Difference between revisions of "Eta Zeta"

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Eta Zeta
HZ
Founded	November 17, 2001 (2001-11-17) (23 years ago)
College	John Carroll University
Location	University Heights, OH
Homepage	Eta Zeta Homepage
Media related to Eta Zeta Chapter

John Carroll University (formerly St. Ignatius College) established in 1886 in Cleveland, Ohio; later moved to University Heights, Ohio

Chapter founded November 17, 2001 - 27 charter members

328 initiates (as of June 2018)

Some of Eta Zeta’s Outstanding Alumnae

Fraternity Officers:

Loyalty Award Recipient:

Alumnae Achievement Award Recipients:

History John Carroll University[edit]

John Carroll University, one of 28 colleges and universities operated in the United States by the Society of Jesus, was founded as St. Ignatius College in 1886. It has been in continuous operation as a degree-granting institution since that time.

In 1923 the College was renamed John Carroll University, after the first archbishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. In 1935 it was moved from its original location on the West Side of Cleveland to its present site in University Heights, a suburb 10 miles east of downtown Cleveland.

In September 1968 the University made the transition from full-time male enrollment to a fully coeducational institution as women were admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences for the first time. Currently more than 3,300 undergraduates call John Carroll University home.

Highlights of 2001-2010[edit]

Colonization and Installation

Eta Zeta Chapter became the first Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter of the new millennium on November 17, 2001. Located in University Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Eta Zeta is proud to have been the first National Panhellenic Conference group to be installed on campus. "Eta Zeta was colonized on October 21, 2001, after a successful match with Kappa Gamma Delta, a local group founded in 1998. The 27 charter members were initiated and Eta Zeta Chapter was installed by Fraternity President Ann Stafford Truesdell. Fraternity officers assisting with the weekend activities were Director of Membership Martha Allen Kumler, Ohio State; Chairman of Extension Carol George Sanders, Cal. State Northridge; Regional Director of Chapters Susie Eynatten Hughes, Missouri; Coordinator of Chapter Development Jill Hughes Mealy, Akron; Gamma Province Directors of Chapters Joni Manos Brown, Ohio Wesleyan, and Mindy Moellering, Miami; Leadership Consultant Kylee Deterding, Iowa State; Chapter Consultant Ruchi Karla, Westminster; and Executive Director Lila A. Isbell, Montana.

Kappa Chapter at Hillsdale College served as the Key Sister chapter for Eta Zeta during the weekend activities, while members from Ohio State, Akron; and Ohio Wesleyan, also participated."

Chapter Consultant Ruchi Kalra served as resident adviser to the chapter while pursuing a graduate degree at JCU. Jill Hughes Mealy, Coordinator of Chapter Development, was responsible for recruiting chapter Advisers and House Board members.

The Cleveland and Cleveland West Shore Alumnae Associations presented the chapter with the President’s Badge while countless associations and chapters within the Province sent greetings and gifts for the chapter. Especially significant was the quilt prepared by Lambda—Akron, that resembled one hanging in their chapter house.

One of the chapter goals for 2004–05 was to gain a greater appreciation of chapter and Fraternity history. We continue to display our scrapbook during Recruitment and other all-Greek Recruitment events. As part of the New Member program, the Registrar and Education chairman plan an interactive workshop on chapter and Fraternity heritage. There is also an archives display of chapter awards, past issues of The Key, the scrapbook, the New Member Signature book, the Songs of Kappa Kappa Gamma book, and more. In addition, the chapter holds birthday parties with cupcakes and brownies to celebrate Founder’s Day and the installation of Eta Zeta. 

In spring 2005, the chapter hosted the Gamma Province Meeting at John Carroll and met women from nearby Kappa chapters, as well as worked with the Cleveland Alumnae Association. Province Meeting was a beautiful affair and everyone from the chapter benefited from the programs presented as well as acquired leadership skills from helping to plan and host the event.

Eta Zeta was proud to be recognized for the highest GPA of all Greek organizations on campus. With a chapter average of 3.31, Eta Zeta exceeded the all-sorority average of 3.13. This was especially significant because we have been working to increase our academic excellence program for the past few years. We have instituted regular study tables and awards for members who make special effort to improve their academics.

In addition, Eta Zeta was honored with the Spirit Award during Greek Week. John Carroll instituted several big changes to the structure of Greek Week, but the Kappa women remained positive throughout the week and did not let it get in the way of having a great time. Eta Zeta members were present at every event held that week and showed support, not only for competing Kappas, but for all the Greek participants.

The New Member chairman made important changes in the way Key sisters were selected and made the workshops presented during the New Member period more interactive and interesting. Also, our Marshal instituted special Kore group activities to integrate the new members with the actives and let everyone get to know each other better before Initiation. These included things such as T-shirt making and a craft night. Thanks to these changes, we feel that our Initiation was one of the most meaningful that we’ve had, both to the newly initiated members and the actives.

One of the biggest challenges that Eta Zeta faced during this year was planning ahead and reorganizing the chapter due to the fact that half of its members would be graduating in May 2006. The chapter is currently holding strong at 50 members, one of the largest chapter's on JCU's campus, but 23 are graduating seniors. In order to offset this, the women of Eta Zeta worked very hard this past year to make the transition as smooth as possible. To get the numbers up for formal recruitment, one of our own members headed a Greek marketing committee to educate the campus about sororities. In addition to the strategies enacted by Panhellenic, the women of Eta Zeta did their best to attend and help with as many campus events as possible, such as Little Sibs Weekend, Project H.O.P.E. and Cultivating Community. Our Recruitment was successful as well. Eta Zeta was more prepared for the challenges that go along with fall Recruitment, which resulted in fantastic return rates for the week—100 percent, 98 percent, 92 percent and 81 percent for each day respectively. We selected 11 new members through formal Recruitment. Finally, Chapter Council positions were combined and chapter concerns were raised to the Leadership Consultant who helped educate the chapter on strategies to take changes in stride.

Another challenge the chapter faced was trying to organize a large, campus-wide philanthropy event. Eta Zeta has done many small service and fundraising projects but really wanted to get the Kappa name out there with a highly publicized event that all students could take part in. The challenge was met, in part, in September at JCU's Homecoming football game. Eta Zeta hosted a Balloon Pop, selling balloons with raffle tickets inside, to raise money for Kappa Kidney Camp and RIF. The women walked through the street fair and stood outside the gates of the stadium to sell balloons to students and parents, and raised almost $300. We hope that this event will continue to grow.

On Founders day we worked with the Cleveland Alumnae Association, which granted the chapter a scholarship, and our charter was presented to our chapter President.

Once again, Eta Zeta was proud to be recognized as having the highest GPA of all Greek organizations on campus. Eta Zeta exceeded the all-sorority average of 3.13. In addition, Kappa Kappa Gamma was honored with the Spirit Award during Greek Week festivities. Also, for the fourth year in a row, the women of Eta Zeta were victorious in the Lip Sync Event.

The New Member retreat at Lambda—Akron allowed for the new girls to break out of their shells and experience what it would be like to have Greek Housing. Along with that, positive strides have been made in instituting all-Greek dorms on campus.

In the spring, “Kappa Kisses” candy was sold for Valentine’s Day in the student center to raise money for Kappa Kidney Kamp, a philanthropy of Gamma Province. A Valentine’s Date Party held at McNulty’s in Coventry saw pink and red dresses as everyone danced the night away! Also, the majority of Kappas drove downtown Cleveland and went to a Cavs game together. We also enjoyed Black Tie Bowling with Delta Tau Delta Fraternity—The ladies of Kappa dressed in black-tie attire and went bowling with the fraternity members. Through a book drive we collected 27 books that were donated to Miles Park Elementary School in Cleveland.

