Join us for another fun episode of Tri Deltas in the TV Room with Mindy Tucker, Southern Methodist, Meredith Davies, Rhodes, Lexi Leggs, Millikin, and Avery Sadler, Mississippi, as they talk everything back to school! Favorite recruitment memories, roommate stories and fall trends make for an incredibly funny and relatable conversation. Tune in as the hosts give their opinions on everything from pumpkin spice mania to cell phones in school classrooms.
Mindy, Meredith, Lexi and Avery—our Tri Deltas in the TV room—are back to talk about what’s on everyone’s mind: back to school. They dive into topics like the first day of school traditions, campus trends and all things fall, including a debate about the pumpkin spice obsession (yea or nay?). They share their own memories of recruitment, their best teachers and funny stories about roommates, give great advice on how to balance school and social life, and tackle controversy on touchy topics like cell phones in school. These ladies deliver on an informative, humorous and insightful conversation with the perfect amount of Delta Love.
This transcript was created using automated technologies and may contain errors.
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Tri Deltas in the TV room. I feel like we haven't been here in a while, ladies, great to see everybody. I am Mindy Tucker and I'm Tri Delta’s interim CEO and if you haven't listened to this version of the podcast before.
My co-hosts and colleagues join me here, Avery Sadler, who's soon to be Avery Hill, because she's getting married soon, Lexi Leggs and Meredith Davies.
We all come together and we talk about literally anything and everything that's going on in the world, and it's great fun to catch up with them and share some of our thoughts with you. So thanks for joining us today. First,
I know we're going to talk back to school a lot today because that's on my mind for a number of reasons and on Tri Delta’s mind for a number of reasons. But first, let's do a quick little introduction in case we have some new podcast listeners out there.
Just a quick group introduction, your name, what school you went to. I think a few of you might have new titles, new jobs inside Tri Delta. So let's share all the things real quick to introduce ourselves to our Avery,
why don't you go first? Okay. Hi, guys. Good to see you all. I did just get to see Mindy and Meredith in the flesh. And so that was so fun. Lexi,
maybe I'll see you soon because I'm going to the office next week. But my name is Avery Sadler. I went to Ole Miss. I graduated in 2021.
And my current role is Housing Development Manager. If you have listened before, you would know that I was doing events. And now I'm working on all of our housing campaigns, which I'm actually loving.
It's so much fun. And yes, I feel like I have to say every time I'm getting married and I'm moving to Boston to grow closer to Sarah Ida Shaw. So with that,
I will pass it to Lexi. Awesome. Thanks, Avery. Hi, everybody. I'm Lexi Leggs. I serve Tri Delta as the program development specialist, so I work with a lot of our key programs like body image 3D,
AAUW starts, mark behind happy faces. You name it. I help with that process. I am a member of the Delta Epsilon chapter at Milliken University, and I think I've covered all of my bases. No crazy,
exciting news for me just yet. Don't forget your role as like a rock star MC whenever we like. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I do do that every once in a while. I do dabble.
And if you follow the podcast, she had the butterfly goal of being keynote speaker and she did that this summer too. Oh yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you all for reminding me. See, this is why we need our sisters.
Come back to that in another episode for sure. For sure. Okay. And I'm Meredith Davies. I serve Tri Delta as development manager. I joined Tri Delta in 2017 at Rhodes College,
graduated in 2020, and I've been here ever since. Love it. As I already said, Mindy Tucker, I'm fortunate to be in this wonderful position as interim CEO of this amazing organization.
I am a graduate of SMU within the chapter there in Dallas. I live in San Diego, and now my kids have just gone back to school. I have two boys. They're 13 and 16.
So that is going to be heavy in our topics today, which means I graduated way before the other three of these women here, which is why I love talking to them, because we all have such different perspectives on all things,
Tri Delta and in the world. So all right, Lexi, I'm handing off to you. Yeah, absolutely. So even though it's still 100 degrees here in Dallas, it's almost fall.
Fall is ringing in. So I'm curious, I know fall is always about all things pumpkin. So what are y 'all's thoughts? I need to do that. So I did go to Starbucks yesterday, get my one, actually have a really good pumpkin order. If you like a shaken espresso, it's a, you get a grande shake and espresso with two pumps of pumpkin sauce,
almond milk, and cinnamon on top with blonde espresso. And it's the best ball drink. And I'm surprised they haven't stolen it from me yet. I just keep thinking that one year they're going to finally see that this is like the best thing ever.
but so because I did not understand any of what you said about that order because I don't do coffee.
