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|Image= [[File:Zeta_Omega.jpg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1994|01|08}}
|College= [httphttps://uwaterloo.ca/ University of Waterloo]
|Location= Waterloo, ON
|Homepage= [httphttps://chaptersuwaterloo.kappakappagammakappa.org/zetaomega/ Zeta Omega Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Zeta_Omega Media related to Zeta Omega Chapter]}}
'''University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada'''
'''351 306 initiated members (as of June 2017March 2022)'''
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In 1957, innovation and entrepreneurship brought University of Waterloo into being, as a group of business leaders imagined a new university built to tackle some of the world’s most daunting challenges.
University of Waterloo, commonly referred as Waterloo or UW, is a public research university whose main campus is located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is in Uptown Waterloo, adjacent to Waterloo Park. The university offers a wide variety of academic programs, administered by six faculties and ten faculty-based schools. The university also operates four satellite campuses and four affiliated university colleges. Waterloo is a member of the U15, a group of research-intensive universities in Canada.
The University of Waterloo was created as a non-denominational board established by Waterloo College (the present-day Wilfrid Laurier University) to obtain government grants to run expanded science programs under the name Waterloo College Associated Faculties. The university was established in response to community demand for improved education facilities, particularly in technical and scientific fields of study. The first 74 students began classes in 1957. In 1959, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed an act which formally split the board from Waterloo College and reestablished it as the University of Waterloo.Renowned for the success of its cooperative education programs, Waterloo now has the largest engineering school in Canada. The university enrolled approximately 240,000 students in 1994.
==Highlights of 1980s- Kappa Gamma Phi ==
In 1986, there was one fraternity at Waterloo. This fraternity was Delta Omega Chi which became Theta Psi chapter of Sigma Chi in March of 1987. At that time there were no other Greek societies. A woman student who had been associated with Delta Omega Chi realized the advantages of this type of society and decided to begin one for women. She put an ad in the campus newspaper asking if there were other women on campus who would be interested in starting a sorority. She received several responses.
==Highlights of 1990s- Petition to NPC ==
In 1993, Kappa Gamma Phi decided to petition some international sororities for membership. The members assembled packets with information about Waterloo, the UW campus and Kappa Gamma Phi. Kappa Kappa Gamma and Delta Delta Delta both responded and came to the campus to make presentations. The chapter members thought the values of KKG were similar to those of KGP and voted to become a Kappa colony.
In context of the university that Zeta Omega is located at, the University of Waterloo ranked first for innovation for the twenty-fourth year in a row and first for reputation this year according to MacLean’s. It also raised 17 places in terms of word rankings. Regarding changes to the campus, the university opened a Science Teaching Complex, began construction on a new student residence, opened it’s Center of Excellence for Innovation in Aging, and expanded it’s entrepreneurship program, Velocity, to become North America’s largest startup incubator. Hopefully next year is as progressive and exciting as this one!