At the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, Kappas helped with whitewashing walls, raking leaves and other volunteer activities. The Sapphire Ball took place at the Hilton Inn in Beachwood. The ladies of Eta Zeta had dinner and danced the night away. The lip sync routine was performed for the enjoyment of others.

Project H.O.P.E. allowed members to be “buddied up” with students with disabilities for games, sports and dancing. Others worked the booths putting on the games. In the fall, chapter members participated in Involvement Fair with a booth and talked to first-year students about the perks of getting involved in Greek Life. Members also served the people of Cleveland at a food bank downtown for a several hours.

Informal Recruitment resulted in six new members. Kappa dinners were held with the girls as well as other activities to get to know them better. The ladies of Eta Zeta decorated a golf cart with the theme “Kappa Candyland” and drove it in the parade. Candy was handed out to the residents of University Heights as well as to students.

For Founders Day, chapter members traveled to a country club in Shaker Heights to meet local Kappa alumnae for good food, company and songs. Eta Zeta went to a haunted house off campus for some fun and bonding time with the new members. Before heading out, pumpkins were decorated. For nine hours, Kappas spent time with the people of St. Malachi House and St. Herman’s House of Hospitality by serving food and visiting the residents. Other volunteer work included Through the Eyes of a Child—an on-campus philanthropy in which inner-city students participate in a day of Christmas activities. Chapter members ran a jewelry-making booth for 3 hours.

Spring semester began with a philanthropy event at the Hospice. The ladies of Eta Zeta lifted the spirits of the residents with bingo, pizza and cookies. A sisterhood event with the title “Old School Valentine’s Day Party” allowed Eta Zeta to welcome its newest member with pizza, cake and Valentine’s for all.

From kickball to the car push, talent show to lip-sync, the ladies of Eta Zeta showed the campus community their pride and spirit during Greek Week. The week ended with John Carroll’s first ever Relay for Life. Eta Zeta walked throughout what proved to be an inspirational and emotional evening with one of the largest groups participating. The ladies of Eta Zeta also took a field trip to the Great Lakes Science Center.

Eta Zeta ended the academic year with the annual reading day picnic. This offered the ladies an opportunity to hang out and relieve some stress before finals. It was also our last opportunity to spend time with those who would graduate in May. The second Dance Marathon Car wash was held at a nearby gas station. The girls enjoyed the sun as they raised money for the upcoming campus Dance Marathon.

The ladies of Eta Zeta retreated to the Carroll Lodge for some bonding, reflection and preparation before formal Recruitment. Formal recruitment had the theme “I dream of Kappa.” We received nine fabulous young ladies. Informal Recruitment gave us a chance to snatch two more amazing ladies for the fall 2007 new member class.

The ladies off Eta Zeta hosted their first annual Dance Marathon. With the invitation extended to the entire campus community, we all gathered to dance, play games, listen to bands, and raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Eta Zeta also participated in Delta Tau Delta’s first kickball tournament for charity. The Kappa Kousin Event was a night spent playing trivia games and new members bonding and getting to know the active members better.

The Key sister event involved new members and their key sisters coming together for a progressive dinner that included appetizers, dinner and dessert at different locations. Blue and Blue Desserts was a treat—Kappa’s hosted a dessert party for the new members before Initiation. Desserts ranged from cookies to blue Jell-O with gummy fish. Post initiation all the girls gathered and watched the Ohio State vs. Michigan game at an active’s house for a sisterhood event. An active co-founded “Every 2 Minutes”— an all-female, sexual-assault prevention peer education group. A total of 27 members made the Dean’s List; one member was named Greek Leader of The Year and JCU 2008 Student Leader of The Year.

Eta Zeta was proud to be recognized as having the second highest GPA of all all greek organizations on campus. The women of Eta Zeta also exceeded the all-sorority average on campus. We continue to hold a reputation of scholarship and sincere dedication to studies. We continued the use of our library log and other awards for members who make special effort to improve their academics. The Vice President of Academic Excellence continued the newly created “Fleur de A’s and B’s” program, which tracks when members receive an A or B on an exam or big paper/project. At the end of the semester, those with 15 or more fleur-de-lis stamps receive a prize.

During Greek Week, Kappa was honored with the Scholarship Award, Philanthropy Award, Alumna of the Year award, and Greek Leader of the Year award. And, Eta Zeta was the 2008 Greek Week Champion.

During formal Recruitment, our Recruitment Chairmen did a great job of showing potential new members what being in Kappa is all about. We were so excited to gain 10 great new members. At informal Recruitment we hosted an ice cream social, where we were able to get to know girls who were interested in Eta Zeta. We were delighted to gain another four new members.

Kappa Kappa Gamma placed first in the Greek Week talent show!The women of Eta Zeta were present at every event held that week and showed support, not only for competing Kappas, but for all the Greek men and women participating. Kappa also had one of the largest groups participating in John Carroll’s second annual Relay for life, which served as the conclusion of Greek week. In January, the ladies hosted the second Dance Marathon. The night was filled with raffle drawing, great food, live performances, and tons of fun. The ladies raised an approximate grand total of 1,000 dollars for Reading Is Fundamental.

Our chapter also takes particular pride in our New Member Program. Our Marshal and New Member chairwoman worked together to create special Kore group activities to integrate the new members in with the actives and let everyone get to know each other better before Initiation. These activities included painting Kappa crafts, a night of trivia games and a dinner with their Key sisters.

Fall 2009 was a semester of firsts for our chapter. This semester was the first time the ladies of Eta Zeta had our very own sorority floor. Our House chairmen worked hard and decorated the floor with light and dark blue colors. Eta Zeta was proud to have 17 members live on the floor where we could bond and celebrate sisterhood more often. Eta Zeta also hosted its first ever Stop the Bop on campus in October. The ladies spent numerous days playing Hanson’s “Mmm Bop” song until people gave enough money to have the bop stop. The ladies raised a total of $500 for our philanthropy.

Although Eta Zeta is a fairly small chapter with 41 active members, we are one of the largest Greek organizations on campus. We take pride in the fact that the members of our chapter are all extremely involved in other organizations and clubs on campus, and often hold leadership positions. Some of these organizations include Phi Eta Sigma, CLC, Lamda Pi Eta, Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society, Dance Ensemble, Dance Team, Cheerleading Squad, Student Union, Golf Team, Student Union Programming Board, Lacrosse, Field Hockey, Arrupe Scholar, Orientation Staff, Two minutes, Student Today Leaders Forever, and Circle K International service organization.

Eta Zeta celebrated its ninth anniversary of its installation on November 18th, 2009. One challenge our chapter faced this past year was chapter unity. We instituted the “Blind Dates” and “Hoots and Salutes.” Both of these increased sisterhood and brought us to regularly recognize each others’ achievements. Also this was not our easiest semester. This last semester, John Carroll University experienced two suicides within weeks of each other. It was a hard experience for all of us and having the unity and sisterhood of our sorority was comforting. Also, by having our floor, which includes a study lounge, we were able to watch our favorite TV shows together, have move nights and conduct our chapter council meetings there. This helped us create a tighter bond of sisterhood.

At the 2010 General Convention, Eta Zeta received the Excellence in Chapter Management Award as well as Honorable Mention in Finance, Recruitment and Panhellenic. Our visiting Leadership Consultant noticed our excellence, but also left us with information to help us improve. After meeting with all the officers, we were able to adjust our Kore Groups and learn more about our responsibilities.

2010 proved to be a challenging year. Eta Zeta was recognized as having the fourth highest sorority GPA out of the five sororities. However the women of Eta Zeta exceeded the all-student average GPA on campus. This was a significant honor because we are constantly working to increase our academic excellence program. We had regular study tables throughout the spring semester and continued the use of our library log, and awards for members who make special effort to improve their academics throughout the entire year.

