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(From chapter’s History Report'''Voices for the Vineyards''':Scholarship In light of the recent fires in Northern California, group honors/awards our chapter came together at a sober event in support of the victims by hosting a benefit concert with Kappa Alpha and Stanford Concerting Network. Nine talented students from different corners of campus performed pro bono on the lawn of KA while about a hundred students listened in appreciation to their music. Overall, with sponsored t-shirts, Pressed Juicery certificates, traditions a $100 gift card from Coupa Cafe, special events pizza, changes on campus or within chapter a Snapchat geofilter, overall nature of the chapter Kappa designed fliers, chapter goals and stickers designed by a Kappa member, challenges and how they were overcome we raised over $5,200. All of the money went to Redwood Empire Food Bank, an organization that donates food and offers to support to people displaced by the fires. Redwood Empire Food Bank is able to turn that money into 10,000 meals for families in need. The fires affected so many Stanford friends and families that we believed it were imperative to take action, utilizing Stanford talent to be the voice for the suffering; hence the concert's name: Voices for the Vineyards. In addition to our main philanthropy, our chapter also engages in a variety of other community service events. Throughout the year, we have partnered with Kappa Sigma, Kappa Alpha, and Pi Beta Phi to cook and deliver breakfast every Tuesday morning to the Opportunity Center in Palo Alto. Additionally, last October we partnered with Sigma Chi to host a pumpkin carving event where all of the proceeds went to the Huntsman Institute for Cancer Research. In the Spring, etc we partnered with Alpha Chi Omega to prepare and deliver toiletry kits to a local women’s shelter.)
'''Housing:''' Finally, this year, we are hoping to engage more with our national philanthropy, Reading is Fundamental. This fall, we are planning a Reading is Key event where members of our chapter will go to an underprivileged school or community to read to the kids and do some other educational activity with them. At the end of this event, we will send each child home with a new book. Lastly, Kappa created a team for Dance Marathon and received the “Gold Level” for Greek Sponsors. In keeping aligned with our chapter’s passion for focusing on women’s issues, we were hoping to host an event at a local women’s shelter like Heart and Home where we could engage with the children of the women at the shelter and possibly partner with Kappa Sigma to raise money for the shelter prior to our event. We struggle with attendance at Philanthropy events and generally only have 50-80% in attendance, we hope to increase this in the coming year with the incentive plan that we are currently creating. Moving forward, we are excited to continue this marry our national organization’s philanthropic endeavors with our chapter’s deeply rooted interest in sexual violence prevention, gender, identity, and intersectionality.
'''Philanthropy:'''
----------------'''Chapter Philanthropy:What organization does the chapter support? Joyful Heart Foundation'''
Note to Chapter Registrar: Please refer to your chapter archives including '''Why did the chapter meeting minutes and back issues of 'choose this organization?'The Key'' We have chosen to fill support this non-profit for several years in any gaps in the above historical highlightsaddition to our National philanthropy because its mission is one that is all too important to our members. If your chapter archives are not completeIt is a non-profit organization dedicated to healing, please research your university libraryempowering, campus newspaper and yearbook archives advocating for newsworthy information survivors of sexual violence. Throughout the year, we hold a wide awway of awareness events, from documentary screenings to conferences in order to keep up the conversation about your chaptersexual violence prevention on campus. Please double check your work We also hold fundraising events and sell items like our "Future is Female" shirts in order to raise money for accuracyour philanthropic mission of supporting the Joyful Heart Foundation. Contact chapter Advisory or House Board membersAs an organzation, local Alumnae Association memberswe have noticed the importance of education and awareness around these topics, or your Province Director and have shifted our philanthropic efforts to focus more on spreading awareness of Chapters these issues in addition to our fundraising efforts. We believe this foundation is well-worth our efforts, especially because it was founded by Kappa Kappa Gamma alumnae, Mariska Hargitay! Overall, this past year we were able to raise almost $23,000 for assistancethe Joyful Heart Foundation, and succeeded in bringing awareness about sexual assault to our campus here at Stanford, something we are very proud of.
Your efforts will ensure '''Chapter Facility:'''Where does the chapter meet? We host a majority of our weekly meetings at the Women’s Community Center on campus, a feminist space that offers resources to promote gender equality. Through our well established relationship with the WCC, our leadership has had the opportunity to attend quarterly dinners in which they are connected with other women leaders and resources on campus. It has been a complete great experience getting to work with and accurate history learn from female leaders in all corners of your chapter for future generations to enjoy!campus.
