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|Image= [[File:Epsilon_Mu.jpeg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1970|03|07}}
|College= [httphttps://www.clemson.edu Clemson University]
|Location= Clemson, SC
|Homepage= [httphttps://chaptersclemson.kappakappagammakappa.org/epsilonmu/ Epsilon Mu Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Epsilon_Mu Media related to Epsilon Mu Chapter]}}
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'''2,213 275 initiates (as of June 20172018)'''
Philanthropy has always been an important part of our chapter and this year was no exception. This year we had an extremely successful Reading is Key program in the spring, and decided to give back to the local schools again in the fall with yet another Reading is Key event. This year, we decided to do different events for each grade at a local elementary school, so we could spend more individualized time with the children. Our sister love going to the schools and getting to spend the afternoon reading and playing with the children. We had our first donut eating competition that raised over 2,000 for Habitat for Humanity called Krispy Kreme Grabbers. We won the curtsy competition to have 500 dollars donated to RIK. Also, we won a Panhellenic philanthropy event circle of sisterhood that raised over 20,000 for a school in Nepal. In addition, our sisters participated in small service events around the community throughout the semester to continue to give back ranging from being animal shelter volunteers to volunteering at soup kitchens. Our sisters, along with brothers of our partnered fraternity put many long hours into building an outstanding float that represented the past, present, and future of Clemson for the homecoming week float in which we placed second overall. We participated locally in adopt a classroom where we provided gifts to low income elementary age children for Christmas in the Clemson community.
==Highlights of 2020s:2018==
This year, Epsilon Mu added 64 new members to the chapter. Our bid day theme was “Kappa Kappa Glamma,” which consisted all members dressed in all gold from head to toe. The chapter was very excited to update our study hall on the Kappa hall, and the 36 girls who live on the hall have very much utilized this space. Our very own Stuart Burger was selected as the new vice president of recruitment counselors (head pi chi) for the 2019 recruitment year.
Academically, our chapter has excelled over the past year. This semester we initiated a “House Cup”, similar to the style mentioned in Harry Potter. Members were awarded various point values for attending tutoring, logging study hours, and receiving A’s on papers/tests/presentations. Those with the top three highest points were awarded $100, $75 and $50 gift cards. This sparked a competition between chapter members and promoted scholastics throughout the chapter. In addition to the House Cup, we also booked a study room on campus during finals week for members to escape the overcrowded library. Snacks and coffee were provided and the event turned out to be a huge success. In comparison to Spring of 2018, we had far fewer members on POC and nearly forty 4.0’s.
Our chapter council goal for the entire Epsilon Mu this year was to lead with positivity. This past year, chapter council feels like we truly turned the chapter around in that aspect, and we can’t wait for the future.
One of the recent initiatives that our Panhellenic community has moved towards is diversity. Rather than hosting a Panhellenic Greek Week, we held a “Greek Day” celebrating Panhellenic, IFC, NPHC, and MGC. We have been working to promote the events of these other councils as well.
'''Philanthropy'''
The chapter supports a variety of organizations, locally and nationally. The most prevalent organizations we support is Reading is Fundamental and The Kappa Foundation. As well as, The MS Foundation, Habitat for Humanity and others. We hold a philanthropy event called “Reading is Key” in Clemson every year to promote reading in our very own community. This chapter emphasizes the importance of being “hands on” in the community, and we continue to stress the importance of philanthropy to all members. We also collected feminine products for The Period Project as a Panhellenic community throughout October.