I'm not a coffee person, so I don't, but that sounds amazing. It is good. It is good. And I am like in my homemade era, I see so many women on TikTok who will take things you buy at the grocery store and make it themselves.
And now there's a zillion things called the Meredith, because there's Meredith Bar. There's Meredith chicken. Now there's Meredith coffee drink. I mean, I don't know this fall, I'm going to have to find some way with car keys in one hand and my pumpkin spice latte,
but now I think people understand that I can drive. It's been almost a decade. So I think for the food, I definitely am a pumpkin pie gal if I had to choose anything, but same here. I'm not as big on the drinks as I used to be.
So maybe though, bring me back. That's shaken espresso. The Meredith sounds great, though. I'm going to have to try that one for sure. I feel like they come out so early, like you're saying, like it's 100 degrees in Dallas. It's summertime here through October.
So it's weird to see the advertisement before really November, but they sure do bring them out early. Be here before we know it. All right.
Back to school, ladies. Yes. This could, this topic could last all day. I feel like. My boys went back this week. So I feel like things are back to normal in the house now.
I also got to go to my first recruitment that I had been to in a very long time. I'm thinking it may be like six or so years since I've been like a bid day or a recruitment or something.
And I went to OU. My niece was going through recruitment. And it was so interesting to see it from this perspective, first of all, learned a lot. Also,
it was a reminder of the women that we welcome in and the age we welcome. My Tri -Dalta best friend,
her niece or her daughter, is the VPME, as we call it, the head of recruitment at Delta Gamma. So reminder, like, legacies have really changed over the years.
And I feel like all of my Tri Delta friends' daughters are something else. And all of my non - Tri Delta friends, their daughters are Tri Delta . So here was a great example of that. I go over to the Delta Gamma house and my Tri Delta best friend's daughter tours me through the Delta Gamma House.
partial to Tri Delta. I think we offer an amazing experience, but I also know other organizations are doing great things for women. So it was fun to just see some of that, see different houses and be a part of that. I also learned that my best friend's daughter tells the story in the video of recruitment of her mom and her best friend,
me, who she calls her aunt and how that's how she knew sorority friendship could be so special. So she's telling a Tri Delta story at the Delta Gamma House as part of recruitment in their videos. So that was fun.
Anyway, but it was a whole experience. And I probably walked away with a whole lot more questions than answers to the one thing. Just recruitment is so complicated these days. So,
and it's changed so much since I went through you. You all are much closer to your experience. But it was fun. Anyway, recruitment, bid day, all the balloons, all the excitement, running to the house. I remember running to the house and being so excited to meet my new sisters.
And so it brought back all the, all the fuzzy, warm, fuzzy Tri Delta memories for me. So I love it. I have an off -topic question. Well, on -topic,
off -topic, how far was your run? Because I remember, like, my run was not that far. But there were people who, like, Tri Delta compared to the Grove pretty close. The Grove to Kyo is,
like, two streets away on the opposite side of campus. everything was so gross bid day the coldest day and at roads we go crazy people really don't like the tried altos on bid day because we run around campus and we chant like in the morning like seven a m we're out we're running around we're getting really excited for bid day and over the course of that day and the run home they told everyone they had to walk
back to the houses um people didn't listen, wipeouts everywhere, concussions, bruised ribs. It was terrible, but it's probably the thing that sticks out the most to me of four years of bid day,
was everybody wiping out. Oh, my God. Did you run, Lexi? Some schools don't run. Yeah, no. I would say, so I was a COB, so I didn't necessarily join that traditional way,
so I didn't run regardless, but I will say that on bid day, typically all of our campus is a lot smaller. So even if they were running, it wasn't that far of a distance. But it typically was like you left from the quad and they would walk.
But once the house was in sight, then they would run. So everybody was running maybe like half a block. But nothing too crazy. Definitely no cat litter and wipeouts. Yeah. We're deferred too.
So it wasn't, I'm Dallas, you know, if the weather was never that bad. But I remember I was talking, they were also hot, you know, which has changed this year.
