CAMPUSPEAK

VISIT Mari Ann'S CONSULTANT PAGE

Dr. Mari Ann Callais is more than a Speaker! She offers an array of unique programs for Fraternity and Sorority Life and for the college experience.

Mari Ann is also an educator, facilitator and entertainer.

• Keynotes

• From Ritual to Reality
• Redefining Traditions in Our Fraternity and Sorority Communities
• Making the Most of Your College Experience
• Hazing: How Does It Happen in My Chapter?
• Panhellenic Says: Promoting Panhellenic Unity and Spirit through Understanding
• Recruitment Counselors: Keys to a Successful Recruitment
• Student Affairs Workshops and Retreat Facilitation

From Ritual to Reality

Using music and storytelling, Mari Ann offers a truly unique keynote about values, ritual and the responsibilities of being a lifetime fraternity or sorority member. For nearly a decade, she has built a legion of admirers with her fun, upbeat keynotes on fraternity and sorority values.

Fraternity and sorority communities have asked her to campus to discuss the importance of community service and ritual with new members. She is among the most popular retreat facilitators in the country. As the past national president for Theta Phi Alpha Fraternity, Mari Ann offers a unique blend of local and national perspective on sorority issues and has helped numerous Panhellenics deal with the issue of sorority hazing.

When you bring Mari Ann to campus, you bring a speaker who approaches fraternity education in a completely unique way. She brings her guitar and uses music to create a relaxing environment. Students rate her keynotes highly because she talks with students, not to students. She can lead them in goal-setting one minute, then lead them in a sing-along of Jimmy Buffet songs the next. By sharing her experiences and observations, Mari Ann helps fraternity and sorority members explore their values and their reasons for being part of a fraternity or sorority.

Redefining Traditions in Our Fraternity and Sorority Communities

Whether historical or recent, fraternity and sorority traditions build the bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood in our chapters. Some traditions are complex and others are smaller, but they bring students together in a sense of belonging, brotherhood and sisterhood. When tradition is done right, it’s one of the best things about fraternity or sorority life. Unfortunately, on some campuses and in some chapters, negative traditions based around abusive behavior or stereotypes have started to define us.

Today’s fraternity and sorority leaders need to redefine what the best parts of traditions mean to them, like making communities stronger instead of putting them in danger. In this keynote, Dr. Mari Ann Callais helps students understand why tradition is so powerful and important, while challenging them to shape chapter traditions around the very best values of their organizations. She shares examples of ways that traditions can change and how they can bring new life to a chapter or campus when traditions become redefined and updated to fit each generation’s unique needs.

In this highly interactive keynote, Mari Ann seeks input from her audience about what tradition means to them and what challenges they are facing. This way, students help guide the discussion about their campus climate and their own definitions of “traditions.” Mari Ann then helps evaluate these traditions to usher in positive change.

This keynote works best for smaller audiences where students can effectively discuss the myriad definitions and examples of “tradition” within in their community. It’s ideal for smaller campuses, schools with small fraternity/sorority communities and events, fraternity and sorority retreats and officer training. This keynote can also be tailored for men- and women-only programs.

Making the Most of Your College Experience

This keynote is great for new student orientation, parent programs and first year experiences programs. Using tips from her chapter “Making the Most of Your College Experience” in the book Roadmaps to Success in College, Mari Ann shares her experiences from both a professional and personal perspective.

This keynote is upbeat, entertaining, motivational and educational.

Hazing: How Does It Happen in My Chapter?

This keynote takes the focus not from a hazing perspective of what not to do, but from the perspective of why are chapters still participating in activities and behavior that contradicts our values as people and as organizations. This keynote is interactive and incorporates concepts of behaviors and values congruence within our chapters.

Panhellenic Says: Promoting Panhellenic Unity and Spirit through Understanding

This keynote is targeted as an all sorority event, and incorporates the concept of being a Panhellenic community and how to interact as a community not a system. It can be used as a potential new member orientation during recruitment.

Recruitment Counselors: Keys to a Successful Recruitment

This keynote can be a workshop or part of a retreat for recruitment counselors. Mari Ann has worked with recruitment counselors since 1991 at various different levels. She approaches Recruitment Counselor education from the perspective that they are a key component to trust within the Panhellenic Community as well as helping the potential new members make the right decision for themselves.

Student Affairs Workshops and Retreat Facilitation

Mari Ann can also work with professionals in student affairs departments. She can develop a one or two day workshop or retreat to assist with team development, understanding today’s students and other developmental aspects of working with students. Having served in various student affairs departments as well as teaching in a student affairs graduate program, Mari Ann has a wide range of experience working with professionals as well as students.

Other Services Provided by Mari Ann

As a result of her experience as a former fraternity/sorority advisor, faculty member and volunteer for her sorority as well as others, Mari Ann can assist with other aspects of campus life:

• Helping to build conscience and developing ideas to assisting Greek Councils with how to work together as a community
• Assisting chapters with evaluation of their current chapter health and how to develop a plan to be successful
• Assisting chapters on how to educate and how to teach ritual and the application of our values
• Leadership retreat facilitation

Mari Ann's Bio

Dr. Mari Ann Callais has worked in higher education for 16 years, and most recently served as an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University. Professionally, she is the Director of Development of The Center for Tri Delta. She has also held the position of NPC Delegate and National President for her sorority, Theta Phi Alpha. She has presented more than 500 workshops on fraternity and sorority values, student leadership and team building.

Mari Ann holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Loyola University, New Orleans, and a Masters of Education and a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Research from Louisiana State University. She has been presented several awards through the years, including the Sigma Sigma Sigma “Greek Advisor of the Year,” Theta Chi “Outstanding Greek Affairs Professional Award” and has received the Southeastern Interfraternity Conference “Advisor of the Year Award” twice. She was also awarded the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors “Distinguished Service Award,” the highest award Theta Phi Alpha bestows on a member, the “Guard of Honor,” and was recently bestowed the National Council on Diversity’s “2011 Most Powerful and Influential Women of Louisiana Award,” presented to individual women who have been nominated for their leadership, community, ethics and excellence.