==Highlights of 2020s2017== In 2017, the Zeta Omega Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Waterloo had anincredible year due to our commitment to our chapter goals and our focus on sisterhood. The yearstarted off with an incredible and enthusiastic Chapter Council with Supriya Sethi leading as ourPresident. As a Chapter with our VPO Mariam Khattak, we focused on and worked hard toaccomplish our Chapter Goals: remember our "Whys"; improve Risk Management Education;Improve Academic Excellence; improve sisterhood; and increase accountability. We kept thesegoals in mind throughout the year and strived to accomplish them in everything we did as achapter.The Winter Term was filled with incredible Sisterhoods planned by our VPS, Uma Chowhan thatkept us active when we went to Skyzone, allowed us to explore our creative side when we did apainting workshop, and brought us together as we crafted new Kappa t-shirts together. In the FallTerm we participated in Sisterhoods planned by our VPS, Simona Iancu including a mug craftingevent perfect for holding hot drinks we would need in the coming cold weather, and a holidaythemed meeting where we decorated gingerbread figures and exchanged Secret Sister gifts! Aperfect way to end a great year. In order to further our goals of improving sisterhood, rememberingour "Whys", and increasing accountability, we as a chapter worked hard to reach out to sisters wedon't know as well and share what we admire about each other through our Clothespin Dates,Sister of the Week and Pen Pals. We also worked on self-mediating issues we had through Koffeefor Konversation - an informal way to solve personal issues between sisters without going throughStandards that also helped make meaningful connections between sisters.As a Chapter we participated in many Philanthropy events that were focused on giving back to ourcommunity and becoming more visible on campus. In the Winter we ran Movies andMarshmallows where we took over the main Student Life Centre on campus and served hotchocolate and played movies for our fellow students to help them through midterms. In the Fallterm our Philanthropy Chairwoman Kayley Marner continued our great philanthropy efforts with aRIF-themed philanthropy by organizing for our chapter to help the program coordinators of StrongStart's Get Ready to Read Program pack and sort materials. Our last philanthropy event of the yearwas in support of World Kindness Day! We crafted and distributed lollipop flowers with words ofencouragement to students all over campus. It was even featured in an article written for ourFederation of Students website!As our Risk Management Chairman, Mia Chan worked endlessly to accomplish our chapter goal ofincreasing Risk Management Education by putting together great Risk Education workshops thatwe participated in during General Meeting. Mia helped chapter when the new Risk Managementpolicies came into place and helped us as a chapter understand the important changes! In Winter 2017 we hosted our annual Sapphire Ball! This year it was organized by our Event'sChairman, Kiki Ghandour, and was held at the Delta Hotel in Uptown Waterloo. This incredibleyearly event celebrates the wonderful academic year before us and the accomplishments of oursisters. As a chapter we hand out awards to some of our sisters to highlight everything they havedone for us! Here were the awards and the recepiants: Academic Excellence Award: Eleni Zaptses;Chapter Goal Award: Supriya Sethi; Sisterhood Award: Mia Chan; Philanthropy Award: MackenzieNoble; Abby Shanmuganathan Memorial Award: Patricia Su; Alumna Award: Brittney Van Nood;Senior Member Award: Uma Chowhan; New Member Award: Brett Doane; Outstanding OfficerAward: Mariam Khattak; President's Award: Maddie Braun.In order to improve our Academic Excellence as part of our Chapter Goals, our VPAE ClaireQuong worked hard to encourage sisters to share their academic accomplishments, and work instudy groups based on their majors/programs. Another way to encourage sisters to strive foracademic excellence was the introduction of our Scholarship Pearls. For Winter 2017, twoScholarship Pearls were given out: Most Improved: Meaghan B; and Most Inspirational: TearneyJohnson-Jones. We look forward to continuing Scholarship Pearls and celebrating academicaccomplishments into the 2018 year!In the Fall of 2017 our Membership Chairman Brett Doane and our New Member Chairman NihaAmin welcomed our incredible Alpha Sigma Pledge Class. After a week filled with incredible eventsall centred around our theme of "A Fleurishing Sisterhood", we welcomed 14 new sisters into oursisterhood: Alezeh, Sydney D., Ekaterina, Grace, Ailish, Celina, Shannel, Alexandra, Hannah,Lyana, Danielle, Pauline, Jamie, and Alicia. As a Pledge Class they participated in our sisterhoods,philanthropies, and showed great enthusiasm towards building our sisterhood and being activemembers of our chapter, all volunteering to help any officer wherever she was needed. We couldn'tbe more