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|Image= [[File:Beta_Eta_Deuteron.jpg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1892|06|10}}
|College= [httphttps://www.stanford.edu/ Stanford University] formerly The Leland Stanford Junior University
|Location= Stanford, CA
|Homepage= [httphttps://chaptersstanford.kappakappagammakappa.org/betaeta/ Beta Eta Deuteron Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Beta_Eta_Deuteron Media related to Beta Eta Deuteron Chapter]
}}
'''Founded as Beta Eta June 10, 1892 with 11 charter members; Closed 1944 -- 494 471 initiates (as of 1944 closure)'''
'''1,262 368 initiates (as of June 20152018)'''
'''Additional Outstanding Beta Eta Deuteron Alumnae''':
Shelley Smith Mydans, author, a Life magazine staff writer who with her husband Carl Mydans, a Life magazine photographer, spent their married life working side-by-side. They were captured by incoming Japanese troops in Manila in January of 1942. They were held as Prisoners of War for almost two years. After a respite in New York, they both returned to the combat zone, this time in Europe as World War II wound to a close.
Lola Nashashi, Graduate Counselor 1977-1978
Beta Eta was the first Kappa chapter to build its own house and the first to own a house.
The beloved house was described in the July, 1900 issue of The Key as having “sloping moss green roofs, pointed gables, dormer windows. The wrought iron lattice over the door bears the letters KKΓ and the art glass windows with the fleur-de-lis embedded in the cardinal, form an artistic entrance… the third floor, the abode of the freshmen, and familiarly known as ‘the attic’ is one large room… the most delightful place for initiation and informal spreads, while from its many windows one gains the best view of the surrounding hills covered with oak trees and, in the spring, ablaze with the glorious California poppies… From its setting of green foothills, (the house) looks across the level fields, over the treetops of the Arboretum to the narrow line of bay and the hazy blue mountains beyond.”
==Highlights of the Early 1900s==
The earthquake of April 18, 1906, brought normal college life to a halt. There was great damage on the Stanford campus. When the chapter returned to school in September, member found that the house had remained untouched during the summer, rather than repaired, since labor and materials were so scarce. A luncheon for freshmen had been scheduled for registration day. Because their dishes were broken and the plaster down, the resourceful Kappas partied on the porch.
Early in September, 1918, the house was badly damaged by fire; and again during summer quarter of 1927 there was a fire and chapter members returned to find the roof gone. By January, 1928, aware of the difficulties of separation, the chapter was able to get back together. The alumnae corporation and the Fraternity had made it possible to repair the damages, and the Mother’s Club had raised a considerable fund to help refurnish the house. In 1934 the house association constructed a much-needed wing to provide additional bedrooms, a chapter room, and a lounge.
==Highlights of the 1930s and 1940s==
Field Secretary Helen Snyder (Andres), BΠ—Washington, wrote in the February, 1933, issue of The Key, after her first visit to Stanford, “… my fondest expectations realized in its fine students, beautiful buildings with arcades, quadrangles, magnificent memorial chapel, palm trees, and landscaped grounds… long a fine chapter… scholastic and activity honors are many… a congenial chapter.” Her first official act as grand president in June, 1935, was to call for ratification of the appointment of Beta Eta’s Emily Caskey Johnson as director of standards.
As a whole, our chapter is committed to working on issues of female empowerment, health, and well being, and we felt it was important that our philanthropic efforts were connected to this. The organizations we have chosen to support reflect these ideals and do an excellent job of promoting healthy women in our society.