During Formal Recruitment this Fall semester, our Chapter got the largest pledge class, 14 new members, in Eta Zeta history. Our Recruitment Chairman did a great job organizing the weekend and showing potential new members what being in Kappa is all about. We were excited to be above chapter total.

This year Kappa Kappa Gamma placed first in the Greek Week talent show for the second year in a row! Our chapter’s representative won the Honorable Woman Award at the end of the week. Kappa also had one of the largest groups participating in John Carroll's third annual Relay for life, which served as the conclusion of Greek week.

This past year we created a new event to raise money for RIF. We had a pasta dinner, called KAPPASTAfor the John Carroll Students and community. With raffles, tons of food, live performances, the night turned out to be a lot of fun. The event was successful and we were able to do it twice within the year, raising close to $2,500 for Reading Is Fundamental. The chapter also won “Tug of War” for the second year in a row, as well as the prestigious campus Talent Show again.

Chapter Convention Awards: 2010: Excellence in Chapter Management; Honorable Mention in Finance, Recruitment and Panhellenic

Highlights of 2011 - 2019:[edit]

Highlights (scholarship, group honors/awards, special events, philanthropy and service projects, etc.):

Highlights of 2011[edit]

The Eta Zeta chapter has celebrated multiple landmarks this past year. We celebrated its tenth anniversary of our charter at John Carroll University. Our chapter also had something to celebrate in our successful academics. Our chapter had the most improved GPA from Spring to Fall Semesters 2011. Eta Zeta has achieved a higher GPA average than the all-campus GPA average and female all-campus GPA average.

Kappa also has the more members in the Order of Omega Society than any other organization along with having the newly elected Order of Omega President as one of our members. Two of our sisters also served on the board of the organization. When our LC visited in the fall semester she recognized the great strides that this chapter has made along with providing many suggestions that have been very helpful in the leadership of our chapter. Several suggestions helped us in updating our Standing Rules and Bylaws, which have been written by our new Chapter Council and will soon be voted on. All of our members were able to meet with her and enjoyed hearing about the various chapters across the nation and learning from both her experiences and her knowledge of the general Fraternity.

Because of Eta Zeta's great success in formal recruitment in the Fall of 2010, our chapter met the campus member quota and thus did not do informal recruitment in the Spring semester. Formal Recruitment this past Fall 2011 semester was another historic landmark for Eta Zeta, as we "Welcomed to our Masterpiece" 17 new members which was the most Eta Zeta has ever welcomed from Formal Recruitment and the highest amount initiated out of the four other sororities on campus.

Current members were very successful in demonstrating Kappas' balance among members, sisterhood, and overall pride in the chapter and Fraternity. Our New Member Chair organized events for the chapter for the actives and new members to socialize and bond, including crafting embellished cork boards, painting pumpkins, and decorating T-Shirts. New Members were also able to bond with each other at meals, a New Member retreat, and sleep-overs on the floor. Current members took new members on "dates" to get to know one another better and strengthen the bond between actives and New Members.

At our third annual Fall philanthropy event, Kappasta, the chapter raised $1,300 by serving fellow students, faculty, staff, family, and community members an all you can eat pasta dinner and a raffle with wonderful donated prizes such as a Kindle. One of our senior members played the piano throughout the event and a campus acapella group performed. The chapter decided to donate 80% of this money to Reading is Fundamental and the remaining 20% to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. It was a great success. Greek Week is always a heavily anticipated event for the Greeks at John Carroll. Our chapter won Second Place overall, First Place in Talent Show, Fourth Place in Lip Sync, and succeeded in many other activities throughout the week. Greek Week was a great opportunity for our sisterhood to bond in a very strong and unique way and work together as a whole in support of each other as well as the other organizations. At the conclusion of Greek Week, the John Carroll University campus hosted Relay for Life, which our chapter was heavily involved in.

In our fundraising at the event we raised over $1,000 for the Relay Community. Throughout the long hours into the night we continued to support the other Greek and non-Greek organizations present at the event. Our chapter was also pleased to be able to mix with all three fraternities on campus, as well as a date party in the Spring and Sapphire Ball, our annual Spring Formal.

Campus: John Carroll University's campus is 60 acres large and is located in the suburban community of University Heights, outside of Clevaland Ohio. John Carroll is a Jesuit University that celebrated its 125 Anniversary this fall. John Carroll has 3,000 full-time Undergraduate Students and 700 Graduate Students, this small atmosphere creates a very distinct community feeling, that our chapter is honored to be a part of. Greek Life only represents about 13% of the student body, but is steadily growing and gaining notoriety in the community.

Members of Greek Life share a common and special bond, of which enriches the lives of all Eta Zeta members. The majority of students study Business and Science or Technology but also has programs available in the Social Sciences, Humanities and Education. Our chapter is among the 100-plus recognized organizations on campus and many of our members are involved in at least one of these organizations.

Immersion trips and opportunities to study abroad are plentiful at John Carroll which our members take full advantage of, although we miss them dearly while they are away.

A very important aspect of John Carroll is our Jesuit heritage, the Jesuit ideal of "men and women for others" is definitely noticeable in all students, particularly within our sisterhood. Because of our Jesuit identity there are many service opportunities. For example, every week John Carroll has an event called Labre where students go out into the Cleveland neighborhood and serve food to the homeless. Kappas often go together on the service trip and help to better the community that we live in, better our chapter, and more importantly better ourselves.

Chapter: Currently the Eta Zeta Chapter has 51 active members, seventeen of which were initiated this fall. This is also our second year of having a floor completely devoted to Kappa members to live on. This floor has two lounges that serve as places for members to hang out together or study, these lounges are often used for sisterhood events. The majority of sisters live on this floor, but sisters who do not, including new members, have access to the floor so it is a place for all of the sisters to enjoy. Our chapter has been led by seven amazing seniors, who will be missed but all sisters are looking forward to them starting the next stage of their lives.

Chapter Council was pleased to have a Kappa Trainer lead our Officer Transitions. The trainer was very valuable in helping us understand and how to live by the Kappa values and helped us establish and plan goals to be accomplished in the future. The entire chapter is constantly developing closer bonds with our advisors and feel comfortable going to our advisors for assistance and resources on how to improve. The members of Eta Zeta proudly represent Kappa in Student Organizations and jobs across the John Carroll community including academic societies, sports (intramural, club, and varsity), Student Union, Residence Life, Student Union Programming Board, and Campus Ministry.

We are especially proud to have a member of Kappa currently serve as Panhellenic President. Our chapter is constantly looking ways to strengthen our sisterhood from eating together in the Cafeteria to off-campus events such as ice skating, to visiting the near by Akron chapter. Kappas are involved in a lot of activities but at the end of the day we all do our best to make time for one another and enjoy all the time we can spend together.

Our Chapter is proud to have accomplished our goals from the previous year, but are constantly looking to improve ourselves in every way possible. This year we have focused greatly at perfecting our ritual ceremonies. In addition to our monthly ritual rehearsal, we also practice songs and XXXXX throughout the month. We were very fortunate to have two ladies from Head Quarters attend our initiation, which motivated all the members to represent Eta Zeta as well as possible. Kappa members are constantly looking for more ways to strengthen our sisterhood. Before formal recruitment, active members went on a sisterhood retreat and through tears brought members together even more than possible. Through philanthropy events, meals, Super Bowl parties, and many more activities are sisters are given opportunities to get to know one another more and create lasting memories. One issue brought to the attention of our chapter was improving our Risk Management skills and emphasizing the current values of our chapter and the fraternity at large. Our Chapter Council has recently revised our By-Laws and Standing Rules to be more understandable to members and prevent future problems.