thrilled they chose to join us and will be continuing our chapter and this Fraternity's greatlegacy!While welcoming new sisters is always incredible, saying goodbye to our seniors is always bittersweet. In 2017 we wished our senior sisters the best of luck as they continue their lives postgraduationfrom the University of Waterloo and the Zeta Omega Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma.We know our graduating sisters Meera, Ally, Kavita, Taylor H., Parnum, Diane, Kiki, Uthi, Valerie,Uma, Karen H., Tearney, Eleni, Miya, Maddy and Jordana will do incredible things and we can'twait to hear about all their successes! In the Winter our seniors spent quality time together in anescape room! In teams they worked to escape by solving puzzles and riddles using clues, hints andstrategy to complete to objectives at hand. Clearly these wonderful women are well-prepared totake on post-grad life! In the fall, our seniors participated in a paint night, where they relaxed andexplored their creative side. As senior sisters they participated in senior programming learning allabout financial management, how to save post-graduation, and about investing in TFSAs andRRSPs.We are so proud of our 2017 year and all our sisters, active and alumna, who helped make it anincredible year! We look forward to 2018 and what the new year brings! ==Highlights of 2018== Throughout 2018, zeta omega has grown a significant amount, not only in the size of its membership, but also in the sisterhood, leadership and overall individual growth. Led by our President Ashley Powers, focus was put on empowering, supporting and strengthening the chapter and each of its members. The winter term saw an amazing start with a Leadership Consultant visit two days after the official start of classes the term! We greeted Sena with a Chapter dinner at a nearby restaurant and spent the learning about different ways to improve chapter as well as sisterhood. The visit gave us a lot of insight and new perspectives going into the year which ultimately resulted in several positive changes to the structure of chapter council and each individual sister’s involvement. In winter, our VPS Maddie Braun organized some wonderful sisterhoods, first at our local diner Mel’s where sisters enjoyed milkshakes and getting to know their chapter committees and made plans for the rest of the term. Sisterhood was a game of laser tag with the sisters where sisters could bond and catch a break from sitting in lecture halls by getting some exercise. Our last sisterhood was a daylong event with team building games. On top of the sisterhoods she also created a way for sisters to share their concerns in an anonymous manner called kappa konfidential which aided in creating a more open chapter. In the fall term, our VPS Sydney DiTomasso encouraged her committee to contribute to the planning of the sisterhoods, sisterhood one was in a cozy setting where sisters got to paint canvases with our letters; the second sisterhood was a fun outdoor event with hot cocoa and tie-dying shirts, finally our last sisterhood of the winter was a cozy movie night.Our Vice Presidents of Organization, Mia Chan and Emily McTeague, helped incoming officers transition into their new roles by organizing a Leadership Day in which officer expectations and duties were outlined. They also helped our Leadership Consultants feel right at home on their first trips to Ontario, allowing them to provide guidance and suggestions for improvement to our Chapter. Finally, they encouraged members to become more involved with Chapter by using the committee system and providing a collective goal to work towards, which was achieved and rewarded with an end-of-term movie night.Alicia Tuck, was our philanthropy chairman and did a stellar job with planning and executing events that benefited our community. For the first philanthropy the chapter made no sew blankets out of fleece to donate to the Kitchener Waterloo shelters in order to help them out with the colder winter months. The next philanthropy was crafting and doing activities with a local special needs group. Our final philanthropy of the winter term was making and selling grilled cheese that was then donated to the mental health association.Risk Management officer, Grace created fun trivia activities to help members understand the different procedures and regulations sisters have to follow to ensure their (Information and the chapter’s) safety, this played a large role in allowing the chapter to fully understand the importance of following the risk management policies as well as submitting all required forms on time.Claire Quong was once again out VPAE and did an amazing job bringing programming to chapter on improving academics and academic habits.In Winter 2018 we once again had our Sapphire Ball, this time at the Fed Hall on our Campus! Niha Amin, organized the event and worked hard on creating decor and backdrops for the Ball with the help and teamwork lent by our sisters. ==Highlights