==Highlights of 2020s2016:== Kappa has focused on our values of diversity and inclusion and our recruitment process earlier this year was an important part of that. We felt that the conversations we had leading up to recruitment and our voting methods allowed for an intake of new members whose values deeply align with those of the organization: respect, integrity, and honest. As we welcomed our new pledge class, we reconnected as a chapter too. Highlights of the 2016 new member period included:• 4/12: New Member class dinner with New Member Chairmen• 4/13: Sleepover at Mirlo with sophomores • 4/17: New Member Brunch at Florence Moore Dining Hall with New Member Chairmen• 4/18: New Member/Sophomore Class S’mores bonding event• 4/25-4/29: Big-Little Week• 5/4: Standards Chapter Meeting with New Members about Drinking Culture and Hazing• 5/21: Initiation at Kappa Kappa Gamma house at University of California, Berkeley We have also made changes to our financial management system to continue our efforts of financial diligence, accessibility, and transparency. Within this past year, Kappa has launched it’s Sponsorship Program, which is the first of its kind amongst Kappa chapters across the nation. This program gives girls the opportunity to seek financial assistance for the payment of their dues. Kappa prides itself on accessibility to girls regardless of their financial situation and socio-economic background, and this program has already helped eight active members make Kappa a sustainable financial choice. We have many members who are already in full time jobs to pay for their books and supplies, receive full financial aid from Stanford, and who have financial emergencies at home. Our chapter is committed to supporting these women. The sponsorship program is overseen by our Treasurer and the Stanford Kappa Kappa Gamma House Board, which manages money and resources that can be used for a potential house in the future. The House Board is willing and excited to engage with our chapter members in a myriad of ways, including financial assistance. The Sponsorship program is funded through donations, and does not deplete chapter provided funds that the House Board will continue to reserve in the case that our organization gets a house. The recipients have written thank you notes to their sponsors, and will attend an appreciation event in the Spring. This year, we have also updated our approach for academic support and exploration within the chapter. The Academic Excellence Committee set up study sessions in various spaces on campus so that members can come together to work and de-stress. In winter quarter the new Chapter Council began a quarterly program during which members group together and discuss the classes that they would recommend, study strategies that have worked for them and the best resources they have accessed on campus. Additionally, we maintain a list of our active members’ majors and minors so that undeclared members can find people within the chapter to reach out to with questions about their coursework. This quarter, we hosted two panels during chapter meetings focused on career experiences of our members and alumni. Along with these milestones, Kappa has been recognized on campus and at the national level. This year, Kappa received an ‘exceeding expectations’ on our Standards of Excellence presentation and report, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life at Stanford’s annual evaluation system for all Greek communities on campus. Our score placed us among the best performing Greek organizations at Stanford. At convention this summer we were awarded the ‘Signature Event’ prize for medium sized chapters for our benefit concert Snowchella, there is more information about our philanthropy later in the document. This year, Kappas have been involved in numerous varsity and club athletic teams, led and participated in pre-professional and philanthropic organizations, held research and fellowship positions and performed in various dance and theater groups. ==Highlights of 2017== Stanford Kappa has been up to a lot of awesome things this year! First and foremost, we have continued our efforts that began last year toward making the Beta Eta Deuteron Chapter a more diverse and inclusive space to women from all walks of life. As an organization, Kappa acknowledges that the demographics of our organization are not at all reflective of the general Stanford population but that is why the Diversity and Inclusion Committee has made it a priority to constantly facilitate conversations around this topic. Last spring members of the committee held an open forum that was open to all Greek organizations to talk about the status of diversity in all of our organizations and what that meant for the freshmen that were considering going through the recruitment process (this event had approximately 60% attendance). We discussed financial accessibility, representation, inclusion and what those all looked like in practice. Along those lines, we’ve also held spotlights, Beyond the Line, and the SOSAS Panel in our chapter meetings in an effort to bring these very important conversations to the table and open up the dialogue around these topics (these all occur at chapter that generally have >80% attendance). During the Fall quarter of 2017, we held a chapter meeting run by our Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Here, we discussed inclusiveness within our chapter and in doing so assure that we prioritize the safety and comfort of all of our members from different backgrounds and of differing identities. In the coming year, we will be having workshops that tackle implicit bias and how to make a conscious effort to surpass those biases, not only during the recruitment period but at all times. Kappa has made it a point to make sure all of these conversations