A typical sorority houses young women ranging from freshmen to seniors, ages 18 to 22. Alpha Chi Omega in particular has 90 members, including a more senior housemate many of them call “Mrs. C.”

Mrs. C, or Leona Colbeth, is the Alpha Chi Omega’s house manager. Colbeth turned 70, but truly believes that age is only a number.

“Just being around the girls keeps you young,” she said. “It’s fun.”

Like the 16 other house mothers living in Panhellenic sororities, Colbeth lives full time with college girls. And she loves it.

“It’s a truly great position,” she said.

The moms serve as property managers, overseeing the house, dealing with emergencies and various maintenance crews. Many of the houses are old and require a lot of upkeep, especially with 50-90 college women as inhabitants.

Most of the moms have their own living room and bathroom in addition to a private bedroom. Each mealtime is shared with the rest of the sorority downstairs.

Some sorority moms have a say in what goes on; others like Colbeth act only as the support for the house.

Colbeth felt called to live as a housemother after working for World Vision in Federal Way.

“My son was friends with a house director and talked to me about it. … I thought it would be fun to apply,” Colbeth said.

Part of her reasoning for becoming a house director stems from her faith.

“I wanted to do something sort of like a ministry, something God wanted me to do. That’s why I’m here,” she said.

Nine years later, Colbeth remains at Alpha Chi Omega. She gushes about the rewards of being a housemother.

“Interacting with the girls, having them just pop in my room, just being part of the family of all these girls: … I guess just being part of their lives is the most rewarding,” she said.

Another rewarding part of working as a house director is the community Colbeth gained with the other house moms in the Greek System.

“The house moms get together once a month for meetings, [and] get together once a week for crafts, knitting, crocheting,” Colbeth said. “Sometimes we go out to dinner. We just had my 70th birthday party.”

On other end of the age spectrum is Kappa Alpha Theta house manager Carrie Steams. Only 11 years out of college, Steams is the youngest house mom in the UW Greek community.

She decided to become a house mom when she moved to Seattle to start the UW’s MBA program. She applied after hearing that the UW Theta house mom was retiring. This year marks her second year living at a UW sorority.

Steams believes that one of the best parts of being a house director is the financial incentives.

“It’s a very generous deal,” she said. “You get to live in a great place. It really eliminates a lot of living expenses.”

Additionally, she enjoys her position because she also was a Theta while she attended Whitman College.

“When issues come up, sometimes I can offer advice,” she said.

With some problems, however, she finds it better to sit back and let the sorority girls learn on their own.

“There are certain antics that happen in college — sometimes that’s hard to watch,” Steams said. “This is a really formative period, a time of growth and it’s important for people to learn on their own.”

Chi Omega house director Patty Seebeck wanted to be a house director since her own days as a Kappa Delta at WSU.

“My house mom, whom we called Flo, was just a great lady,” Seebeck said. “I always looked at her and thought that it would be a fun job.”

However, the majority of house mothers are often single, widowed or divorced. As a married mother, Seebeck wasn’t sure if she would get the chance to have her dream job.

Seebeck’s husband is a Presbyterian minister in Spokane and instead of him taking a sabbatical, Seebeck proposed that she take a pastor’s wife sabbatical to be a house mom.

She looked online and found an opening at Chi Omega; she has been there for the last nine months.

“House mom contracts are 10-12 months,” Seebeck said. “There are moms who have been here 15 years, and some who have been here under a year.”

Seebeck’s next stop is Pullman, where she will spend a second year as a house mom.

The girls in Chi Omega have enjoyed Seebeck’s year at the UW.

“I really like having a house mom. They take care of us,” freshmen Jessica Warner said. “They’re there to support us.”

At 49, Seebeck is on the younger side for house mothers, but she believes her experience as both a mom and dietician allows her to relate well to the girls in the house.

She admits the job can be difficult, but loves it nonetheless.

“The hardest thing? The buck stops with you. You need to be a person who really likes this age group and thinks it’s fun to live with 90 girls,” Seebeck said. “We’re (house moms) on-call all the time. We’re kind of like firemen — you keep things going but every so often something happens and you need to do something.”

House mothers each have unique stories that led them to end up living in a UW sorority.

“We’re all a little bit nuts to do this job, but we’re all passionate about we do,” she said.