Highlights of 2012[edit]

The Eta Zeta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma continues to be involved in campus and community events while always maintaining the ideals that define our fraternity. The year of 2012 has kept us very busy. Achieving the highest sorority GPA on John Carroll campus, our sisters have shown great dedication and importance to education. Collectively, we achieved a GPA of 3.26 during the spring of 2012. We keep a Kappademics binder in our campus library to log study hours as a way to encourage each other to strive for academic excellence.

Our chapter was very enthusiastic about winning Greek week. It was an exciting time and we enjoyed coming together as sisters to compete for the championship. Our chapter was also very excited to accept 20 new members into our fraternity.

Our 2012 president, Rebecca Magyar, attended the bi-annual Convention this past summer. Our chapter received a Standards award for chapters with fewer than 75 members. We also received honorable mention in three categories: most improved academic excellence award, academic excellence award, and recruitment award. These last three categories were all for the five or fewer Panhellenic group category.

At John Carroll University, Greek life is a very open community. Eta Zeta wears its letters on Tuesdays. This is one of the favorite traditions that have been going on for quite a while. Every year right after recruitment, new members go on a retreat to get to know their pledge class better and to learn Kappa songs in order to promote sisterhood. This retreat is usually held at a sister’s house. A new tradition started by our Greek Life director this year was a Panhel and IFC retreat. All new members were mandated to be at a Saturday training where they learned about Greek life at JCU and had the opportunity to bond with new members from other fraternities and sororities.

Sisterhood events have frequently been a favorite. This past year, we held over a dozen sisterhood activities. In the spring, we had a superbowl party on our floor, as well as a movie night off campus. On another night, we made crafts together. We also had our annual end-of-the-year Reading Day picnic at a sister’s house. Eta Zeta had Blue and Blue, Owl Pal, and Kappa Kousin which were nights that new members spent with older sisters to get to know them better. We also had a Pumpkin picking event around Halloween where we bought small and big pumpkins and came back to our KKG floor to paint and decorate them. Towards the end of fall semester, we each brought our own clothes in to decorate and held a Kappa Klothes night. We spray painted our clothes with different shades of blue and made ourselves more letters. We enjoyed a Kappa Christmas party where we ate a nice variety of food, made KKG ornaments and had a Christmas clothes contest. A special event that Greek life holds each year is the Greek Thanksgiving. All the fraternities and sororities get together to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal together, encouraging inter-fraternal relationships. At the dinner, we also held a canned food drive in which each chapter competed to bring the most cans. We enjoyed our date party in the fall with the theme of “Guys in Ties, Girls in Pearls.” It was a fun night to spend with sisters and some friends.

Philanthropic involvement is frequently seen in our Kappa activities. Our biggest event was our annual Kappasta which is a spaghetti dinner we sponsor. All of the proceeds go to Kappa Kidney Camp. Seven baskets were donated by parents, businesses and Kappa sisters to be raffled off. By the end of the night, we raised $1631.62. A group of our sisters were invited to volunteer a few hours at Ronald McDonald where they spent some time with families who had loved ones in the neighboring hospital. Hugs for Heroes is another philanthropy we like to be involved with. We gathered in our lounge one night and wrote letters to soldiers overseas. In the spring semester, we participated in Relay for Life, for which we teamed up and walked to raise money for those suffering from cancer. Some Kappas also decorated cookies that were given to a homeless shelter as a way to lift their spirits and give back to the community. We also volunteered at a Cleveland Battered Women's shelter.

Eta Zeta completed an Action Plan for 2012 covering four different categories: Intellectual Development, Leadership and Skill Building, Understanding and Appreciation of Kappa, and Interpersonal Development. For the academics category, our chapter made the goal to improve our floor in order to have a more study-friendly atmosphere. We also wanted to improve our Academics Program to combat procrastination. Under Leadership and Skill Building, we decided to focus on committee involvement and improving the efficiency of chapter meetings. We wanted to involve our committees more, prioritize our business, and review Robin’s Rules and update the way Chapter is run. To enhance our understanding and appreciation of Kappa, focus was placed on heritage and ritual. Eta Zeta aspired to hold program nights that focused on the history of Kappa and Eta Zeta, and expose chapter members to the Ritual book. To enhance our interpersonal development, our chapter wanted to focus on unity, sisterhood, risk management, and attendance. We did this by reviewing Kappa’s policies and standards, creating a buddy system for the entire year, holding sisterhood retreats every semester, and inviting speakers to address Risk Management issues.

One of the challenges we always face is transitions. It’s a difficult time because some of the positions are filled with new members who are the least familiar with Chapter Council. As we do every year, the outgoing and incoming officers schedule a meeting time with the adviser to discuss the transition. The outgoing officers are responsible for training the new officers, so there is constant communication between them to ensure a smooth transition.

Kappa Kappa Gamma likes to be supportive of all other Greeks on campus, so we attend as many other philanthropy events of our fellow Greeks as we can. The Greek presidents on campus are in great communication with each other and inform each other when philanthropy events are taking place.

John Carroll has had one of its main quads closed off for a few years. This past summer, the quad was finished and is now open to student use. A memorial fountain from the class of 1956 was just completed this past fall and built by our business school. The fountain is gorgeous and the tiling around it was also re-done. Our chapter donated a brick to the construction of this project. The lacrosse team went Varsity and looks forward to their first season this upcoming spring. One of the dorms was renovated on campus and is open for upper classmen housing. JCU has also decided to renovate one of the dorms this summer. It is the largest freshman dorm on campus and it will be closed for the next school year. With housing being limited, the Kappa floor is required to make some changes and accept non-Kappas on to the floor. We are currently unsure what this will look like, but as a chapter, we will be supportive of each other and embrace these changes with a continuous positive and encouraging attitude.

Highlights of 2013[edit]

During 2013 the Eta Zeta chapter at John Carroll University has worked hard to meet our goals set in place by our chapter council members at the beginning of the year. We hoped to have a better understanding of ritual and chapter heritage, improve involvement or inclusion of non-chapter council members, to better our New Member Program, and to continue to maintain strong academic standards.

We improved our understanding of ritual in the spring by having monthly reviews, going over elements of ritual that needed improvement, appropriate dress for formal chapter, and Robert’s Rules of Order.

To improve involvement of all members, we held many sisterhood and social events. In the spring, we held a Super Bowl mixer with fraternity Beta Theta Pi, a cookout mixer with fraternity Sigma Phi Epsilon, a formal date dance called the Sapphire Ball, and mixed with many different chapters on campus during Greek Week to get spirited for events. In the fall we held a mixer with fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha, a Disney themed date party, and a semi-formal Great Gatsby themed date party.

To build sisterhood, we had a Kappa Emmaus Retreat, where we spent a weekend at an off campus house doing bonding activities, allowing us to become even closer as a chapter. Along with that, we took a trip to Patterson’s Fruit Farm for apple picking, had a Christmas Party, many mani/pedi and movie nights on the floor, and a picnic at the end of the spring semester. Also, every week in chapter we passed along a journal with a letter in it from one sister to another, and passed along a blue bra to any sister in need of support. We raised $1550 for Reading is Fundamental by hosting Kappasta, a spaghetti dinner on campus. We also sent 40 Christmas cards to deployed soldiers, made blankets for Labre through the Linus Project, made Christmas cards with buddies at Through the Eyes of a Child, participated in Relay for Life and Danie’s Day at JCU, and mandated a five hour service requirement for each sister.