are ongoing and not only relevant during the week leading up to recruitment in the spring. In addition to the goal of making our chapter more inclusive, this year, our chapter also addressed our goal to keep our members highly involved and boost their attendance to meetings and events. In Winter Quarter 2017, the idea of “Key Groups” was implemented, in which Chapter Council representatives are assigned a small group of members across grades. They check in with their Key Group each chapter meeting to encourage accountability and plan group activities to get to know a smaller group of members, provide support, and serve as a contact in the Kappa leadership for them to voice any questions or concerns. Key Groups have provided to be a good source of contact, ensuring that each member of our chapter is held accountable by a particular member of Chapter Council. In terms of traditions, every quarter, pledge classes have allotted funds to eat a meal together outside of the dining halls. As an unhoused chapter, we deeply value this opportunity to gather around a table and celebrate our sisterhood. To foster inter-grade relationships we organize a number of activities that are highly concentrated in the new member period, but continue throughout the rest of the year as well. After Recruitment in the spring, we typically host a new member sleepover in Florence Moore Hall as an introductory event to pledge class bonding activities. We believe that this event in particular helps foster a community within each grade, thus setting the tone for a community built on sisterhood and friendship. Far before Recruitment even begins, our chapter leadership and New Member Chairmen work to prepare for our incoming pledge class. Highlights of hte 2017 new member period included (but are not limited to): New Member class dinner with New Member chairmen; a new member sleepover at Mirlo; new member/sophomore class s’mores bonding event; Big-Little Week; initiation at the Kappa Kappa Gamma house at University of California, Berkeley. In each of these events, New Member Chairs facilitate bonding and sisterhood through open conversation and fun experiences. Continuing with the trend of sisterhood and connections, one of our goals in the past year has been to increase attendance and quantity of sisterhood events in an attempt to better foster strong relationships within our community. Because of this, the Standards Committee, led by the Vice President of Standards, has planned more than 8 events each quarter. These events include but are not limited to: weekly meals at Tresidder Student Union open to the chapter, randomly assigned small group meals, kickball, cookie-decorating, and arts and crafts projects. Theincrease in events has increased attendance drastically to 35-55% at every event. We are particularly proud of this increased commitment to sisterhood and building a community that supports all members. Our members in Stanford’s chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma demonstrate individual intellectual commitment in their schoolwork, extracurriculars, and accolades. The women of our chapter have performed consistently in their coursework, evidenced by our mean chapter grade point average, which has been 3.7 for the past three quarters (we track our members’ GPA on a self-reporting system). To facilitate academic success and exploration, our chapter runs several programs that seek to support our members. The Academic Excellence Committee sets up study sessions in various spaces on campus so members can come together to work and de-stress. Additionally, we maintain a list of our active members’ majors and minors, so that undeclared members can find people within the chapter to reach out to with questions about their coursework and academic goals. We have also started a weekly recognition program for members: each week members nominate another member for an academic accomplishment,and in chapter they are announced and are given a chocolate bar. This past winter quarter, the new Chapter Council began a quarterly program during which members group together and discuss recommended classes, study strategies, and resources available on campus. This Fall quarter, we hosted a career panel during a chapter meeting focused on career experiences of our alumni. The panel hosted five women who have worked or are currently working in venture capital, management consulting, law, software engineering, and education. These women offered advice on beginning one’s career in addition to discussing their experience as women in the workplace. In the future, we hope to co-host a resume/cover letter workshop with BEAM, Stanford’s career center, aswell as, bring in a speaker to discuss time management techniques with our New Members. Through these programs we hope to spur conversations between members about their academic goals and career interests that encourage Kappa’s women to share their intellectual passion with each other. Our members’ majors and extracurricular pursuits bring to life their passions and interests. Our members pursue their commitment to social impact as board members of Stanford Students Social Entrepreneurship Association, tutors in a college preparation course who live in the area, tutors for East Palo Alto Charter School and the East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring program, directors of the philanthropic event Dance Marathon, counselors for Camp Kesem, volunteers for the Stanford Mental Health Outreach, and facilitators for One Love workshops on interpersonal violence. Multiple women in Kappa have held research positions at institutions including the King Institute, the Wernig Stem Cell Lab, Stanford Intelligence Systems Lab, the Stanford Center for Genomics, the Stanford Laboratory for Social Research, the Qi Lab (bioengineering), the