This is the first year SMU is doing fall recruitment. So we'll see we'll see how hard the run is in the 100 degrees. We'll shake a little bit. Some of the chapters, the one that I noticed was TexasA &M.
They did a dusk bid day. I was like, oh, I wonder why they did that. And then immediately realized that it's because it's 100 degrees. Yeah. Yeah. So the women are back.
What life hacks for campus? What self -care ideas? I feel like it's so, first of all, if they're new, if they're freshmen, it's a big transition. But also coming off summer,
what great ideas do you guys have about back to school and on campus and keeping everything managed and juggling classes and all the things?
I think the first thing is just like planners. I'm a big planner girl, and I feel like a lot of us are. But finding what kind works for you. Some people like the ones that have nothing, and it's just a complete link journal and they can doodle and they can create artwork inside of it.
And that allows them to express creativity while also keeping track of their schedule that would stress me out because the thought of having to create designs for every month seems like a lot. But once you find the planner that works for you or the style that works for you,
I recently switched to using my phone and found that that actually helps a lot rather than just relying on a physical planner. It took a while to adjust to you, but I think that's the biggest thing is just like knowing what you have to do, right?
I do miss my physical planner every once in a while, but now that I'm not a teacher, I don't really have to use it as much. But I think once you know how to keep track of your schedule, that'll definitely help with the burnout. You can plan ahead,
not let yourself get so distressed around midterms and final seasons, things like that, when you can look ahead. I feel like that really helps in college. I also switched from a from a physical planner to using my phone this year.
I just, I was in spaces where I didn't have my planner and now I just have a couple different calendars all on my phone. But my, so I did a lot in school.
I had two majors, stood up, played a varsity sport, was a tried out to member, an officer, had a job. I did a watch TV show,
call my mom and walk her on campus, you know, do something that wasn't a part of one of my many, many activities and kept me sane for the most part.
My helpful tip, which I'm not quite sure when this episode is airing, so it might not be helpful once people hear it, but is walk your schedule before the semester starts.
I guess this could apply to anyone at any time during your college years, but walking my schedule, I actually remember I walked my schedule to Tri Delta before recruitment.
I don't know if that was illegal at the time, but they were being sweet and they were like really helpful just showing, okay, like this is where you're going to have this class at this time and then you're going to go from here to there.
And this is the best way to get there. once again. of a difference it's made.
A blue light can really impact the sleep, so I definitely understand that one. Yeah, I just didn't have any concept of how much it was really impacting. So now I'm telling my kids, I'm telling all the people. This is what you should do. Get off your phone.
I'm one of those people now. Do you have any funny roommate stories? Hmm. I probably have too many. My niece was getting roommates that she didn't know.
So it was a big conversation. And I was like, be open. You never know. You're going to make new friends. It's all good. But I also realize how, you know, I can't really live. I can't really say that because that's not what I did.
I went to school with my best friend from high school. And we were roommates our freshman year. We pledged Tri Delta it together. So I had sort of the easy roommate situation. But I know what everybody did.
I had the best roommates on the planet. I love them so much. All three of them are in my wedding coming up. One of them, though, we both went into living together being like,
we don't like each other. We don't know how this is going to go. We really weren't that close. It was kind of like a, she was the last, I'm going to throw her. This is not on me. she was like our last-minute addition to our house and so it's kind of like oh we don't know how we're going to get along and she's now one of my best friends and she's in my wedding but at i love the south i'm giving no hate to
the south Mississippi i love it all so much but some of these girls would do designer designer college apartments you know bring it all like it's the whole southern living and we just were not like that at all.
And our house, we... a random selection situation.
And I'm a very, like, sensitive sleepers, so the slightest noise will wake me up. I'm a one alarm type of gal. I hear it. I wake up. For some reason, her alarm had to go off at 5 o 'clock in the morning.
Not entirely sure why that was this at time, but the first night of us sleeping in our dorm, her alarm went off at 5 a .m. with, like, a metal rock, like, scream song. And that was,
like, the first morning in my dorm. So that experience was that we made it through the entire semester, but then we were able to, we ended up having like our own rooms the second semester freshman year just because somebody had moved out on our floor,
so it worked out. But that was probably the most interesting. Otherwise, I lived in the Tri Delta house like all three years after that. That was back when living requirements were big for chapters. And I really wanted to be an officer and most of the officer roles that I wanted and had had to live into the house.