The chapter supports these organizations not only because some of them are our national philanthropies, but the chapter is passionate about giving back to these organizations to make a difference in these causes. Giving back to multiple organizations nationally and locally allows the chapter to see the difference we make in the community. This year, Kappa hosted a proceeds night at Groucho’s to raise money for Clemson students who lived in a house that had burned down, and $150 was raised. A proceeds night was also held at Eliza Blue Boutique, where $76 was raised towards Reading is Fundamental. Another proceeds night was held at Sweet Shop Bakery, where $50 was raised towards the Kappa foundation. $365 was raised in the past year towards the MS Society as well. We also participate in a Greek Blood Bowl, where 136 people participated in donating blood. Together, we saved 408 lives! One of our very own, Maggie Varn, held a trunk show for her jewelry called “Vale Designs.” This event raised $300 towards our Reading is Key event in Clemson. We support many different organizations, and love to help those in need in any way that we can.
The chapter meets Monday nights in Tillman Hall, which is one of the most famous buildings on campus. We meet in the auditorium, but the hall is home to classrooms and offices as well. Chapter council meetings are held on Wednesday nights in the chapter room on the Kappa Kappa Gamma hall.
==Highlights of 2019==
This year was a very exciting year for Epsilon Mu! We accomplished so many great achieved and are proud of the progress we have made throughout the last year. We initiated a record breaking 89 new members into our chapter and are so excited to see our chapter continue to grow and thrive. These young women have exemplified what it means to be apart of Kappa Kappa Gamma and we look forward to the wonderful things they will bring to our chapter in years to come. We had 9 members participate in Panhellenic recruitment as recruitment counselors, or Pi Chis, one of which was Stuart Burger who was elected Head Pi Chi! Our bid day theme was "Life in the Dream House" and members were encouraged to wear all pink. After Bid Day, all of our members went to one of the upperclassman's house for dinner and a fun afternoon on a waterslide in the backyard!
Our chapter still resides on the 2nd floor of Norris Hall, in the Greek Quad, where 34 of our sophomore members live every year. It is on that floor that we have our chapter room where we host Chapter Council meetings on Sunday nights and Standards meetings on Wednesday nights. We host chapter meetings in the auditorium of Tillman Hall every Monday night.
The Epsilon Mu chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma here at Clemson is one of the more well-rounded sororities on campus with the individual involvement of our members, the grades we make, and the passion we have for our chapter and our university. We have members that are involved in the Clemson University Guide Association, Undergraduate Student Government, Student Alumni Council, Tiger Pride, various Honors and Business societies, club sports, and many more organizations. Epsilon Mu has always strived for success in academia and our hard work in the Spring semester of 2019 brought our total grade point average to 3.533. This brings our chapter to 7th place out of 12 total sororities and 8th place in all of Greek Life, surpassing the average GPA of Greek Life campus wide, 3.360. It is this hard work that earned our chapter the Scholastic Achievement award for the year.
This year our new members participated in Epsilon Mu's first ever New Member retreat! Accompanied by our chapter council officers and some upperclassman volunteers, our 89 new members enjoyed a fun filled, relaxing weekend full of games and bonding activities in the mountains of North Carolina at Keystone summer camp. This was an awesome opportunity for our girls to get to know one another and begin building relationships and making memories that they will carry with them the rest of their lives!
Our chapter celebrated Founders Day this year with a large celebration dinner and ceremony. We gathered at a local venue and enjoyed some delicious food, quality conversation, and a few meaningful words from Blake Bernard, our Education Chair, as well as some Epsilon Mu alumnae and mothers. This has become one of our chapter's favorite evenings because we get to celebrate Kappa Kappa Gamma a recognize that the bonds that brought us together will keep us together now and for years to come!
Our chapter is an extremely close knit group of women, including both active members and alumnae. This year our Chapter Council advisor, Susan Jezek, put together an entire board of advisors to assist our chapters leaders, providing guidance and advice, enabling them to lead our chapter to the best of their ability. This advisory board was an enormous success and we look forward to the things our chapter council will be able to accomplish with such a great resource. It is because of this that our chapter received the Alumni Development award for the past year.