Bertozzi Lab, and Ophthalmology Research Assistant at the School of Medicine. Finally, Kappa has three members in the Mayfield Fellowship program, as well as, a Truman Scholar this year. Beta Eta Deuteron’s members also pursue intellectual interests via clubs, like Stanford Women in Business, American Middle Eastern Network for Dialogue at Stanford, Design for America, Smart Women Securities, Stanford Women in CS, Stanford Black Pre-Med Association, and Stanford in Government. Aside from our incredible achievements in scholarship, Stanford Kappa members also have amazing involvements outside of the classroom. In Kappawe have many varsity athletes and varsity captains. In total, fourteen varsity teams arerepresented in Kappa: from Women’s Field Hockey to Tennis to Fencing, just to name a few. In the summer of 2016, we even had two women from the chapter participate in the Rio Summer Olympics-Kassidy Cook (class of 2018) competed in Olympic Diving and Maggie Steffens (class of 2017) competed for her second time in Olympic Women’s Water Polo and received the MVP award. Additionally, Andi Sullivan (Class of 2018) was pulled up in October 2017 to play with the United States Women’s National Soccer Team as the only current collegiate student-athlete in the team. She joins Stanford Kappa Jane Campbell (Class of 2017) on the team. Off the court, Kappas engagein many pre-professional communities. For example, for the 2017 term Ali Eicher (Class of 2018) is the Co-President of Stanford Women in Business and six Vice-Presidents and 3 Directors are Kappas. Additionally, a group of our members including Elizabeth Overton (class of 2018), Liney Smith and Felicia Tissenbaum (both class of 2017) addressed a significant need for female pre-professional clubs by founding a Smart Women Securities chapter at Stanford. In addition to career-driven groups, our members take part in many activist communities addressing race and ethnicity, gender, identity, and intersectionalityon campus. Just to name a few, Kappas are participants and leaders in Girl Up- a UN Foundation, FACES, the Women’s Coalition, the Black Family Gathering Committee, the Clayman Institute, AMENDS, and the Women’s Community. In April of 2016, our member Madeleine Lippey (Class of 2018) brought the Fearless Conference, a student run event encouraging the Stanford community to rewrite and reclaim the conversationaround sexual and intimate partner violence through intersectional, inclusive, and collaborative programming, to campus. Several other members were deeply involved in the organization and production of this event that served the broader undergraduate population. Last year, Alexis Kallen (Class of 2018) served as the Co-Chair of the Scary Path Task Force with Greg Boardman. It has been incredible to see the fruition of all of Alexis’ hard work this year with the finished lit path. Kappa currently has 3 members who are Mayfield Fellows and one member who is a Harry S. Truman Scholar. Finally, Kappas are deeply engaged in the Residential Education community throughout Stanford’s Campus. For the 2017-2018 year, three members are RAs in freshman dorms, two members are RAs in Suites, and five members on staff at French House, 680 Lomita, and Casa Italiana. Please reference Appendix I- Member Extracurricular Involvement 2017 for a complete list of extracurricular organizations in which Kappas hold membership. Although our campus has not undergone and major changes recently, our chapter still remains committed to creating a space where strong women can come and empower one another. We do this by fostering a welcoming community, that is working on our path towards being inclusive for everyone; by supporting our members in their New Members journey to becoming Kappa women; by supporting all of our amazing members in whatever endeavors they undertake, from the classroom, to clubs, to athletics; and by supporting causes that demonstrate our commitment to all women, as can be seen through our extensive philanthropic work. The women of Beta Eta Deuteron are highly accomplished women who never fail to achieve the highest in all aspects of their lives. Our chapter is extremely committed to combining the values and goals of Kappa Kappa Gamma’s national philanthropy mission with the specific interests and passions of women in our Stanford chapter. In 2016, we changed our main philanthropy, because we truly believed that this transition to the Joyful Heart Foundation as a beneficiary is both more in line with our core values and mission as women’s group, and incredibly relevant to campus culture at Stanford today. Our chapter has been really invested in promoting female empowerment. Thorough this recognized passion within our chapter that stemmed from a larger, this year, Stanford Kappa adopted campus sexual assault and intimate partner violence as our primary cause that we support. For this, our chapter launched a fundraising campaign for the Joyful Heart Foundation, a national non-profit organization, founded by Kappa alumnae and Law and Order SVU star Mariska Hargitay, dedicated to empowering, educating, andhealing survivors of sexual assault so that they can reclaim a sense of joy in their lives. Their mission includes dispelling rape myths, hosting survivor healing and trauma care retreats, and putting an end to the backlog of untested rape kits in justice departments around the United States. Our big showcase of our philanthropy efforts for the year was Snowchella, an awareness and benefit concert that we put on with Sigma Nu and the Stanford Concert Network. This year was our first year having a three-way partnership for this event. Prior to the concert wedesigned and sold shirts for the concert where the proceeds were donated to the Joyful Heart Foundation. At the concert itself, we had an all female DJ lineup of The