So I spent a lot of time with my Tri Delta crew, my closest friend group in the chapter, and we were roommates. And I think just like the most memorable things is the ways that we would motivate ourselves through schoolwork. So we might go and do like study tables and then our reward would be Taco Bell or we really liked,
I forget what I call like polar pops and we'd go get a polar pop and like that would be like our mems. So just the ways that we would encourage each other and still like checking on each other is probably the most memorable. I love that.
Memories of the house. We should do a whole episode on memories of living in the house. So that's coming. We'll do that soon. All right. Any other back to school or fall topics for us before we move into some hot topics from each of us.
Oh, here. Okay. My hot topic today is a little bit back to school, but I think. to keep track of time on their phone.
So Monday, or whatever day it was this week, when we went back to school, I had three boys show up. They couldn't eat. They couldn't go get lunch because they didn't have their phone. So I made everybody case that he is and sent them back to school.
But, and I emailed the principal and said, what, like, is there a way they could just check it out at lunch and get it back and then put it back? You know, she said, absolutely not, buy your child a watch. give them cash in the morning and buy them a watch.
And I was like, oh, so their policy, while I agree with it, I don't disagree with it, it's totally like upended. Now I've got a whole new system I have to build at home around them. I don't carry cash at all at all.
I never have cash. So anyway, it's been a whole thing. And a bunch of the kids, a bunch of the kids are using old phones and checking them in in the morning and just keeping their real phone to get around it.
So. had to look at it,
was in your backpack and you were hiding. So I don't know. I mean, obviously, I know what's changed, but I think it's kind of crazy. And those little, the locked little things that they are putting phones in in some school districts,
what is this? Like a secret concert? Like, it's so funny to me, but I mean, I guess they do just make TikToks all day long. And I don't know. I definitely agree with them needing to understand there's a time and a place for everything and how to navigate that because even in the workspace,
like, I don't have to turn my phone in when I go into the office. Like, I know how to excuse myself when to bring it out and things like that. And for those of you listening, I used to be a high school teacher too. So this is not something that I've not dealt with.
Like, cell phones in the classroom were definitely an issue. We did not have rules as strict as your boys school did, Mindy. But I just remember in my classroom, like I would just address it at the beginning of the school. Just ask me if you need to use it for a second and you can use it.
Otherwise, keep it aside and stay focused on the class. I never had any issues with cell phones in my class. Granted, I taught choir. So we were singing a lot. There were very rarely times for them to be so down that they could not,
that they could be on their phones. But still, I agree. We've got to start teaching them that discipline and how to have that distraction there, but not let it control you because that is a big concern when they go to college. Yeah.
You can just show the principal this podcast and I see if she changed this problem. I talked to a teacher today on my podcast and here's what she said. That's what I'm going to. Thank you. Yes. Absolutely.
Thanks for commiserating with me. I will I will adjust. These are not huge problems in life that I have to find cash and figure out of watch. But anyway, But anyway, we will make it through. We will persevere.
So, yeah, I'll have a good time. Well, speaking of school and teachers, I'm just curious, since we are all talking about back to school, what's everybody's,
who is your most memorable teacher and why? I'll go first since I'm kind of just throwing us on the spot. I've got a couple of them. So both of them are in high school. One was my econ teacher,
my senior year of high school. And I just loved him because he literally taught us how to adult. Like, I learned a lot about taxes. Collins.
And she was just really passionate about what she did. You could tell that she picked literature that she was passionate about and was able to teach us the concepts through that lit. But her class just always felt like a warm,
welcoming space. And she was just so not lax in the place where you felt like you could push over her, but lax in the place where you just felt safe in the classroom. You felt like you could make a mistake and it wouldn't be detrimental towards your grade or your career path,
so to speak, and post -high school. So those would be my favorites. she was fun and she made it interesting and so I remember her I also remember my negotiations teacher from college who I loved Robin Pinkley at SMU because she had this great way of like giving us a lesson through a real world example that was powerful like one day we all made a choice we all did a case study and made a choice where we ended up
blowing up the space shuttle. We didn't know that from the beginning. It was kind of a blind case study. And so you, but it was such a great, like I still remember it to this day,
that learning experience of the, the organizational culture that got to the point where they made that particular decision and why we would have made that decision and the ramifications of it. And so I remember her a lot,
just bringing like all the great real world lessons to us that, and I still remember her class and principles of negotiation because she's just a great teacher. I went to what I think is the greatest high school in the entire world.
