Baker University’s Panhellenic Board has won two awards from the Association of Fraternal Leadership and Values.

Assistant Director of Student Life Josh Doak recently attended the AFLV conference in Indianapolis along with five students: sorority members Caringtyn Julian, Taylor Swartzendruber and Bailey Conklin and fraternity members Conner Petty and Mariq Stigler.

This is the first year that Baker students have participated in this conference. After receiving feedback from Greek alumni, Doak applied for and received a scholarship that provided enough money for the five students to attend.

Baker students traveled to the conference with students from Washburn University.

“It was a great time for them to be able to connect with a neighboring institution and also to share some ideas about how they run things and how we run things,” Doak said.

After arriving at the conference, the learning continued. Each day, participants got to listen to motivational speakers and break out into small groups.

Swartzendruber, a junior, attended the conference on behalf of Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

“My favorite part of the conference was getting up in the morning and listening to motivating speakers talk about how to become a better leader,” Swartzendruber said.

She said the conference displayed Greek life at “its highest and most excellent. It was what it [Greek life] is supposed to be without all of the negative stereotypes.”

The awards Baker received were for the Panhellenic Board’s public relations and judicial affairs.

Doak said public relations consists of “how we do our social media, how we organize our information, and how we work with different groups on campus to help bring education programs to campus.”

He said the judicial affairs award consists of how the sororities “govern sorority life on campus to make sure that we are hitting all of the goals and expectations.”

Because these awards were application-based, the Panhellenic Board had to put together portfolios regarding each award. The sororities had to change policies and update material while creating the portfolio.

Baker University was the smallest university at the conference to win an award, and winning gave Baker national recognition. Doak hopes Baker students continue attending the conference and keep applying for and winning awards.

“We are just a little more hungry now to show that as Baker University, we may be small, but we are mighty,” Doak said.