Facebook has Mark Zuckerburg. MySpace has Tom Anderson. The newly opened GreekStrength.com has … Oprah? According to its creators she is the source of inspiration for the site.
“The idea for GreekStrength.com actually came from a dream I had said Jerry Sneed a senior at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. I dreamt I was on the Oprah show and told her about the plan I had for the Web site and she loved it. I woke up the next morning and thought ‘Wow that’s a great idea.'”
With the help of fellow senior classmate and friend of more than ten years Andrew Fabbri Sneed opened the site’s doors or its URLs to America’s Greek system on Wednesday Jan. 14. Built as a social networking site with a business edge Fabbri and Sneed hope GreekStrength.com will become a place where the fraternities and sororities can come together in the spirit of furthering their careers.
“I think that it’s a really great idea for people in the Greek system said junior and Delta Gamma active member Katie McDonald. It will be interesting to see how far the Web site will go.”
Getting the “great idea” off the ground was something both Fabbri and Sneed thought of as necessesary.
“Jerry was tired and frustrated with Facebook and MySpace because it seemed like there was no privacy and people were always getting in trouble Fabbri said. So he came to me with the idea to launch this website for more networking purposes and I thought it was a great idea.”
As the president of his off-campus fraternity Sneed said he has many reasons to believe the site is beneficial for those with experience in the tight-knit Greek life community.
“From living in Greek life organizations at a young age you have certain characteristics from that experience that others may not have Sneed said. Right now we are growing by 50 members a day and with more members comes more interest from businesses and that will hopefully create more opportunities for them to network.”
However getting their plan off the ground and onto the Internet turned out to be a lengthy and costly process. Nine months and 10000 working hours after receiving Oprah’s “blessing Sneed and Fabbri were able to acquire from friends and sponsors the $50,000 necessary to solidify their place in cyberspace. They now have more than 700 unique profiles on the site and a system by which each user can donate to a cause, if they choose. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation has a link on the newly released home page inviting users to contribute money and in return receive a virtual pink ribbon for their profiles.Once students have created their own pages and completed their good deed, they can move on to improving their profile with a resume builder. Members can access their chapter’s pages for updates and news. With more than 90 chapters from across the country already signed up for their own spots on the site, it would seem that the duo and their team are having no trouble getting the word and the message out to students, even if the response is slightly critical. [The Web site] would open up opportunities for us but I’m not really sure it’s necessary seeing as we already have our [Pepperdine] alumni to help us with networking said senior and active Kappa Kappa Gamma member Anja Ensio. I’m not sure how other sororities and fraternities are though but I don’t really think Greeks are more qualified for the business world than the normal student anyways.”With only two weeks behind it the up and coming Web site is sure to encounter its fair share of criticisms. According to Fabbri and Sneed though the only complaints received thus far have been technical.”I have my day job and then come home and work on improving the site and fixing the glitches until 2 a.m. Fabbri said. I don’t really go out much anymore because of how much there is to do.”However busy popular or criticized the webpage turns out to be one thing will always be for certain – Oprah will love it if only in their dreams.