The Pennington School in Pennington, New Jersey. There are any parents of six graders or fifth graders or eighth graders looking for a private high school in that area, I really recommend the Pennington School.
And I had the most incredible teachers and I didn't I wasn't quick to answer this because there were so many um I was a big history person in high school studied political science in college um but I got really in middle school got a little sidetracked did very poorly in eighth grade history they wouldn't put me in honors history freshman year figured it out got into the honors American history class in 10th grade There was one day he took all of our phones overnight,
back to the phones, took them overnight, locked them up, and we had to document what it was like to not have your phone. Like really, really good. And that prepared me for APS history,
which probably was, he was probably even better than Mr. Harding, Mr. DiJocamo. He really just taught American history in such a powerful way. And he always told me that he felt like I could,
I could make it in politics and I still think back. I'm like, how can I run for office? Mr. DeJoccoma thinks that I could run for office. And then I had a science teacher my junior year.
And after years of being the English and history person, I fell in love with marine biology and she saw that in me. And we were the best of friends in this elective science class with all of the senior boys who didn't care about science anymore.
and we have crying so hard and went to my switch teachers class.
I don't know if y 'all had switch teachers, but I went to her class. And I was like so upset because I knew that I did nothing wrong, but she was so convinced that I was cheating.
And I know that I can literally recall the situation perfectly. Like I remember it. And I had to be comforted by that other teacher, Mrs. Cobb. Love her. I mean,
I love Ms. Kirsto, too. Still, she wasn't a bad teacher by any means. topic.
I don't have a good hot topic. I was going to ask about back to school shopping and your thoughts on that, but I can't even remember my back to school shopping.
I know that my mom would take a shopping. I think I'm thinking about this because I was talking about shopping with my fiance as we are going on our honeymoon soon. So we need all these beach clothes. And my mom still to this day is my personal shopper.
like I came home last night and she goes oh I picked you up this set for your honeymoon and so I feel like that that was an impactful thing for me growing up because she would and I don't like shopping and I think I don't like shopping because I never had to because she would just bring everything for me it's so not a hot topic but it's what's on my mind going back to school and in my personal life currently so
I don't know if y 'all have any like memorable first day outfits or i always had an outfit oh yeah and i have boys who don't but this year for the first time they wanted to like have decent clothes like i'm pretty sure this was the first first day of school they have not both gone to school in sweats and a hat both of them had jeans on that they had picked out and a shirt that was new and shoes that were new
it was a big day around here but I always had Dallas girl always had a new outfit oh yeah wait did you guys go to who went to private high school Meredith did you but did y 'all both have uniforms no I did but I was only there my last two years of high school oh okay lots of public school time to support the great outfits Huntington had a very strict dress code,
but it was easy, like, that made it easy to follow. You, like, always had to have a collared shirt on, and girls could wear skirts. And we could wear pretty, like,
normal -like skirts. No one was yelling at us for skirts being too short, and we could wear, you could wear, like, pants. You couldn't wear denim ever. And then seniors could wear shorts in September and May.
And that was it. So there was no back to school shopping because there was shopping that was done when I started high school. And my mom, there's this thing that just plays over and over in my head.
Every time I go into my closet and think I have nothing to wear, I can hear my mom saying to me, Meredith, you have a closet full of clothes because I did. That's always what she said to me. We never went back to school shopping. And but I always had an outfit,
and I became a very, very, very preppy girl in high school. That was in the age of the infinity scarf, so people got around wearing the collar wearing an individual scarf. I'll never wear one again.
Oh, yeah, the infinity scarf time was wild. I learned how to arm knit. This is kind of off topic, but I learned how to arm knit when I was in college. So instead of actual knitting needles, you use your arms. And the amount of infinity scarves that I knitted in high school was insane.
I don't know where they are, but I want to make a blanket one of these days. It's going to be a new, like, a new workshop at convention or VLC or something.
Lexi Leeds arm knitting. I can't. I'm telling you, I'm very big into it. I like to knit and crochet my grandma taught me when I was little. So let me know. I am happy to jump in.