This year we improved our New Member Program by making it more involved and giving the New Members more opportunities to get to know the sisters. Fall formal recruitment was September 20-22, and we met our quota of 20 New Members, also holding a 100% retention rate from Friday to Saturday. Shortly after formal recruitment our cap was raised to 64 women, and we picked up two more New Members through informal recruitment, making it the largest pledge class in Eta Zeta history. After recruitment, we had many events such as a Kappa and Co. themed bid day celebration, Owl Pal, where we painted pumpkins, Kappa Kousin, where we made key chains, a speed-dating night with the sisters on the floor, a New Member retreat, a bonding activity with each academic class, weekly New Member dinners, a big/little reveal, eight New Member presentations, and a Meet the Advisers night. On November 17, 2013 we initiated 22 New Members, including three legacies.

Our chapter has also been able to maintain our strong academic standards, by earning an average 3.26 GPA for the Spring 2013 semester and a 3.22 GPA for the Fall 2013 semester. We began weekly drawings for small prizes for any sister who has earned an A or B on an assignment, and offering a gift card to the sister with the most hours spent in the library at the end of each semester.

Another aspect of our chapter we worked on improving was Panhellenic involvement. This year, three of our members were Pi Chi’s during formal recruitment, one of them being Pi Chi Director. Also, one of our members was Vice President of Programming for Panhel.

As a chapter, we received two Province awards, the Standards and Advisory Program awards, as well as an honorable mention for Public Relations. We were also the John Carroll Greek Week champions for the second year in a row.

This past year, one of the largest freshmen dorms has been under construction for renovation, which has limited on campus housing, requiring us to allow non-Kappas on the floor. We were all accepting of this change, and friendly and supportive of each other and the new girls on the floor. Next year, all of the Greek organizations will live in the same building. It is the building in which we already live, so we will not have to move our floor. We are looking forward to sharing a building with the other chapters at John Carroll and hopeful that this will allow us to grow closer with them.

Highlights of 2014[edit]

The Eta Zeta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma continues to uphold standards and values of the fraternity through community service, sisterhood, and campus involvement. The year of 2014 has kept us very occupied. Our sisters achieved the highest sorority GPA at John Carroll. We achieved a GPA of 3.28 and moved from being ranked 3 to 1 out of the 5 sororities on campus. To encourage members to go study and dedicate themselves, we had programs that included the Kappa Library Log and Rate my Professor. The Kappa Fridge was created as a rewards program to help motivate girls in their academic studies.

To improve sisterhood, Kappa held many philanthropy and social events. Philanthropic involvement is frequently seen in our Kappa activities. To start off the year, Kappa members participated in Danie’s Day and led a fingerprint art station for the kids and their buddies. Kappas participate in Labre, going downtown to feed the homeless in Cleveland. Another off campus activity was going to the Montefiore Purim Festival where participants played games and did other activities at a nursing home. Kappa Kappa Gamma donated to Kappa Kidney Camp and Kappa Foundation. The Events chairman set up many events held throughout the year. Kappas did a tie-dye mixer with Delta Tau Delta, following a mixer with Chi Omega at a pottery-painting studio. Pre Greek Week activities, members mixed with 3 other fraternities and sororities. The Great Gatsby semi-formal was held in the Spring of 2014. Sapphire Ball was in early April. In the fall, Kappa had a fun campfire mixer with Lambda Chi Alpha and a pancake breakfast with Sig Phi Epsilon. Kappa held a Woodstock themed “Kappapaloza” date dance late October. A lot of excited Kappas went to Patterson’s farm in the fall, right after recruitment ended. An on-campus sister event included playing “Kapture the Key”. Before initiation, a sisterhood retreat with lots of fun games and activities occurred. Our annual Kappasta event was held on October, 26th, 2014. At the end of raffling and the Spaghetti dinner we raised $1,400 for Reading is Fundamental. Some Kappa members went to a Reading is Key event at the Boys and Girls Club CLE. Girls enjoyed sharing storytime, drawing Thanksgiving turkeys, and playing games such as Thanksgiving bingo with the kids. Each child went home with a book, and the remaining were donated to the Boys and Girls Club. The last Philanthropic event held at the end of the year was Through the Eyes of a Child. At this popular on-campus community service event, Kappa had a station of Christmas coloring pages and helped the kids meet Santa. Most Kappas agree that the best sister memories are unplanned, informal hangouts on the Kappa floor with sisters.

In 2014, several social media accounts were created for our Chapter. The PR chair worked hard to improve Eta Zeta’s Public Relations while active in her position. These accounts give Kappa the opportunity to show the difference we make on campus and off through posts of awards/honors, chapter goals, philanthropy events, sisterhood events, and other special events. Our new social media accounts include Instagram, Facebook page, Tumblr, and a newly designed website using the GIN system. This improves Eta Zeta because these platforms show our chapter in a positive light both on and off campus. Recording Secretary created a Google Drive that composites all the minutes, standing rules and by laws. This gives Eta Zeta Kappa members the chance to access these documents, improving our awareness of Chapter and Kappa procedures.

One of the biggest goals Eta Zeta’s Housing Chairman wanted was to establish better communication to improve Eta Zeta’s awareness of the housing policies and expectations. Weekly updates were sent out to Housekeeping and Residence Life about the cleanliness of the bathroom/hallways/trash, to insure that the facility was maintained. Housing Chairman decorated the common spaces for the holiday to give the floor an extra lift. The bulletin board would be decorated for the members with personalized notes. The goal was for the facility to have a fresher look. A major undertaking this year was to clean and organize the storage room, add new shower heads, and add new design in the study lounge so members could maximize the use of the lounge. Members now use the study lounge for an independent study, utilizing the rooms printer, textbooks, and other resources.

Corresponding Secretary had the duty of planning Parent’s Brunch for all chapter members and their parents. During the 2014 brunch, 14 seniors were recognized and received gifts. The Corresponding Secretary also sent out cards to every chapter during their Founder’s Day, beginning of each semester, before/after recruitment, and for holidays.

Another aspect Kappa wanted to improve was presentation with Panhellenic involvement. We are proud to announce three of our members were Pi Chis during formal recruitment. Also, the Panhellenic Delegate for this term collaborated with the Vice President of Organization. These two officers used participation groups to encourage Panhellenic meeting attendance. As a final incentive at the end of the year, two members of the chapter were awarded with gift cards for attending Panhellenic meetings.

Kappa held a Kappa Trainer as well as our PDC visiting the weekend before recruitment. At the Kappa Training, members were brought closer together through group activities. Our PDC came to our Recruitment Workshop and gave a brief presentation as well as some tips on how to best conduct ourselves during recruitment rounds. Members were involved during the workshop by doing mock recruitment rounds and voting. Also, they shared tips and information about cool things our chapter members have done helped get girls prepared and excited for the next weekend. Our membership chair said there was no challenge with keeping up spirits and morals of our Kappa girls leading up to and during recruitment. Eta Zeta welcomed 19 new members into Kappa Kappa Gamma after formal recruitment this fall. From Saturday to Sunday, our return rate was 71%. Quota for recruitment was 19 girls, and we reached quota. The New Member Chairman set up events to bond the new members with the rest of the chapter through Owl Pal, Kappa Kousin, Speed Dating for Bigs, weekly New Member meetings, and the New Member Retreat.

Our chapter Marshal led monthly ritual reviews, including a “What Not to Wear” fashion show addressing what is appropriate and inappropriate attire for formal chapter and a self-guided reflection on what is beautiful and good. She also helped Eta Zeta prepare for Initation by holding twice-weekly Initiation reviews to accommodate Eta Zeta’s varying and challenging schedules. She also provided surveys to active members to ensure they were understanding and grasping the material. At the end of the Initiation review period, she held a big review game, at which members demonstrated their knowledge of Initiation ritual in order to win the prize of not having to help set up for Initation after the Fireside ceremony. She held a Blue and Blue all-chapter sisterhood event during Inspiration Week, at which Eta Zeta members decorated cupcakes with blue decorations and participated in a Flowerside ceremony, in which New Members receive flowers selected to represent them by their bigs. On November 16, 2014, 18 New Members were initiated into Eta Zeta.

