During the fall 2013 Theta Pi Sigma made its debut at the University of Maryland. The LGBTQA frarority, as UMD’s chapter calls it, was only the 5th chapter to exist at its start, and current president, senior Maria Lyon, has been there from the beginning.
She was invited on a Facebook event last year to one of Theta Pi Sigma’s rush events and decided to attend. Lyon, who works for Intramural sports as a referee and student supervisor, was sill looking for a group she identified with more.
“I work with a bunch of guys who are all straight,” Lyon said. “It’s a very masculine hetero-normative environment,” Lyon said.
Lyon’s ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude took her from new member to president in just a matter of one year. She wanted to really invest in the organization and be more than just a member.
“It felt like I was paying to get a t-shirt and this group of friends,” Lyon said. “This semester it is more about fostering the relationships inside the frat and making the frat as a whole stronger.”
The frarority currently has 39 active members, five of which are allies of the LGBT community. Lyon said it has been great to see each member grow and to see the organization steadily become more established on campus. She and other members are working toward meeting Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life requirements. Lyon’s main goal is to leave everyone with something they are proud of.
“My first grade teacher had a quote on the wall the entire school year and it said ‘I will act in such a way that I will be proud of my self and others will be proud of me too,’” Lyon said. “I hope that once I’m done being president that people kind of think that I took it to that next level.”
Outside of Theta Pi Sigma sports, specifically soccer, are pretty much all Lyon consumes her self with. The senior kinesiology major loves her job at intramural sports and one day hopes to work in marketing for a team or player.
She got her start when the Washington Spirit, a National Women’s Soccer League team, sought her out for an internship.
“Soccer is the love of my life and no one has come along to prove anything other wise,” Lyon said.
Lyon’s original dream was to coach soccer. However, her rheumatoid arthritis has kept her from playing competitively and building the player resume needed for most coaching jobs. She said the disease, which she was diagnosed with at was 17, is managed well. She has even found the silver lining in it all.
“I think it helped me mature a little bit and realize that I’m not at school to play a game I’m at school to learn and get a degree and work toward a career,” Lyon said.
Lyon graduates in December and thinks that she has done an all right job in all of her efforts and hopes that others think so too.