The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made the college experience far from normal. In the wake of this challenge, Case Western Reserve University sororities have prepared to recruit new members virtually using tools like social media and Zoom. Sisters of Kappa Alpha Theta (Theta) had the idea of creating “Thinking with Thetas,” a podcast to spread the word about virtual recruitment and the Greek Life experience. 

“Thinking with Thetas” is hosted by Afriti Chinoy, a third-year student majoring in nutritional biochemistry, and Victoria Ortiz, a second-year student majoring in psychology and sociology.

“We have a theme related to sorority life for each podcast,” explained Chinoy. Chinoy and Ortiz bring guests from Theta onto the podcast, as well as guests from other Greek sororities at CWRU. 

In addition to the two hosts, there are two other members on the “Thinking with Thetas” team: Marlo Robinson, a fourth-year student majoring in chemical biology and pursuing a master’s degree in bioethics and medical humanities, and Bailey Kaplan, a third-year student majoring in computer science, cognitive science and psychology. Together, they help plan and organize the podcast episodes. 

“On the off-weeks of recording … we meet to discuss the content for the podcast and we decide who we are going to have as guests,” said Robinson. “The following week, we record the podcast and prepare it for release on Sunday.” This balance allows the “Thinking with Thetas” team to balance coursework and podcasting. 

“Our recruitment committee started the podcast as a way to help educate potential new members (PNMs) on the Greek community prior to recruitment,” said Kaplan when asked about how the podcast was created. Since sororities have not been able to provide information about recruitment and Greek Life in person, this was a primary goal. 

After the idea was formed, the next step was to gather the necessary equipment and software to record the podcast.

“Once we decided we wanted to make the podcast, we realized it was actually a much easier process to create than we anticipated,” explained Kaplan. The group records Zoom meetings to create raw audio and then edits using Anchor before releasing to Spotify. 

“Our podcast process includes the four of us coming together and discussing what themes and important ideas we wanted to share with the CWRU community,” said Chinoy about the group’s workflow. They also determine who they will invite onto the podcast as guests and work to record interviews and organize each episode’s structure. 

While the podcast was an idea formed and executed by sisters of Theta, all of the Panhellenic chapters have benefitted from the podcast because of the information being disseminated to potential new members (PNMs). 

“We have brought on every single sorority to speak on the podcast … so PNMs get to know each of the sororities on campus and what makes them each so unique,” said Chinoy. Some of the guests on “Thinking with Thetas” include Himica Kalra, the President of the CWRU Panhellenic Council (Panhel), Morgan Hyun, the VP of Recruitment of Panhel and Victoria Fan, a member of the Order of Omega. 

“We hope to continue the series on an every other week basis till February when recruitment starts!” said Chinoy when asked about the future of the podcast. 

“We haven’t talked about the long-term goal of the podcast, but I definitely think it’s a good platform that our chapter should keep utilizing,” said Ortiz. “Right now, it’s primarily used to inform PNMs about the recruitment process, but in the future, I would love to get other Thetas hosting and making podcasts on topics that they feel are relevant.” 

Currently, there are four released episodes: “The Intro Podcast!,” “Panhellenic Community,” “Fostering Connections within the Sorority” and “Thankful with Theta.” There are three more planned episodes: “DEI in Our Chapter,” “The New Member Period” and “Recruitment FAQ.” 

New episodes of the podcast are released every two weeks on Spotify.