of 2019== The year 2019 marked a tremendous amount of growth within our chapter, both individually and as a whole. In the winter, we spent time giving back to the community through a variety of creative avenues. Starting off we ran an information booth in the University’s Student Life Centre with information on cervical cancer and resources on reproductive health. The booth also included an interactive component of a spinnable wheel with colour coordinated envelopes that contained a small candy and an important fact. We then worked with another sorority on campus to help create care packages that could then be donated to homeless shelters. To the end off the term, we held a bake sale and donated all proceeds to the kids’ reading program at our local public library. We later went back to the library to spend time with kids and read with them as a chapter. Zeta Omega also took care in playing a role in helping the environment by attending a park clean up with another sorority. Outside of official philanthropies, our chapter also had many sisters volunteer around the community, including our sister Mia Chan going above and beyond by starting a social media campaign called ‘Behind My Mind’ which aims to provide mental health tips as well as destigmatize mental health and “shine light on the realities of mental health and illnesses, one mind at a time”. Our Saphire ball was held at the Delta Hotel in Waterloo and featured beautiful decorations, the most delicious appetizers, a lot of lovingly written speeches and chapter awards. After our summer break we came back together and got ready for another great year of recruitment. Under the leadership of our powerhouse membership chair Shannel Nguyen, we had an amazing and well organized recruitment that ultimately resulted in recruiting 21 amazing ladies that becameperfect editions to our ever growing chapter after a well executed inspiration week. This year we participated in sisterhood events that acted as stress relievers from our busy academic schedules, but also played an important role in strengthening our chapter’s sisterly bonds. Some of the highlights include a trip to Skyzone, yoga, destressing spa days and board game days. We also had an amazing Touch of Klass to end off the term which was run by Isabelle Lavallée-Gordon at an anticafe that featured lots of desserts and many opportunities for sisters to bond with each other and reflect on the past term. ==Highlights of 2020== 2020 was an interesting year for everyone, but Zeta Omega took its challenges with grace and used them to improve ourselves as a chapter and as individuals. Zeta Omega started 2020 strong with Chapter Meeting restructures and increased educational programming led by Erin Murray as Chapter President. Erin gracefully led Zeta Omega through the shift to virtual formats amidst the pandemic. Our winter 2020 Vice President Standards, Josie Hiddema, planned two amazing sisterhoods. The first sisterhood involved a night of crafts, candy and cuddles as sisters watched movies in their pajamas. For sisterhood 2 we trekked to Elmira to paint mugs at Maggie’s Mudroom, where sisters were able to take home their mugs! Our winter Leadership Consultant, Hannah Cho, visited us in early January. With the planning and communication done by Vice President Organization, Grace Flanagan, Hannah stayed with us for 4 days where she met officers, explored Waterloo and hit the in boutiques Uptown Waterloo with sisters. At the 2020 Kappa convention Zeta Omega won the Academic Excellence award and had our first term where every sister met the grade requirement! Vice President of Academic Excellence, Shannel Nguyen, introduced a study hours competition using the app Flora where sisters could track their study hours in friendly competition. Shannel hosted in-person study sessions which she changed to virtual drop-in study sessions once the Covid-19 pandemic caused the University to move online. Chapter Marshal, Jade Dayman, created monthly Ritual Reviews in the forms of Jeopardy-style games and presentations in an effort to re-engage chapter with ritual and re-establish our connection to our history reports. Jade planned our Quiet Night event which involved lots of bonding, self-growth, and fun activities. She also started a recruitment tee archive where one recruitment shirt from each year starting in Fall 2018 was kept and stored.Before everything went virtual, scholarshipour Philanthropy Chair Briana Clark organized a philanthropy where sisters packed homeless relief kits for the Friendship Centre of Waterloo. In March, group honors/awardsthe World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak as a pandemic and school went online. During this tough transition, Chapter Council successfully migrated online and supported our sisters in the process. Sapphire Ball 2020 was unfortunately cancelled as a result, but we closed out the term by virtually sending off 10 senior sisters. Chapter Council continued to meet biweekly via Zoom