Abby Isaacson of Pi Beta Phi used her experiences as a former Cold Stone Creamery employee to her advantage and placed third in the second annual Go Greek Scholarship Contest.

“I worked at Cold Stone for three years in high school [in Walnut Grove, Minn.],” said Isaacson, sophomore in nutritional science. “So I messaged my old coworkers about their personal favorites and which ones they thought would sell the best.”

Stephan Siegel, manager of the Cold Stone Creamery in Ames, invited all sororities and fraternities to nominate a contestant. Each nominee developed a signature ice cream and competed with other houses from Sept. 6 to Oct. 17. The inventor of the best-selling creation will win a scholarship of $250 and a free ice cream social for his or her chapter. Each participant will receive a Cold Stone gift bag.

“This year, I think I’m also going to do something for the second-place winner,” Siegel said.

He mentioned a $50 scholarship as a possibility.

Isaacson’s creation, called “Beta Brownie Batter,” consisted of cake batter ice cream, brownies, caramel and graham cracker pie crust. She said she was chosen to represent her house based on her history and experience with Cold Stone ice cream. Although she turned to her former coworkers for suggestions, she gave her Pi Beta Phi sisters the final say.

“A group of my sorority sisters went to Cold Stone and sampled them all and voted,” Isaacson said.

She said most of the suggestions from her former coworkers included cake batter ice cream, which is the best-selling ice cream at the Walnut Grove Cold Stone.

Isaacson’s brownie creation competed with seven other sororities and fraternities. Contestants earned points when customers purchased their ice cream. The number of points depended on the size of the order, ranging from one point for a 3-ounce order to seven points for a 48-ounce order. “Beta Brownie Batter” finished third with a total of 351 points, compared to the 232 and 144 points scored by Alpha Delta Pi and Kappa Delta, respectively.

Isaacson said her sorority sisters were very supportive of her creation.

“Every other Monday we would go for buy one, get one free night,” Isaacson said, “but mostly girls just went on their own to support it, which was really nice, and I appreciate that.”

Siegel said he was pleased with how well this year’s creations went over with the Cold Stone customers.

“I’m asking the area developers if we can start carrying some of the flavors,” Siegel said, “and I don’t think they’ll have a problem with it. Maybe the top three or something.”

Siegel has not yet released the names of the winner and runner-up to the public. Find out who won the Go Greek Scholarship Contest in Thursday’s paper.