish great things and make a difference. By adding other young women to the group, their common goal doesn’t change.

Sigma Gamma was originally created to help alleviate bullying amongst young women at HHS, which at the time was a large epidemic. When the girls came together to work on a common goal outside of themselves, Stuckey found that the young women would forget about their differences, and all come together for the greater good, which is what Sigma Gamma is truly all about.

As time when on, Stuckey believed that bullying became less of a problem. However, there were still issues that were always prevalent among young women, so the group remained.

Stuckey wanted young women to not only create friendships and work together for a greater good, but she also wanted them to realize that in Hershey, many people are very fortunate.  She wanted young women to understand that there are still others in the community who may not have the material items, like a nice house or car to non material items, like the love and support of family similar to how they do

Stuckey only wants to make Sigma Gamma grow stronger and allowing other grades to join only enhances that aspect. In addition, freshman will now be able to form relationships with sophomores and juniors who won’t be leaving at the end of the year.

At first, however, Stuckey did believe that Sigma Gamma would be harder to manage by allowing more people to join. But after she looked at the numbers, the people who resigned were merely replaced by those who joined. According to Stuckey, the club is still primarily composed of freshmen and seniors.

As time goes on, Stuckey believes that Sigma Gamma will continue to grow as more sophomores and juniors come to things and tell their friends.
Despite such a dramatic change to what was once a group for just freshmen and seniors, Sigma Gamma will remain true to its ideals. Stuckey will continue to “foster that sense of philanthropy in the students to give back.”