Flash back a few years.
A senior at Albion College is winding down his student teaching program with the hopes of becoming a teacher after graduation. But suddenly, he decides he wants to become an adviser for fraternities and sororities.
And now, Don Dimitroff is doing just that.
After moving back to his hometown of Lansing, and more than a year as a graduate assistant in the Residence Life office, Dimitroff is balancing finishing his master's degree and carrying out his duties as graduate assistant in the Greek Life office.
"This is the place for me," he said. "I've been bleeding green naturally my whole life."
Dimitroff, who started Monday, still has some unpacking to do and has to order business cards, but there are other things on his agenda.
In his position, Dimitroff will assist Greek Life adviser Amy Radford.
Meetings with the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council, helping to coordinate activities and team building workshops are just a few things on his schedule.
"One of my goals is to try to interact as much as I can with the students," he said. "I don't want to be isolated in my office all the time."
No stranger to the greek system, Dimitroff joined Delta Sigma Phi fraternity as an undergraduate at Albion College, which also has a chapter here at MSU. To date, he says he still stays involved with his old chapter.
"The greek system is very important to MSU," he said. "For me, joining a fraternity was a real life-changing experience as an undergrad. I can only imagine how much it has changed students' lives here."
Panhellenic Council president Kristen Loney is looking forward to working with Dimitroff because of his experience with greek organizations.
"He knows a lot about the greek system in general, so he should be a good resource for us to use," Loney said. "He has a lot of leadership potential."
Coming to MSU from Albion College, which had about 1,000 students, was a big adjustment.
"It's different moving between systems, from a little school to a huge school," Dimitroff said. "But I like learning about differences, and it's great seeing those differences."
Despite stepping into the position with controversy surrounding MSU's greek system, such as last year's suspension of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, Dimitroff said he and is prepared to handle challenges.
"There are always things like that happening, no matter what kind of student group," he said. "But you have to work through these things to get to the positive, and keep moving forward."
Although he will interact a lot with students within the greek system, Dimitroff said he doesn't mind being more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy.
"If that's the role I have to play, that's fine. If I have to be out in front, then I'll have to play that role too," he said. "The students are the public faces, it's fine with me in the background."
Dimitroff said he hopes to finish his master's program this semester, but he also wants to look back at a successful semester in the greek system.
"It's easy to say it'll be in better shape than we started in," he said. "But I hope (Radford) and I, the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council and the whole Student Life staff can set measurable goals, and say we accomplished the measurable goals."