Our 2014 president, Alexandria Miranda, attend the bi-annual Convention this past year. Our chapter received an award for the most outstanding New Member Program.

This past year, we welcomed three non-Kappas to live on the floor. They found the floor to be a supportive and friendly environment. John Carroll Residence Life underwent a major change in the past year, moving all Greek organization housing into one dorm building. Sharing a building exclusively with Greeks has brought all the chapters closer together at John Carroll.

We do have a few girls that wear historical badges. Our president wears a badge that is passed down during each transition. It is a chain that is attached to an individual’s pin and has the President’s dangle and the letters that symbolize our chapter, HZ. Also, the Vice President of Standards wears a pin with a chain containing the letters HZ and the President of Standards dangle. During the New Member period, there is a special pin given to one New Member, who showed admirable portrayal of what it means to be a true Kappa Kappa Gamma. It is passed on by the member who received it the previous year. The back of the pin is initialed R.K with the date 11/1/01.

Highlights of 2015[edit]

The Eta Zeta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma continues to uphold standards and values of the fraternity through community service, sisterhood, and campus involvement. Our 2015 President is Sara Martinko. This past year we had four chapter delegates go to the Province meeting in Spring of 2015.

When Vice President of Standards entered Kappa as Vice President of Standards in 2015, Eta Zeta had been struggling with morale and chapter unity. However, with a new leadership team willing and determined to change this, there was soon a quick turn around. As VPS, she wanted to continue Eta Zeta traditions of boosting morale, such as the blue bra of support as well as the sisterhood journal. It was a goal of hers to make this more consistent, by holding the women accountable when it was their turn. VPS also wanted to add additional and routine morality boosters. VPA initiated Kappa Keeper of the Key to recognize a woman each week who had done something outstanding. A few examples of women who were recognized were a sister who’s internship was working at a jury’s office, a sister who was accepted into a study aboard program for the spring semester, and a sister who completed a half marathon. Another sister would have to nominate a fellow sister to be the Kappa Keeper, thus calling more girls to become involved in the process, and recognize the beautiful and the good in one another. She also made hoots and salutes a part of her report. She felt that this got the girls exited and started chapter on a positive note. In the prior year, attendance had been an issue, however this year, it seemed as girls genuinely wanted to attend events with their sisters. In the spring of last year, she planned a Love and Loyalty Valentine’s sisterhood event, where we had an open discussion on loving your sister, loving another, and loving yourself. Each girl wrote down a personal quote for each of the categories and VPS complied all of them to make a reference book for the Kappa study lounge. Last year we explored Cleveland, visiting a marketplace. This was a fun sisterhood event, leaving campus and exploring the community around us. We ended the year with a sisterhood cookout outside of our dorm. A beautiful day made it perfect to enjoy burgers, corn hole, and each other. This was a great way to not only relax before exams, but also to see how sisterhood had really come together the past semester. This fall semester for sisterhood, one of her primary focuses was to strengthen academics, while promoting sisterhood. She did this by working in conjunction with the Vice President of Academic Excellence. We created the idea of “study buddies,” promoting sisters studying together and taking a picture to be posted in the study lounge. We had a study party in our study lounge, with a variety of favorite cereals to enjoy as brain food. Another issue she wanted to bring forth was the idea of sexual violence. One of our sisters who graduated in the spring had been a victim of sexual assault. She used this experience to become an advocate to bring awareness on this important issue. For a programming night, we skyped in this sister from Florida. She told us her story, engaged the chapter, and asked important questions for reflection. After she gave her account and shared information, we had the director of the Sexual Violence and Prevention Center initiate a discussion on the statistics, warning and prevention signs of sexual violence. This event is probably what she was most proud of as Standards. It was amazing to see one of our fellow Kappa sisters stand up for her beliefs and have willingness to inform our sisters. As VPS, she found that Eta Zeta is a collection of passionate, dedicated women who want to grow individually as well as with each other. Although it may have spearheaded events and traditions to promote sisterhood, she felt that it is the uniqueness and dedication of women to this fraternity in which sisterhood truly has blossomed.

Over the past year in her time as Vice President of Organization, she found that the detail and organization of our chapter council took in creating our Strategic Goals has allowed each officer to succeed in creative ways for the ultimate well being of Eta Zeta. This year, VPO took a new approach on our committee usage and merged all officers into groups. These five groups include: Risk/Events, Ritual/New Member/ Corresponding Secretary, Membership/Public Relations/Registrar, Education/ VPO/ Academics, and Philanthropy/House/Panhel. The standards and finance committees were equally dispersed throughout each of these 5 subgroups to serve as a voice and outlet to their subcommittee and still maintained a meeting in their appointed committee. Eta Zeta has found this more efficient to have other officers at their expense when one needs support. Lastly, Eta Zeta had two successful Leadership Consultant visits that gave our chapter council great advice to improve in different aspects of their positions that has lead to a more cohesive chapter council.

Starting off this semester, Kappa went from having the highest GPA in Fall 2014, 3.29, to being ranked fourth out of five sororities in Spring 2015, 3.22. Since we were tied with the all-girl GPA at JCU, we were at risk for academic probation. To combat this, the Vice President of Academic Excellence began a system with study buddies. This entailed Kappas to study with a sister in one of their classes, write down their common goals, and turn them into her. As a whole, this system helped stress the importance of academics. In addition, VPAE had everyone calculate their GPA goals. After receiving a majority of them, she calculated an overall GPA goal of 3.49 for this semester. Before scheduling for the spring semester, she continued the academic buddy system by pairing new members with older active members of the same major in order to give them advice prior to scheduling. Many new members were very happy with this system as it guided them through the stressful scheduling process. To encourage girls to study, she hung a clothespin line in the study lounge and gave Starbucks gift cards to those who took pictures studying with one another to hang on the clothespin line. In addition, VPAE enforced quiet hours in the study lounge from 8-10pm Monday - Thursday. Many sisters were pleased with this because they could now avoid the hike to the library and study in the comfort of the study lounge. Regarding Period of Concern, only 1 girl was placed on it for a couple weeks. When the conditions change based on her situation, once more organized, she trusted this girl could improve her work ethic to be successful academically. Overall, many new ideas were created this semester to stress the importance of academics. She believes these programs will aid in the academic achievements of Kappa Kappa Gamma.

Last Spring, Parents Brunch was on March 21st in LSC conference Room. The Corresponding Secretary put on the event and it had a great turn out. A lot of parents were present and we also celebrated eighteen Kappas who were graduating. Each graduate received a poster board with their picture on it. During the brunch, parents and other sisters could write little messages on them for the seniors. This Fall, all twenty-two new members have ordered their pins.

As a way to better educate members on Personal Finance, the Treasurer chair created a new financial program entitled Kappa Cash. At each chapter the Treasurer teaches a mini lesson on personal finance such as how to budget, credit cards, bank accounts and interest rates, etc. Then at the following chapter she asks a question regarding the previous lesson. If the member gives the correct answer the kappa gets to choose if she wants to spend her money, place her money in her checking account, or place her money in her savings account. If she spends her money, she plays a game with a chance of winning a gift card, but there is also a chance she will not win anything. This exemplifies the risks of spending money to the chapter, because once money is spent it is gone. If she puts her name in her checking or savings account her name will go into a drawing for rewards at midterms and finals. The checking account shows members that money placed in this account is more short-term than a long-term savings account. Members seem to enjoy and are learning from this program.

