Anyone who’s seen the movies "Animal House," "Old School" and "Neighbors" or read media reports of hazing and alcohol-poisoning deaths might think fraternities and sororities are populated by underachieving layabouts who only want to party.

Those stereotypes might be true at some college campuses, but not at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, say students involved in the "Greek" community.

"It’s more about the brotherhood-sisterhood-making-connections sort of thing," said Kelsey Coria, 21, president of the Beta Beta Gamma sorority. "It’s very different from the mainland."

"We’re Hawaii, we should be a different chapter," added Jeremy Haight, a 22-year-old from Laguna Niguel, Calif., who is president of the Kappa Sigma fraternity’s UH-Manoa chapter.

The biggest difference between Greek life in Hawaii and on the mainland is size: The scene here is quite small, with only five Greek organizations — three associated with national groups (Alpha Gamma Delta, Kappa Sigma and Tau Kappa Epsilon) and two founded locally (Beta Beta Gamma and Kappa Epsilon Theta). Each chapter has about 20 to 50 members in any given year. Compare that to the sorority/fraternity mecca of the University of Alabama, which has 63 Greek organizations and more than 8,000 members.

Only about 1 in 95 undergraduate students belongs to a fraternity or sorority at UH-Manoa, which had an undergraduate enrollment of 14,097 last fall.

But smaller can be a good thing.

"Because it’s so small, you really get to know all the other brothers," said Greg Hoffman, a 22-year-old from Palos Verdes, Calif., and president of Tau Kappa Epsilon, which had 27 members last year. "And it’s not like on the mainland, where you might have, like, 200-some brothers and you don’t really know anything about the guys. Here, we’re all really close.

"It’s more like a family."

Fewer members also means more opportunities to take on leadership positions, says Alpha Gamma Delta President Sonja Dobbs, 23. While her sorority averages about 30 members, there are 25 leadership positions available each year.

Another key difference from mainland colleges is the absence of a traditional Greek Row where fraternity and sorority houses are located. That’s because the groups here do not have official houses. Rather, many members live together in smaller groups on and off campus.

Over the years, there have been 20 locally founded organizations — 11 frats and nine sororities —since Greek life started on the Manoa campus in the 1940s and ’50s, with the height of their popularity coming in the ’60s and ’70s, according to James Frizzell, the Registered Independent Organizations liaison at UH. Only Beta Beta Gamma and Kappa Epsilon Theta are still around today.

Many of those local fraternities were rooted in ethnicities, but the modern-day chapters celebrate their diversity.

"I’ve been complimented by people from headquarters about how diverse our chapter is because, obviously, our location in Hawaii but also our open-door policy to anyone who wants in, as long as they click with a few people already in the fraternity," Haight said.

And while the groups certainly enjoy partying — after all, members are college students — the real positives of joining a fraternity are the networking opportunities through vast alumni connections as well as the chance to provide community service.

For example, Tau Kappa Epsilon participates in blood drives and beach cleanups. Kappa Epsilon Theta also does beach cleanups as well as graffiti cleaning. Kappa Sigma, as part of the national organization’s community service initiative, helps veterans find lodging and reintegrate into society.

The Alpha Gamma Deltas help raise awareness and money for juvenile diabetes and work with the Hawaiian Humane Society, while Beta Beta Gamma has volunteered with several local charities such as Hawaii Meals on Wheels and the Ronald McDonald House.

"I’m not going to say we don’t like having a few cold ones," Hoffman said, "but there’s more to it than that."

Each organization also has a minimum grade-point average that members must maintain, and some even have mandatory study hours.

What might be scaring away some students from joining Greek life is fear of the first step: pledging. The screening process is most associated with hazing, a practice that at best humiliates pledges and at worst has resulted in injury and death at a handful of mainland colleges.

Despite calls by national organizations to end hazing, it is still a problem at schools across the country. This month alone, some fraternities were either banned or suspended at the University of Arizona,Chapman University, Oklahoma State University and the University of Connecticut, and California State University at Northridge announced it was revising guidelines for Greek organizations and other clubs following the death of a 19-year-old fraternity pledge during a hike that allegedly involved hazing.

Greek leaders at UH insist hazing is not part of the initiation process here.

"There’s no point in bringing down a man, socially and mentally, through that process," Haight said. "I’m proud to say that we don’t do it, and we have no interest in being part of any organization that has a hazing process."

Both Coria and Dobbs said they were hesitant to join a sorority at first because of the hazing horror stories they’d heard. Dobbs grew up near Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which has an active Greek system, while Coria’s fears stemmed from a few pledging secrets told to her by her older sister, a member of Alpha Omicron Pi at San Jose State.

"I was, like, ‘No way! I’m not doing that!’" said Coria, who is from Stockton, Calif. But by giving their respective sororities a chance, Coria and Dobbs both said they found they had nothing to fear.

"I was really amazed that there was no instances of hazing whatsoever," Dobbs said, noting how Alpha Gamma Delta tries to nurture new members.

"We have what we call sister-mothers, which is the equivalent of a big sister. My sister-mother met with me every week, was checking in on me, knew when my exams were, really wanted to make sure I was succeeding as a student."

Instead of going by rumors or reputation, the best thing interested students can do is talk with the different fraternities during rush to get a sense of where they might fit in or if Greek life is even for them.

Rush at UH begins on Monday, the first day of instruction, at the Campus Center and runs from two weeks to a month, depending on the organization. Check the groups’ websites and Facebook pages for details.