In June of 2019, one of our most recent alumnae, Morgan Nichols, won Miss South Carolina at the competition in Columbia, SC. Her passion for her social initiative platform, Stronger With STEM, which promotes career development for women in the life sciences, technology, and mathematics, was started right here in Clemson where she studied genetics. We cheered her on in the Miss America pageant on December 19th!
Campus has been growing rapidly throughout the last few years with the grand opening of the Douthit Hills facility and the new College of Business building well under way, scheduled to open for classes in Fall of 2020. The atmosphere at Clemson remains the same, including the flood of Tiger Pride that sweeps in every Saturday of the fall semester to watch our Tigers play. Clemson won the National Championship in January, making us the reigning champs going into this years playoffs. Greek Life at Clemson continues to thrive, however sadly our friends in Kappa Alpha Theta did lose their charter in Spring 2019. In response to this, Panhellenic create an expansion committee to look into the possibility of chartering a new chapter in the coming years! The Epsilon Mu chapter remains a close knit group of strong, outgoing women who act as leaders all across Clemson's campus.
'''Philanthropy'''
This year, through multiple events and fundraisers, such as our 2nd annual donut eating contest, Krispy Kreme Grabbers, a silent auction at Parents Cocktail, and Reading is Key at the local elementary school, our chapter supported the Epsilon Mu Scholarship Foundation, Reading is Fundamental, the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation, and various other foundations. Krispy Kreme Grabbers nearly tripled its total from the year prior and nearly $2,000 was raised at the silent auction.
In Epsilon Mu, we pride ourselves in empowering our members to support the causes that they are passionate about. That being said, this year we incorporated almost 10 new events into our normal schedule to help raise money for different organizations that our members are involved in.
==Highlights of 2020:==
Despite having a completely virtual recruitment process due to COVID-19, we recruited and initiated our largest pledge class ever of 95 women. The Epsilon Mu chapter was also thankful to be able to hold our favorite tradition/sisterhood event, Kappas Can Cook where our upperclassmen hosted new members for dinner in order to build sisterhood and morale (while following the “pod” guidelines.) Kappa Kappa Gamma at Clemson University was also ranked top 3 in a modified float build for homecoming.
[[File:Kappa Kares Book Drive.jpg|thumb|Kappa Kares Book Drive]]
'''Philanthropy & DEI Initiatives'''
After the events of this past summer that brought the country’s attention to racial injustice, we decided to readjust our approach to our annual Reading Is Fundamental event. We wanted to take action and continue our mission of education and service by hosting the Kappa Kares Book Drive. Funds raised by this drive were used to purchase books written by authors of various ethnicities as well as female authors, that featured characters of diverse backgrounds and physical abilities, and/or introduced topics of inclusivity, racial justice, and social equality. These books were donated to local elementary schools, foster homes, after school programs, and other organizations reaching underserved communities in the Clemson area. We were able to successfully raise $15,798 and are in the process of purchasing books and locating children and the organizations that serve these kids that are in need of these resources to continue this mission. The Epsilon Mu Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma strongly supports our national philanthropy while also supporting many local philanthropies such as the Clemson Child Development Center, Helping Hands, Clemson Community Cares, and the Littlejohn Community Center.
We are excited to announce that our chapter has been approved to welcome ClemsonLife, a program for students with intellectual disabilities, into our next new member class.
'''Chapter Awards'''
The Epsilon Mu Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma won honorary mentions for the following awards: Chapter/Advisory Board Relations, Most Improved Academic Excellence, Standards, Public Relations, and Greatest Improvement. We also won the following awards: New Member Program, and Panhellenic Award. Epsilon Mu also received the following Chapter Excellence awards from the Clemson University Fraternity and Sorority Life: Alumni Development, Fraternity and Sorority Life Involvement, and Scholastic Achievement. We had one member receive a scholarship from the KKG foundation.
'''Sesquicentennial'''
We hosted a virtual celebration with alumnae and active members. We had one of Epsilon Mu’s founding members speak, and also a recent EM graduate who currently serves as Miss South Carolina. Additionally, we had an interactive social media campaign for both members and alumnae to participate in.