It is not hard to keep the sisters of Eta Zeta attentive and enthusiastic because there is an interest in learning about Kappa history. Each week the Registrar asks a Kappa trivia question on the Facebook wall and gives out prizes. Also, she provides a history fact during her report at chapter.

Our Marshal of Eta Zeta chapter traveled to Carnegie Mellon University in the Spring '15 to initiate two of our members from informal recruitment. Over the summer our Marshal resigned, so at the beginning of the fall semester we elected a new one. In the Fall '15, she conducted a thorough ritual review with these two members. After gaining twenty-two New Members through recruitment this fall, the Marshal held the Pledge-In ceremony on September 27, one week after Bid Day. Leading up to Inspiration week, she prepared Eta Zeta for Initiation by holding twice-weekly Initiation reviews, requiring each member to attend at least one per week. On November 6, the Marshal traveled to Lambda chapter at University of Akron to initiate one of the New Members who would not be in attendance at Eta Zeta's Initiation the following week. On Tuesday, November 10, the Marshal planned Blue and Blue for the sisters of Eta Zeta as a way to strengthen the bond between our sisters as we prepared for Initiation on Saturday. At Blue and Blue, letters were written from bigs, grand-bigs, etc. to their family members who were being initiated. These letters were to be read by the New Members the night before Initiation. In addition, the initiates were to write letters to their future littles, explaining how their time as a New Member was going, and the excitement that ensued building up to Initiation. There was also an ice cream sundae bar for the chapter. In addition, the Flowerside ceremony took place the same night as Blue and Blue, where the New Members received flowers from their bigs that represented them in some way. Littles of graduating seniors also spoke on behalf of their bigs at this time. A thorough Initiation review followed the ceremony. On November 13, Fireside ceremony took place, followed by set-up for Initiation. Eta Zeta hosted Initiation for a New Member from Lambda chapter who also needed to be initiated. This year's Initiation set-up was challenging because a different room was being used. However, the chapter worked together, and the seniors took charge, in order to make the space work as necessary. On Saturday, November 14, 22 New Members were initiated. The Marshal met with the newly initiated members of Eta Zeta in order to debrief from Initiation.

At the end of Spring 2015 we said goodbye to eighteen Kappas. This year our chapter has a graduation class of eleven. The Education chair recently organized Founder’s Day at The Cleveland Aquarium. We were in attendance along with various alumni from the Cleveland area. The chapter has also been actively participating in education events and programing nights. The chapter just participated in an educational programming night where members learned about sexual assault, sexual harassment, and the after effects. A counselor from the campus guidance counselor office spoke as well as a previous alum from the chapter who shared her personal experiences. Overall this past year has been very successful and we are looking forward to event more educational events in the future.

One of the biggest goals Eta Zeta’s Housing Chairman wanted was to create a relaxed and inviting environment in the common areas. By updating and rearranging furniture on the floor she created an open atmosphere that encouraged actives and new members to bond in the common areas. The common spaces were decorated for the holiday to give the floor an extra lift. We also received new carpet in all of the common spaces, giving the facility a fresher look. A major undertaking this year was to clean and organize the storage room and implementing a new check out system for the storage room keys.

Our 2015 Membership Chairman said Recruitment was wonderful. Kappa Kappa Gamma was able to welcome nineteen new members during formal and three more during informal recruitment a week later. In the Spring Kappa Kappa Gamma participated in a workshop to practice conversation skills and the Membership Chairman also educated our new members on the recruitment process. In the Fall she created events to get girls excited for the long weekend ahead. We had one meeting practicing skills and another talking about logistics. She planned a group day bonding event were groups picked out the questions they would ask potential new members. Kappa Kappa Gamma and Kappa Delta came together and had a mixer to practice bumping and conversation. After the weekend of Recruitment she asked members to complete a survey for the next Membership chair to use.

The New Member Chairman educated twenty-two new members about the Eta Zeta Chapter at John Carroll University. She hosted events such as weekly meetings before chapter, Owl Pal, Kappa Kousin, Speed Dating, movie nights on the floor, Big/Little Reveal, New Member Retreat and Inspiration week. On October 24th New Members participated in a Sexual Harassment and Alcohol Education course that is required for all Greek Life to complete. The girls bonded with one another and got to know the actives well throughout this 8-week New Member Period.

To continue improving Panhellenic involvement, Kappa passed the bylaw that stated members must attend one Panhellenic event per semester. These events include weekly Panhellenic meetings as well as other philanthropic events put on by the other sororities on campus. Kappa's involvement has greatly improved since this implementing of this bylaw through presence at the weekly meetings as well as Greek Life events on campus. This year Kappa had two members serve on the Panhellenic executive board as Vice President of Programming and Vice President of Membership. Two other Kappa members were also chosen to be Pi Chis during Fall Recruitment.

After taking on the position of Public Relations Chairman in 2013, she really worked hard to create and develop our different social media platforms. Her goal for this past term was to have a positive presence on social media and make all of our social media accounts even better than they were before. Also, she wanted to get more of the chapter involved with the GIN system, which was one of her biggest challenges. It was very hard for us to transition over to the GIN system but with the help of our VPO we were able to start using the features on the website. She worked to create our new website through the GIN system. This past year, PR really worked to develop our Tumblr account. She want our Tumblr to not only be a fun site of pictures of our chapter, but also to use as a resource for other positions that need to use these pictures, such as recruitment scrapbooks. She also tried to post more often on our Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook Page. Another thing that she has done is make a lot of videos for our chapter. This past year PR made a Senior Send-off Video, Recruitment Video, and Bid Day Video. The annual newsletter, the Hootie Hoo was sent out in May and the Chapter Honors Report was also sent to headquarters in May. Lastly, she worked to create our new website through the GIN system.

To improve sisterhood, Kappa Kappa Gamma held many social events. The Events chairman set up many events held throughout the year. Kappas did a board game mixer with Sigma Phi Epsilon, following a bingo mixer with Lambda Chi Alpha. Pre Greek Week activities, members mixed with 3 other fraternities and sororities. The Wildest Dream semi-formal was held in the Spring of 2015. Sapphire Ball was in early April. In the fall, Kappa had a fun campfire mixer with Lambda Chi Alpha, a volleyball game with Sigma Phi Epsilon, and a football tailgate with Beta Theta Pi. Kappa held a 90's themed “Kappa Kappa Gamma is All That” date dance late November.

During Risk Management’s term she wanted our chapter to become more informed and involved with personal health/wellness. In order to achieve this she hosted three health and wellness events: two in the spring and one in the fall. In the spring Risk took our sisters to a Barre class (a mixture of strength activities and Pilates) and to Skyzone (indoor trampoline park). She thought it would be a fun way to get active and relieve stress. This semester we have a cycling event at Groove Ryde scheduled for December 12th as a way to relieve stress before finals. One challenge that Kappa Kappa Gamma experienced during her term was that our buddy system was not being used properly. We have a buddy system at our dances to insure that all people attending (Kappas and non-Kappas) get home safely, if they are asked to leave the dance. People were not sending in their buddy's names so we were unable to send home the right people at the dances. In order to fix this we have now made it a priority to make sure our members send in their buddies prior to our dances. The Events Chairman and Risk Management Chairman give presentations prior to dances about alcohol and expected behavior at our events. Another new thing that happened during her term was she made a health and wellness incentive program called the Kappa Klimb. Our sorority lives on the 4th floor of our dorm and to encourage health and wellness Risk decided to make an incentive program for our sisters to want to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Every time a Kappa walks up the stairs she can put a tally next to her name, and the person with the most tallies at the end of two weeks wins a $5 gift card. It's promoting health and a little friendly competition between our sisters.