Kemist, Astronautica, and Anna Lunoe to support our message of female empowerment. We sold food and beverages to fundraise, and we had a table dedicated to the Joyful Heart Foundation so that people could come and learn more about the cause and potentiallydonate to our fundraiser. Throughout the concert, our philanthropy chair went on stage to introduce each act and share information about the Joyful Heart Foundation. Before entering the concert, we made sure that everyone was on their best behavior at the concert. Overall, throughout the course of the year we were able to raise almost $20,000 for the Joyful Heart Foundation, and we really succeeded in bringing awareness about sexual assault to our campus in hope of putting an end to it once and for all. Some of our public education and awareness events included: '''Hunting Ground Documentary Screening and Clothing Drive'''-- For this awareness event, we ordered pizzas, and invited members of the Stanford Community to come to Sigma Nu where we were streaming The Hunting Ground, a powerful documentary film about the incidence of sexual assault on college campuses. This documentary really spread awareness about the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses. Additionally, for people to come watch the movie and get pizza, we asked them to bring an article of clothing with them to donate to The Grateful Garment Project. When victims of sexual assault leave the hospital, they often have to leave with hospital gowns since they are forced to use their clothes as evidence in their rape kit. By having clothes donated for them to wear when leaving the hospital, we are able to help return their dignity. '''Philanthropy Day'''-- For this, on a Saturday morning, members of Kappa and Sigma Nu gathered to send emails to friends, families, and localbusiness about donating to our cause. We had an email template drafted that explained everything about the Joyful Heart Foundation and their mission. '''Joyful Heart Dinner''' For this event, we flew a member of the Joyful Heart Foundation, Vaughan Bagely (a Stanford Alumnae), out to come to talk to members of Kappa and Sigma Nu about the foundation and their mission. This really sparked passion in the members of our organization and encouraged them to get more involved in Snowchella and raising money and awareness for the Joyful Heart Foundation. The Joyful Heart Foundation is releasing a movie soon called I am Evidence, which we are hoping to stream for members of the Stanford community sometime this fall! '''VAWA calling'''-- After having the representative from the Joyful Heart Foundation come and speak about the foundation, members of Kappa were eager to learn more about what we can do as students to help end sexual assault and actually make a large impact on the broader community. The representative told us that a big thing we can do is take action by calling our senators to encourage them to vote against the defunding of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). After hearing this, Kappa partnered with Columbae and their political peer accountability programming to host a call center at Mirlo (where a lot of our members live) for members of the Stanford community to come and read a script to let their senators know that they do not support the defunding of VAWA. Many people came from across campus and it felt like we were really starting to make an impact in the broader community. '''SARA Training'''-- After Snowchella, we organized a visit from the SARA office at Sigma Nu where members of Kappa and Sigma Nu received training on how to talk to and respond to victims of sexual assault. They also provided us with information on all of the resources that Stanford has to help victims of sexual assault and the steps that can be taken when someone experiences sexual assault. Some of our fundraising events included: '''Kirk’s Steakburgers Fundraiser'''-For this fundraising event we partnered with a local restaurant to raise money for the Joyful Heart Foundation. The owner kindly agreed to donate 20% of all proceeds after 7:00 P.M. that night to the Joyful Heart Foundation. We made a Facebook event and several members of the Stanford community came out to eat some good food and support our cause. We raise approximately $200 from this. '''Celia’s ‘Unspecial D’ Fundraiser''' For this fundraising event we partnered with a local restaurant to raise money for the Joyful Heart Foundation. We made it an “Unspecial Dinner” where members of Kappa were all allowed to invite a date and come eat some good food with good company. The owner kindly agreed to donate 20% of all proceeds that night to the Joyful Heart Foundation. We had a great turnout, and we were able to raise approximately $455 from this. '''Valentine’s Day Awareness Campaign/Fundraiser''' At a sisterhood event, our organization decorated little boxes of sweethearts and candy bags with facts about the Joyful Heart Foundation and sexual assault and a venmo handle for an optional donation. On Valentine’s Day, we had members of Kappa hand out the candy at White Plaza in order to collect additional donations and raise money and awareness for the JHF. We ended up raising about $400 dollars through this. '''Parents Weekend Brunch''' On Parent’s Weekend, Kappa decided to host a brunch at Narnia for our families. We charged $10 a person for the brunch. In order to save money and have more money to donate to the Joyful Heart Foundation, we had several of our members volunteer to go early to cook the food and set the tables. The parents loved having this opportunity to eat brunch amongst other Kappa members and their families. Overall this event was a huge success and we raised upwards of $800. We also reached out to Stanford organizations as well as local businesses for funding, support, and general co-sponsorships.