during the summer months to prepare for a fully virtual fall term, including virtual recruitment as well as the implementation of a new position on Chapter Council: The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Chairwoman.Fall Vice President Standards, traditionsAyesha Khan, special fostered sisterhood and boosted morale through virtual sisterhood events. Our first fall sisterhood was a virtual Halloween Netflix party! For the second sisterhood Ayesha worked us to the bone with an online fitness class with The Fitness Junction in Guelph. Membership Chair Zoe Whitman planned a successful virtual recruitment and work week as New Member Chair Sarah Mazen welcomed home 13 new members in Member Class 2020 with a virtual bid day! Chapter Marshal, Jade Dayman, organized a fully virtual inspiration week including sending out inspiration week boxes, hosting our annual Quiet Night with bonding activities and friendship bracelet making and ended the week with virtually Initiating 10 members over Zoom in the presence of Zeta Omega alumnae, changes the Alpha District Team and Chapter advisors on November 8th, 2020. Willow Glicksohn, Fall Philanthropy Chair, planned a virtual letter writing session where sisters wrote letters of thanks and gratitude to front line workers. Willow, in collaboration with Erin Coughenour, our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Chair, donated the philanthropy budget for the fall term to three organizations: Reading is Fundamental, Kitchener-Waterloo Community Covid Fund and an Indigenous Women of Canada Fund. Events Chair, Chantel De La Courneuve, organized two virtual socials during the fall term. Social 1 was a Kappajama event with the Toronto Chapter, Beta Psi, over Zoom. Social 2 was with the sisters of Alpha Omicron Pi, another sorority on campus . Chantel planned a virtual Touch of Klass where sisters dressed up, ordered dinner and sat on Zoom for awards, appreciations and 5 senior send offs. Since our Annual Sapphire Ball was cancelled due to Covid-19, the Sapphire Ball awards were presented at TOK instead. There were 9 awards given out that night. The recipient of the President’s Award was Jade Dayman (MC 18’), the recipient of the Outstanding Officer Award was Alice Sandiford (MC 19’), the recipient of the Sisterhood award was Payton Ford (MC’ 18), the recipient of the Academic award was Ayesha Khan (MC 19’), the recipient of the Chapter Goals award was Erin Murray (MC 16’), the recipient of the New Member Award for Member Class 2019 was Erin Coughenour (MC 19’), the recipient of the Philanthropy award was Sarah Mazen (MC 18’) and finally the recipient of the Abenaya Shanmuganathan's Award was Zoe Whitman (MC 19’). 2020 was truly an important year for finding our sisterhood, as it is only through the unpredictable struggles, we faced together amidst the pandemic that we truly grew as a Chapter and as women. The chapter supports Reading is Fundamental, House of Friendship, Kitchener-Waterloo Community Covid Fund and an Indigenous Women of Canada Fund. The House of Friendship, the Kitchener- Waterloo Community Covid Fund and the Indigenous Women of Canada Fund are all local organizations that hold a place in our hearts. The chapter implemented and installed the first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Chairwoman, Erin Coughenour, under Vice President Standards. The DEI chair worked with the Membership chair, Zoe Whitman to address unconscious bias and improve our recruitment practices. DEI chair also partnered with the Education chair, Alice Sandiford, to provide LGBTQ+ safety, equity and inclusion training. In addition, $1000 was donated between Black Legal Action Centre, Healing Collective, Black Health Alliance and Black Lives Matter Toronto. Erin partnered with the Philanthropy Chair, Willow Glicksohn to donate the Fall Philanthropy budget to the Reading is Fundamental, Kitchener-Waterloo Community Covid Fund and an Indigenous Women of Canada Fund. Zeta Omega sisters tuned into the Kappa 150th Anniversary Facebook Live event from all over the globe. On October 18th, 2020 the Marshal, Jade Dayman, and the Education chair, Alice Sandiford organized the Founder’s Day Ceremony, led by Chapter President Erin Murray. ==Highlights of 2021== At the Zeta Omega Chapter, our year started off strong with a virtual Leadership Day held by our Vice President Organization, Payton Ford. Here we ushered in our new 2021 Chapter Council, and discussed our goals for the term. Our Vice President Standards, Jade Dayman, held a programming educating chapter on the functions of the Standards Committee, Standards Concerns, Membership Support Plans, and the Kappa Konfidant form, where sisters can anonymously or non-anonymously share their concerns with the Standards Committee. In the Winter term, Jade ran 3 amazing virtual Sisterhoods. We had a Presentation Night, where sisters could present on any topic of their choice. We learned about Twilight, Spencer Reid’s best looks, Kombucha, Drag