==Highlights of 2021:==
This year our chapter accomplished many events and received several awards and honors. First, Clemson Panhellenic as a whole received the 2021 Excellence Award from the National Panhellenic Conference. Epsilon Mu also celebrated 50 years, and our chapter hosted a great Founders Day brunch to celebrate this. Our chapter created the SOAR academic award this year which is an award we will give yearly to an individual who has the most improved GPA, also known as the most dedicated. This year Caroline Hall of PC 20 received the award for all her hard work. Our traditions for initiation of the new members being presented with letters from friends and family members congratulating them the night before initiation was completed again this year with a record number of letters received. Initiation went smooth as it was back in person, and we had multiple legacy members attend the ceremony as well. Our philanthropy changed a lot this year, and we are now supporting the JED Foundation which we were able to raise over $37,000 for in three months! From the university, Kappa received the Alumni Development Award, Fraternity and Sorority Involvement Award, Philanthropic Service award, and the Scholastic Achievement award, which we are all very proud of. These are just a few of our highlights from the year, and it can only continue from here.
'''Philanthropy'''
Our chapter locally supports numerous organizations and causes including Dance Marathon, Helping Hands, All In Foundation, and many more. Primarily, we support the Clemson Area Diverse Literacy Program, which we created in partnership with local businesses and community centers, to continue the purchase and distribution of hundreds of books to students in the local Clemson area. The books are written by authors of various backgrounds, ethnicities, races, genders and abilities to promote ideas of inclusivity, racial justice and equality. Thus far, we have raised over $17,000 and distributed over 900 books. We plan to continue this program for at least the next 5 years as a way to successfully transition from our previous literacy-based philanthropy to our new mental health awareness and well-being philanthropy. We partnered with the JED Foundation for our new mental health philanthropic efforts. We have successfully fundraised over $37,000 so far from fundraisers and events including First Friday, Kappa Kickball, Parent’s Cocktail Silent Auction, and Mental Health Awareness Week. Our Mental Health Awareness Week included a suicide awareness speaker, random acts of kindness, proceeds days, flower arranging sisterhood event, and serotonin boosts!
We are so proud of our efforts to not only support a nationwide mental health awareness push but our efforts to ensure the well-being of all of our members right here as well. We have done numerous social media pushes as well to spread the word and raise awareness by members of our chapter sharing their stories and battles with mental health. We have lots of events planned for the upcoming semester and year to continue our work and support of JED!
'''Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion'''
This year, Epsilon Mu implemented a DEI officer, and utilized the position to a great extent by bringing the chairman onto chapter council. Initiatives included having designated ‘office’ hours where members could speak to the DEI officer about any personal struggles as well as a weekly sent out submission form where members could submit a friend in need to be reached out to. Our chapter council led a mental health awareness week and brought Lizzie Borek, a Kappa alum and certified mental health specialist to speak to our chapter about suicide prevention awareness, following up her first speech to the chapter in spring 2021 regarding general mental health. We prioritized our members'''Chapter Convention Awards''':mental health through sisterhood events that promoted DEI values, self-care and general bonding within the chapter. PR also promoted these values with educating the chapter consistently throughout the term through social media, as well as by allowing members to be brave and share their mental health journey to normalize the stigma. The DEI chair attended monthly Panhellenic wellness meetings for education purposes, and also coordinated with various on-campus departments such as Clemson’s diversity office to gain perspective and ideas.
'''Operating in a Pandemic'''
During Covid-19 there have been changes made to our chapter overall, but the past two semesters we have been able to get back to normal some. Our chapter complies with all University mask mandates over campus, which includes wearing masks when we have chapter events on campus. We also had two separate initiation ceremonies to limit the number of individuals in the room to limit the spread of potential illnesses. Virtual options of meetings were provided if necessary.
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