Delight, Millikin’s only women’s faith-based group, kicked off the 2025 Spring semester with a bracelet charm bar, glittery mocktails, giveaways, and female fellowship.
The event took place on January 27 in Pilling Chapel. Delight is a fairly new organization to the Millikin campus. The group is actually a chapter of a nationwide network that originally began at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded to provide college-aged, Christian women with a community to support each other and to learn more about biblical teachings as well as how they can be applied on an individual level. The organization has its own devotional curriculum that is designed to be a study and discussion tool for members. That material is what led Breana Smith, Delight’s President, to found the Millikin chapter in Fall 2024.
“I was reading one of the studies on my own, and I just felt like it was really teaching me a lot about the Bible and it broke it down really well and I knew that it was made to be done in a group,” Smith said. “I was like, ‘This would be so powerful if I was doing it with a group of women.’ And I was like, ‘Why don’t I just start this at Millikin?’”
Once Smith had committed to the idea of a Delight chapter at Millikin, she dove headfirst into sorting out all the details over the 2024 Summer to ensure a successful launch. This required Delight-specific training courses, the establishment of a leadership team, and massive amounts of outreach efforts. Smith and her team have worked to build an engaging social media presence, attend the involvement fair, and host tables in the University Commons to further build recognition on campus. It seemed as if all their hard work had paid off when the chapel was nearly full of potentially interested women when it came time for the 2025 Spring kick-off event.
“I was really craving some Christ-centered friendships on campus and I had heard about Delight through some friends and on Facebook and it just looked really inviting and like something I would really enjoy,” McKenzie Greene, a first-time event attendee, said. “I am just really eager to get started and come have something to look forward to every week. It feels very open and I can just say whatever is on my mind in a safe environment.”
One unique feature of the group is Delight Dates. Every couple of weeks, two members will be randomly paired together and are encouraged to go on some kind of excursion to better get to know each other in a more one-on-one setting. This component of Delight allows members to forge stronger interpersonal connections and build Christian friendships. The responsibility of arranging these dates lies with the Delight Date Coordinator. In the Millikin chapter, Ashlyn Duncan holds that role and is in charge of pairing up different girls.
“Personally, for me, I feel like I’ve been able to connect with a lot of the girls more one-on-one, just kind of learn where they came from, how they got to Millikin, and where they are in their faith,” Duncan said. “I’ve had some friends that haven’t known each other that got paired up on Delight Dates and now they’re pretty close. It’s been awesome to kind of see worlds collide and see people grow that literally would have never ran into each other on campus outside of being on a Delight Date.”
Delight is different from other campus religious organizations, it is set apart by its focus on female friendships and relationship-building opportunities. Their core values are to be invitational, facilitate a vulnerable community, inspire innovation, equip and disciple members, and to model a spirit led lifestyle.
“There’s not many places, but also in the world, where you can truly have that deep feeling where you know that you are fully loved and fully seen by people,” Abby Stevens, Delight’s Social Media Coordinator, said. “So I think that’s what drew me to Delight is just having that vulnerable community.”
Throughout this semester, Delight will be walking through 1 and 2 Samuel of the Bible and will utilize the “Most High” study book. The curriculum provides members with an individual devotional plan that translates into larger group discussions. This format ensures a level of accountability and for more meaning to be gleaned from the readings. Delight meets on Monday nights at 7 p.m. and has several other larger events planned for the Spring.
“I’m really excited to see the growth. We have a lot of new faces, even at kick-off. We have a new study and we have a lot of new events planned so I just think we’re going to see the chapter really grow and blossom,” Smith said. “I’m just excited to see how God moves and shows up.”
