Josh Thomas participated in Tri-Sigma Night Live because of his fraternity’s connection with Sigma Sigma Sigma. He showed the audience his choreography skills and impressed his team’s coach. What he didn’t expect from the event was that coach becoming his girlfriend of more than two years.

Thomas, a senior, and junior Anne Brately are among the many couples whose involvement in Greek life has allowed their relationship to flourish.

“Participation is one of the best ways to meet people and have the potential to build relationships,” said Thomas, a member of Sigma Tau Gamma. “Even if you’re just participating in something silly and dancing around … you’re doing it to raise money, so it’s a good icebreaker.”

Thomas caught Brately’s eye immediately after the Tri-Sigma Night Live event, and they began dating a month later.

“After we did TSNL that night I asked my sisters, ‘What do you think of Josh?’” said Brately, a nursing major. “I think it was his eyes that got me, those baby blues.”

Brately and Thomas both emphasized the advantages of dating in the Greek community. Brately said it’s easier to understand when Thomas has a fraternity meeting and they have to make plans for a different time.

“You understand that your time gets split between hanging out with your brothers or sisters and hanging out with your girlfriend or boyfriend,” Thomas said. “It’s like a balancing act.”

Not only are they busy with Greek obligations, Thomas said his demanding architecture major keeps him preoccupied. However, Brately’s bubbly, carefree attitude keeps him stable.

“She’s always happy and in a good mood,” he said. “She keeps me happy and in a good mood even though my major likes to bring me down.”

Brately said despite having different schedules and challenging majors, they make time for each other and it works out.

Sophomore accounting major Johnny Flood, also a Sigma Tau Gamma member, and his girlfriend Louise Killius, an Alpha Phi, have a similar problem with finding time to see one another, but he said Greek events bring them together.

“We have to put more time into doing our (Greek) things and we don’t have the opportunity to see each other quite as much,” Flood said. “But at the same time, we do a lot of stuff together through Greek life.”

Flood and Killius, a sophomore political science major, met in high school and have been together for more than four years. They made the decision to go to Kent State, as well as to join Greek life, together.

The couple has participated in multiple Greek rituals, which Flood said has brought them closer. Killius was chosen by the fraternity to be its chapter sweetheart, a woman who represents the brothers. She was chosen based on her commitment to the fraternity and for having upstanding morals and honor.

Another feat for the two, and their favorite moment in Greek life together, was Flood lavaliering Killius. This is an uncommon, important Greek ritual that involves a fraternity member giving a piece of jewelry to his girlfriend that consists of the fraternity’s letters. The couple must get approval from the fraternity, must be dating for a significant amount of time and have frequent involvement in the Greek community.

Killius said because of this ritual, she is now a member of the fraternity and she can wear Sigma Tau Gamma’s letters.

While Brately and Thomas’ fraternity and sorority already had a historically close relationship, Alpha Phi and Sigma Tau Gamma have improved their interaction because of Killius and Flood.

“I noticed that before we didn’t have a lot of Alpha Phi (members) that came to our house, but now there’s definitely an increase,” Flood said. “Louise has been bringing a lot of them around.”

“My sorority never really did stuff with Sigma Tau Gamma, but now we are doing socials and community service with them,” Killius said.

Having fraternity and sorority events together has made it more fun to organize and participate in them, Flood said.

Getting involved in Greek life has helped Brately, Thomas, Killius and Flood gain closer ties to the Greek community, as well as those to each other.

“(Louise has) gotten to know all my fraternity brothers really well, and they all love her to death,” Flood said. “So it’s pretty cool. She’s as much in the fraternity as I am.”

Contact Greek life reporter Heather Thomas

at [email protected].