After six years of being nominated, Iowa State’s Collegiate Panhellenic Council has been recognized as the best Panhellenic committee in the Midwest for the first time.

The ISU Collegiate Panhellenic Council won the prestigious Division IV Sutherland Award while attending the Mid-American Greek Area Conference in Chicago.

“Our greek community strives for excellence,” said Leigh Thiedeman, 2004 Collegiate Panhellenic Council president. “It was exciting to see our hard work from last year recognized in the entire region.”

The ISU chapter competed against 10 other schools for the award, said Thiedeman, senior in English.

To apply, Thiedeman said the council put together 10 binders highlighting every program, survey, event and interaction it engaged in over the last year. The group also included several essays discussing major achievements during the year.

The Sutherland Award is given to councils that excel in eight categories: academic achievement; council management; philanthropy and community service; leadership and educational programming; membership recruitment,; public relations; risk management and self-government; and judicial affairs, said Samantha Sexton, vice president of public relations for the Collegiate Panhellenic Council.

“As the ISU chapter, we always try to go above and beyond the award criteria,” said Sexton, junior in advertising. “For example, in public relations, we implemented new programs in the high schools to inform future students about the greek community. For academics, we hold Academic Recognition Night.”

One of the council’s new activities was its involvement with the second annual Cy’s All-Campus Leadership Summit, which was held in September to promote leadership skills among all campus organizations, Thiedeman said.

The council used to hold its own leadership conference for new members in the greek community, but this was the first year it required new members to attend the summit.

“We wanted our new members to learn time and risk management skills, but wanted to incorporate that with Cy’s,” Thiedeman said.

The Mid-American Greek Area Conference is a gathering of student leaders from a 16-state region, Sexton said.

The conference is designed to promote leadership and educational experience for groups in attendance. She said Iowa State is represented at the conference annually and 38 members of the ISU Collegiate Panhellenic Council and InterFraternity Council attended this year.

“The conference was a wonderful experience,” said Meghan Mohr, vice president of recruitment for the Collegiate Panhellenic Council and senior in early childhood education. “The new ideas and perspectives that you gain are priceless, and I can’t wait to put them in progress.”