By Hayley Eselevsky, Student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

With the school year coming to an end and graduation around the corner, it is inevitable that you will be saying goodbye to some of your sorority sisters soon.

Graduation gifts are all about memories and being able to hold onto something from college for the rest of your life.

Don’t know where to start? Here are some helpful ideas of fun and creative gifts to give your sorority sisters as they leave college and start their professional lives.

Picture Quilt:
We all love snuggling up on our couches with our favorite blankets. So why not make your best sorority sister friends a quilt with pictures from college sewn on? Although these quilts can be kind of pricey, they can also be self-made. All you have to do is run to a fabric store and get different fabrics and sew them together. You can buy iron-on pieces to iron the pictures onto the fabric. Whenever your sorority sister is feeling down and missing her friends and college years, she can pull out this quilt and remember the great times she had in school. Want to buy one online? Check out the collegiate blankets from Snapfish!

T-shirt Memory Quilt:
Going along with the blanket theme, another fun idea is to make a quote with memorable shirts sewn together. Again, these can be pricey, but can also be self-made. All you have to do is gather around 10 to 20 of your friends’ favorite T-shirts from college, whether it's one sporting your university’s name or your sorority’s letters, and then cut them into squares and sew them together. This could be hung up in your sorority sister’s new apartment after she graduates as decoration, or she can snuggle up with it while watching a movie on the couch.

Matching Jewelry:
As cliche as it may seem, getting your graduating sorority friends a ring, necklace or bracelet with a nice saying or something memorable you shared together could be a great memorable and personal gift. I am planning to get my pledge grandmother, who is graduating this year, a bracelet with a saying like “forever sisters, forever family” engraved into it. It’s the thought that counts. Check out GreekGear.com for some beautiful gift ideas!

As this year comes to a close, it means a lot to graduating seniors, especially sorority sisters, when they receive gifts to celebrate their past four years of studying and celebrating their entrance into the job market. There are millions of gift ideas out there, but these three above are super personal and not too expensive. Let’s face it, we’re college students, so it is the thought — and not the price — that counts.

Congratulations to the sorority women of the Class of 2012 at colleges around the nation!

[Image from GreekGear.com]