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Tea parties are for college students, too

Photo of Ileana Martinez and Mia Salinas at the Whimsy and Wonders tea party. Photo via Cassie Maxwell

Frank Sinatra’s music played in the student center executive suite as students indulged in croissants and tea. On Monday, the Epsilon Alpha chapter of Sigma Lambda Gamma (SOG) put their best foot forward to provide nothing but the best for its first Whimsy and Wonders tea party. 

SOG is a multicultural society defined by five principles: academics, community service, cultural awareness, morals and ethics and social interaction. The organization aims to host events that align with these.

“We’re having different teas from different countries … It kind of goes along with our cultural awareness principle and our social interaction principle,” Stacey Layne, the SOG alumni relations chair, said about the event’s purpose.

In addition to displaying their principles, the sorority was working toward several goals. The tea party was just one of many events hosted during SOG’s first semester week recruitment. 

“We try to host all of our events around the principles of our sorority so that way people get to know us better, and they get to see what we actually do and what we actually want to contribute to campus,” Layne, a junior music and entertainment industry major, said.

Simultaneously, SOG hoped to help Bradley students ease into the semester. 

“The aim of the event was to provide a relaxing space for students to unwind and de-stress before the semester gains more momentum,” Kaylee Velazquez, the president, said.

For those attending, the event had similarities to another SOG-hosted event: coffee flights, which are typically held in the fall. 

“They [attendees] get to order three different drinks however they want. It’s just a space where people can come, sit, study, interact and hang out,” Layne said about the coffee flights.

Adding to the parallels between the two, the coffee event had high praise.

“That was actually the greatest idea they’ve ever had,” senior biomedical science major Ashley De Anda said.

De Anda hopes that future tea parties will share more similarities with the coffee flights. 

“The coffee event was a lot more fun because we got to try different drinks and talk to the gammas more,” De Anda said. “They could be better by interacting with the people who attend the event more.”

Velazquez, a senior nursing major, believes that the event itself was a success, as attendees were able to enjoy themselves and partake in painting. Still, she thinks some changes could be made if SOG were to host the event again. 

“Something we might change is just having more of a variety of food and teas from different cultures,” Velazquez said. 

Upcoming events can be found on the sorority’s Instagram. It may be that the best is yet to come.  

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