Race, and more! Our second Sisterhood was a yoga session. We rounded out the winter term with a Virtual Escape Room night with KW Escapes. We had to work together to get through different scenarios, like a twister or a jail break. In the fall term, we continued to hold virtual Sisterhoods. We held a Sisterhood Retreat, with team bonding and ice breakers, as well as a virtual game night. Since restrictions started to lift this term, we got to hold our first in-person Sisterhood since February 2020! We had a crafting day, where sisters painted canvases, tie-dyed shirts, and made friendship bracelets. Alice Sandiford, our Vice President Academic Excellence, worked hard this year to make sure that sisters felt supported and connected academically. She implemented the Saturday Organization Cafe, which was a hit! Every Saturday, sisters could join a Zoom call to start their day, plan their upcoming weeks, and chip away at assignments. This was a great opportunity for us to spend some time together, catch up, and get a jump start on the week ahead. Alice also implemented the Study Dates slack channel, where sisters could post Zoom meeting links to find study buddies to work with outside of the Organization Cafe. When restrictions eased in the fall, sisters also got to use this channel to plan real-life study dates on campus and at local study spots. The Winter Academic Excellence Committee, consisting of Alice, Erin Coughenour, and Amy Wohlgemuth held Academic Goals Programming. Our VPAE and VPS also teamed up for Mental Health Programming, where we, as a chapter, discussed accessibility within chapter. Our Fall Education Chair, Amy Wohlgemuth, facilitated Courage to Commit. In the year 2021, the Zeta Omega chapter was still navigating the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the restrictions placed upon us by the Ontario government, our Winter Events Chair, Grace Flanagan, overall nature planned many fun and safe socials that helped us grow our Greek relations. We celebrated Valentine’s Day through a Virtual Crafting Brunch with the ladies of Alpha Omicron Pi, played Among Us with the Waterloo chapterof Sigma Chi, had our first social with the gentlemen of Alpha Epsilon Pi, and even participated in a virtual Greek Olympics held by Wilfred Laurier University’s Alpha Phi. We even got to connect with our Kappas Sisters over at the Beta Psi chapter in Toronto, through virtual social on Zoom. Our Winter Term capped off with a Virtual Sapphire Ball, honoring our Senior Sisters and sending them off. In the Fall Term, we held a pumpkin painting social with AOII. Our Winter Education Chair, Montse Herrera and our Marshal, Erin Coughenour, held a virtual senior send off ceremony that sent our Winter senior sisters off into their alumni status with a reminder of how far they’ve come since their Initiation days. Along with Senior Sendoff, Montse also organized a movie night for the Senior Sisters, held a “Who’s That Baby” competition, and hosted a Virtual Alumni Event with our Winter PR Chair, Megan Morse. For Fall 2021 Recruitment, we were lucky enough to hold some in-person and hybrid events since restrictions started to lift within this time. Our Membership Chair, Chantel De La Cournueve, worked with the ladies of Alpha Omicron Pi and the UW Panhellenic Council to plan a safe hybrid recruitment. Chantel held a workweek workshop in mid September to prep our members on the rules and regulations of recruitment, as well as prepare members to be able to talk to PNMS. Through virtual and in-person events, we welcomed an initial member class of 5 amazing women. We further decided to move into continuous open bidding, and through this process found 3 more new sisters of the Zeta Omega Chapter. All in all, our fall recruitment process brought 8 new sisters to our chapter goals. Chapter Marshal, Erin Coughenour, held a virtual Inspiration week for Winter 2021. This term’s Inspiration Week focused on senior sisters, including Senior Sendoff Ritual. Quiet Night consisted of Ice Breakers, Warm Fuzzies, and a Virtual White Elephant Game. Virtual formal meetings brought new challenges to chapter, but through Ritual Reviews she educated chapter on meeting etiquette and parliamentary procedure to continue keeping ritual alive and how they well in a virtual setting. This fall, we held our first in-person Initiation Ceremony since November 2019. The 8 members of MC21 were overcomeinitiated on Saturday, November 20, in the presence of current active members of Zeta Omega as well as alumni. This was followed by a lovely Alumni Brunch hosted by our Fall PR Chair, etcMontse Herrera.)
Things have not been easy as a Canadian chapter. We have had to navigate strict COVID-19 restrictions, as well as sisters being all over the world. We are proud to have used this time and these challenges to become a stronger, more inclusive, and more connected chapter. We can’t wait to further navigate chapter in a post--COVID world, and grow as a chapter in the coming years.