As mentioned above, we have chosen to support the Joyful Heart Foundation as our main philanthropic endeavor because we feel it aligns with both Kappa's goal of empowering women, and is highly relevant in the campus climate that we live in today. Moving forward, we are excited to continue this marry our national organization’s philanthropic endeavors with our chapter’s deeply rooted interest in sexual violence prevention, gender, identity, and intersectionality.
'''==Highlights of 2018:=='''
2018 was another great year for the Beta Eta Deuteron chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma! Our members continue to succeed in different ways on campus and in the world – they never fail to amaze us. Our strong internal culture and bond is accented by Kappa members’ extensive involvement in the larger Stanford atmosphere. We are proud to house members involved across campus, specifically on national championship-winning sports teams, presidents of business organizations, teaching assistants for classes, and more. One of our members was even named a Rhodes Scholar, and is currently studying abroad in Oxford, England! Our chapter at Stanford continued to work on various initiatives, namely supporting women’s empowerment and diversity & inclusion. We are pleased to note that due to our emphasis on diversity & inclusion, headquarters has made it a formal chapter council position that will now be implemented in all chapters across the nation. Léa Koob, our president this year, helped draft the proposal for this change at the fraternity’s National Convention in June. We are so excited for future members in this role as Diversity & Inclusion (D & I) chairman to have more support and guidance from fraternity headquarters. This year, we held four chapter meetings focusing on these important topics. Our D & I committee focused on issues like the history of exclusion in Greek Life and implicit bias. Through these workshops, we strive to better ourselves as a chapter, making sure all members, and all future members, will be comfortable in our chapter. We emphasized implicit bias training early in the year, in order to have this be a continuing discussion, not just something we focus on during recruitment. On October 29th of this year, one of our members, Tatie Balabanis, led the chapter through an activity of a class of which she is a teaching assistant (Psychology 103 – Intergroup Communication). In this activity, called an “identity walk,” we focused on exploring the different identities that members of our chapter value and had an open discussion about what some of these various identities mean to members of our chapter. Overall, it was a very successful year of action and conversation surrounding D & I within our chapter and within the broader community at Stanford. We are excited to continue to push these inclusivity efforts and strive for equity in our chapter and our university.
Our chapter feels just as good about our efforts in furthering our women’s empowerment initiatives as well. This is at the center of Kappa’s core values, and we pride ourselves on being a group of capable, passionate, and confident women. We aim to make a positive impact in the world, maintaining a constant focus on women’s empowerment. We do this through various initiatives internally, such as recognition programs at chapter meetings. Our chapter implemented programs such as KKGenius and Support a Sister to reward our members for their excellence inside and outside of the classroom. During the week, members are encouraged to nominate fellow sisters for their accomplishments, be it academic, athletic, or simply for being a strong and supportive sister. Members who are nominated are acknowledged and awarded during chapter meetings that week. Our chapter aims to create a cohesive and friendly environment within Kappa that allows all of our sisters to feel comfortable, and hopefully build on one another’s strengths, inspiring individual achievements in all areas of our members’ lives. Additionally, as a chapter we have tried to focus more of our philanthropic endeavors to help support our goal of empowering women in the broader community, we have seen our chapter used as an incredible platform for our members to accomplish positive change and have their voices heard in the community on campus. Our fraternity has tried to bring together our national philanthropy, Reading is Key, and our passion for addressing women’s issues and bringing awareness to sexual assault. This year, we have been intentional in bridging these two important causes. We planned an annual Reading is Key event, where we read and gave books to children of a local women’s shelter, in addition to brining toiletry kits to the women at the shelter. Our chapter is dedicated to both the fraternity’s national philanthropy and Beta Eta’s chosen philanthropy, Joyful Heart Foundation. At the 2018 National Convention, our chapter was recognized and awarded with the Signature Philanthropy Award (for the second year in a row)!
'''Convention AwardsChanges on campus and the chapter’s overall nature:'''
As part of the broader conversations currently being raised on campus, as discussed above, our chapter focused on thoroughly engaging with our D & I chair and committee over the course of the year. We want to make sure that our chapter reflects the community we are surrounded by on campus here at Stanford. This has changed the nature of the chapter for the better, as we have held several educational events about diversity and inclusion, especially before Recruitment. We have really worked to make our chapter of Kappa as accessible as possible to women in the Stanford community, especially regarding finances.
Our chapter is one of the most accessible in this respect for all members of the Stanford community, something we are very proud of.