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Epsilon Psi

5,554 bytes added, 18:26, 20 December 2021
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|Image= [[File:EpsilonPsi_House1.jpg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1978|10|14}}
|College= [httphttps://www.ucsb.edu/ University of California, Santa Barbara]
|Location= Goleta, CA
|Homepage= http[https://wwwucsb.kappa.org/ Epsilon Psi Website]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Epsilon_Psi Media related to Epsilon Psi Chapter]}}
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We support Reading is Fundamental because it is Kappa's national philanthropy and our chapter believes giving children the opportunity to read and promote literacy is extremely important. We also choose to support the Ovarian Cancer Circle because it has a special place in our hearts. One of our members, Robin Babbini, lost her battle to ovarian cancer in 2006. Her mother founded the charity so we choose to support her in raising awareness for the devastating disease.
 
 
==Highlights of 2020==
 
This year, we were able to start the calendar year by having informal recruitment. We then had initiation for those girls, and a day later we had our very first Kappa Kabana date party. Not even a week later, we had to go home due to COVID-19. The house closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, and events were continued online. We hosted virtual sisterhoods, including movie and game nights. Our meetings were short clips of our announcements edited together to form a “meeting,” that sisters could watch on their own. Fall 2020,we began to prepare for our virtual recruitment. Our chapter house opened up again, with major health and safety precautions. We had Polish week for recruitment over zoom, and were able to finish recruitment and host virtual Bid day, where we claimed 67 girls as our new sisters. We initiated them a couple of months later, through Zoom, and they got extra gear in their “initiation packages” to make it more special. Along the way, we had virtual sisterhoods and a book drive! ​Reading is Fundamental is Kappa’s national organization. The Ovarian Cancer Circle is close to our chapter because one of our sisters, Robin Babbini, died from Ovarian Cancer when she was a student at UCSB. ​Our chapter has created a Diversity and inclusion chair, and her position has created a committee to help her with all of the duties to help Kappa be a more inclusive space. Our DEI chair created a training for all of the panhellenic that she presented before recruitment, about implicit bias and racism in the Greek community. There was also a Facebook page where she would post infographics, news articles, and other information to help us all be more educated and aware. ​This year, we hosted our own Founders day over zoom where we played games like trivia, and performed the Founders Day ceremony ritual. This was important because the ritual hadn’t been
performed in several years, but it came back for the celebration of Kappa’s 150th anniversary. We were also able to pick up a cupcake from the house. We finished our celebration by tuning into the National sesquicentennial celebration.
[[File:Eppsi.png|thumb|sisters]]
 
 
 
==Highlights of 2021==
 
One of our members, Jessica Orozco, a 3rd year student, received a scholarship through Kappa.
Our chapter initiated a group of 69 new members on November 13th and 1 was initiated at a
later date. During our recruitment process, which was virtual, our chapter worked together to
create a welcoming and positive environment. We were allowed to have an in-person bid day
this fall which was organized by our new member chair, Avery Thomas. We had Summer Spink,
our DEI chair hold a presentation during recruitment about what our values should be during
the process of rush. Unfortunately because of COVID, we couldn’t hold our annual Kappa
Kapture, the flag philanthropy which is our big fundraiser for the year but instead, our
Philanthropy chair held a mental health awareness week in which our members were
encouraged to partake in random acts of kindness. Also this past spring we held an auction
online with prizes that were donated from various parents, alumni, as well as local businesses to
raise money for Active Minds. Regarding ritual within our chapter, I encouraged girls to come to
multiple ritual reviews held throughout the year.
Chapter Philanthropy
 
As a chapter we locally support the Ovarian Cancer Circle and will usually host events at
restaurants in Isla Vista which will donate 1⁄3 of their proceeds to our chapter for this
organization.
How did the chapter support Kappa’s philanthropy?
We recently as a chapter just voted to support Active Minds which is a non-profit
organization that focuses on the conversation of mental health in young adults through
peer-to-peer dialogue. We raised money in the spring with an online auction to support
mental health organizations. We plan on hosting Kappa Kapture the flag once certain covid
restrictions are lifted and everyone in Greek life can participate.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
 
Our DEI chair, Summer Spink, held weekly seminars in spring quarter that focused on different areas
such as the Jewish-American experience, climate change, women in Stem, etc. As a chapter we had
one mandatory seminar to attend but her seminars were always full! This fall, Summer hosted one
large event at a Monday night chapter meeting about cultural appropriation before Halloween to
ensure everyone would have a respectful costume and would better understand how to honor other
cultures. Overall every member was involved in DEI this past year in social media, chapter trainings
and more.
Operating in a Pandemic
Our meetings from January to June were all virtual and now this fall we were able to hold
in-person meetings once again with everyone wearing masks. We would also have an option
for zooming in if a girl was sick and unable to attend meetings. Our COB event in February
was virtual and so was their initiation. This fall our Bid Day was in person but masks were
required in the chapter house and initiation was also in person with masks. I hosted a
combined red-white room ceremony to lessen the contact that everyone would have with
each other which went very well. Overall our chapter handled the transition from in-person
to virtual and back to in-person quite well and we’re all happy to have the opportunity to be
back with each other again.
[[File:Ucsb.jpg|thumb|Sisterhood]]
[[File:Ucsb1.jpg|thumb|Social Distancing]]