I don't know how many people are going to be there knitting with me, but we'll see. And it's school shopping.
I think in elementary school, I was big on the supplies. You know, everybody talks about that big pack of crayons with the sharpener in the back. You know, like that was what I was really happy about. Like, I'd say like first or like eighth,
like maybe first like sixth grade. But then the outfits for me, it was just like I was big on having new shoes and then something that was that matched whatever interest that I had. So there was a time where I was in love with Dickey Minaj in high school.
And so she liked Harjuku dolls and things like that. And so I tried to mimic that style with like my hair and my hair.you hear this, that would be awesome. Give us all a discount code. Now I got to go look up something else, y 'all newly. It's like a stitch fix or something kind of. Yeah, similar.
All right. But anthropology brands. It's so cute. I've purchased a lot of things off my daily, which is way less economical. And honestly, when you really do the math,
it doesn't make the most sense. But way it, when you way it, oh And that's where my mind is, was so cool as a TV spectator.
We actually just talked to Diane Petersen, who is on our foundation board. She was in Paris during the opening ceremony, which is so cool. And I'm sure that that was great,
but I honestly feel like it probably was cooler watching it from the TV because you got to see how they integrated, like the live performances with these pre -recorded things and all of the cool places in Paris and like animated um all of the art in the Lou like all it was just all I think the production of that Celine Dion like the whole thing was just a masterpiece in my opinion like I thought it was so
impressive the whole band um at the beginning with like the boat thing going by, it just was, it was incredible, in my opinion. So I loved,
and I would say that that opening ceremony kept me more engaged in the rest of the Olympics. Oh, interesting. Yes, I would say that. They could do a study on that. I'm not really an Olympics person.
There's always something that gets me in and I'll watch a little bit. Love the Simone Biles come back. Hands down. So good. Really got into. great this i love those kinds of stories like the story behind the story and i got really into the track team those those women are beautiful like they were just and they were just such strong athletes and anyway i was all about the track this year for some reason um but i'm
not really i did after that i was like oh is it still going on i don't know i see snoop dog on on instagram but otherwise i don't even know if it's going on honestly i think snoop dog might have been my favorite part of the olympics because he just And so a lot of this year's Olympic athletes were featured in that.
So it was really cool to watch that. And of course, they released it like the last two weeks of June. So we watched it. And then the Olympics start. So you really get to see what people went through on their off years when they're not going through the Olympics.
So I have like an even heightened appreciation for those track events. But my favorite one by far was the women's four by four. That's the The baton handoffs scared me.
They were not the best. And the second to last one was rough, but those women blew through it and still knocked the competition out of the water. I felt so patriotic and so proud of our women. They just,
they showed up. And like, to your point, Mindy, very beautiful, also extremely intelligent, like Gabby Thomas graduating from Harvard. Like, yeah, one of them is like, I've got to be medical school Oh,
okay. All right. I'm like, oh, okay, that's fine. And then you're going to go to the Olympics. So Texas was really representing very well at the Olympics and representing the U .S. So, very big sprint and track friend here.
So fun. I just love all the female athletes. Not that I don't also love the male athletes, but I mean, the majority of the gold medals, the United States won were won by women.
And there's so much power. I mean, yeah, like Sydney, I feel most patriotic watching the Olympics,
even as someone who studied American politics in college, I feel most patriotic watching our athletes win. It was so great. So great.
All right, y 'all, that was a lot. I feel like we covered a lot today. But you're the best. I love the fun and great stories that each of you bring. We'll do it again soon.
Thanks for coming. Thanks for joining us. If you're listening, I hope this was a fun episode for you to listen in on. As the school year starts here, I want to remind all of our alumni out there that it's a great time to volunteer for Tri Delta.
So many of our chapters need dedicated volunteers and you don't have to live in the same city as the chapter. For some roles, it's important, but for others, you can do it remote. So if you have thought about using your gifts to support a chapter.
I highly encourage you to jump in and do that. You can go to tridelta.org slash volunteers, find some information, and we would be happy to get you plugged in. So thanks for that. I hope you will like,
subscribe and rate our podcast. We have three stars in our Crescent, but we love, love, love those five star ratings. So bring them on. I think that's it. Thanks for joining us. Until next time, Delta Love,
everybody.