The recent changes on our campus include a new Greek Life advisor. This transition has been difficult as she is making many changes. Despite this we are working to improve our Panhellenic relations on campus and our presence on Panhellenic Council.

The overall nature of our chapter is very diverse and positive. It is possible to find at least one of our members in almost every activity on campus, so the overall group is eclectic in our passions. Our chapter is eager to help when help is required, and works to make all of our members feel included. Although our overall nature is positive, we do run into some problems. Recently we have been experiencing problems with participation in various chapter activities, attendance at chapter meetings, and behavior at date dances. Our fall date dance this year had multiple issues in regards to girls drinking alcohol and our standards committee is working to rectify this. We are planning a programming night as well to address the issues. In recent years, whenever issues have arose, they can quickly be fixed by reiterating the ideals of Kappa to our members and working together towards living these out. This is what we plan to do with our current issues as well.

Chapter Philanthropy:

What organization(s) has your chapter historically/traditionally raised money for, or donated hours to, in your community?

To improve sisterhood, Kappa held many philanthropy and social events. Philanthropic involvement is frequently seen in our Kappa activities. Last semester we had several service events including card making for a nursing home, Dani's Day which is a day of service with children who have downs syndrome, the Jesuit Day of Service, and many girls do weekly service. We held a philanthropy event called Sweet Tea Tuesday where we raised money for Kappa Kidney Camp and the Kappa Foundation. Our annual Kappasta event was held on October, 25th, 2015. At the end of raffling and the Spaghetti dinner we raised $2.055 for Reading is Fundamental as well as receiving over 55 books to donate. We have volunteered on freshman move in, did a service event with the Chi-Omega chapter as well as helped with Through they Eyes of A Child where we had fun coloring and taking pictures with Santa with children from inner city schools of Cleveland.

Why did your chapter choose this organization(s) to support?

As an organization we typically donate to three organization including, Kappa Kidney Camp, Reading is Fundamental and the Kappa Foundation. Due to the fact that we are a chapter in Ohio we have Kappa Kidney Camp as a regional organization. This is a week long camp for kids with kidney issues to participate in safe activities and make new friends. We get the opportunity to send girls to the camp in the middle of the week to meet the kids! Each year we participate in two events held by the University for the Cleveland Community. It is important to the girls in the chapter to give back to the community and volunteer with children. On top of weekly service in the community and the events held on campus we have many girls that attend immersion trips outside of the country. This gives them an opportunity to make and impact on a global level.

Service is very important to our chapter as a whole and girls often say that some of their best sisterhood memories are from the times when we are helping others.

Highlights of 2016:[edit]

The Eta Zeta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma continues to uphold standards and values of the fraternity through community service, sisterhood and campus involvement.

Our 2016 president was Victoria Williams. She attended the Kappa National Biannual Convention in June to vote on changing the structure of the organization and elect the new fraternity council. She gained new advanced knowledge about Kappa and met other sisters from across the country. At the convention, Eta Zeta was awarded the Finance award in recognition of outstanding achievements for the years 2014 to 2016.

Throughout her term as Vice President of Standards, she worked with her committee to implement as many new and refreshing ideas as possible. The biggest changes have come through just working to communicate better with the chapter as a whole about standards and overall expectations. The committee has continued many of our sisterhood building ideas from the past such as the Blue Bra of Support, and weekly Kappa Keeper of the Key. The VPS created a new Sisterhood Favorites Binder to have in our study lounge that our sisters can look to for ideas to build each other up, if someone is having a bad day. This year we also had a very fun sisterhood retreat that we used as a way to bond coming back to school from summer break, and also a way to prepare for recruitment. As we welcome in new members, a new set of needs to be fulfilled by Standards. Our chapter has improved greatly in terms of inclusion and morality due to the events planned by the VPS. Our chapter has taken major steps towards being more accountable for each individual’s actions, which has been a great learning opportunity for all of us.

Upon starting her time as the Vice President of Organization, she really wanted to improve committee involvement. She therefore tried to implement a committee member of the month system, where each committee chair would nominate a member of their committee each month that they believe has significantly contributed in one way or another. While this did not hold up, it will be tried next term. There was a new approach to committee usage with merged groups that the former VPO created and she continued them this year because they were received well. The groups remain as follows: Risk/Events, House/Philanthropy, Ritual/Corresponding Secretary/New Member, Panhel/Registrar/Membership/PR and VPO/Education/VPAE, with the standards and finance committees dispersed throughout these 5 groups. Eta Zeta also hosted two Leadership Consultants, one in April and one in September. These visits were very successful, since many girls got to meet the LC’s, took them out to dinner and were able to benefit greatly from their knowledge. The first visit during April allowed chapter council to focus on how to get members more involved and how to be more cohesive as a council. The second visit in the fall was focused around recruitment. All of Eta Zeta’s members were able to learn how to better communicate with the PNMs as well as refresh their knowledge on recruitment procedures. Furthermore, having a Leadership Consultant present during recruitment made the weekend a lot smoother and the voting process a lot clearer and more efficient. She really feels that the involvement and interest that the girls showed in both of the LCs this year was really great and was really happy to see how much we were all able to benefit from their visits. Looking forward, she thinks that encouraging committee involvement and usage of the Ginsystem, as well as planning organized, fun visits for the Leadership Consultants, should be a point of focus of the next VPO.

Our Vice President of Academic Excellence began a new program called “Geek of the Week” that recognizes one sister each week for an outstanding academic achievement. This has been a fun way to celebrate excelling in classes. She emphasized tracking study hours through the Gin System, rather than the binder in the library we used to use. This helped to increase the number of study hours we completed as a chapter, because they could be recorded from anywhere on campus. This showed how committed our chapter is to their studies. She continued the academic buddy system for last year, which pairs up new members with someone of the same major for advice with scheduling, etc. She was overwhelmed with the positive response from this program. For fall 2015, we had a GPA of 3.26 and were 3rd for all of Greek Life and also 3rd for the sororities; the average all female campus GPA was a 3.19. For spring 2016, we had a 3.31 and were tied for 3rd overall for Greek life and also tied for 3rd of the sororities. The average all campus female GPA was 3.31. Overall, she is a great motivator for the chapter and has led to an increase in our academic involvement.

The Corresponding Secretary has added many new ideas to Chapter Council and the chapter as a whole to both keep everyone on top of their position and unit the chapter as sisters. She ordered report reminder cards and handed them out to each officer as a way to help get reports turned in on time. She started a secret admirer box which sits in the lounge and girls can write compliments about each other and then they are read out loud at chapter. This has encouraged positivity and encouragement amongst the Kappas. She also sent out birthday cards to advisors and alum in order to keep our relationships with them high.

The Eta Zeta treasurer instituted a program called Kappa Cash last year in order to better educate members of their personal finances. She teaches a mini lesson related to finance and then asks a question about it at a later date to ensure people understand the meaning and application. Those that answer the question correctly are then entered in either the checking, a midterm gift card drawing, or the savings, a final gift card drawing, account. This has been a great way to get everyone involved and learn more in fun ways. From the duties of the treasurer, everyone in the chapter gains a better understanding of how to manage their money.

In order to keep the sisters of Eta Zeta constantly involved in Kappa history, the Registrar did various history updates in chapter or on the Facebook wall. Additionally, she ordered a Museum in a Box from Headquarters which provided an exciting amount of new history to the entire chapter. This was celebrated along with a history presentation around Founder’s Day. Eta Zeta also celebrated their 15th anniversary as a chapter on November 17. Our Marshal of Eta Zeta chapter made it a goal for girls to understand the procedure of ritual. After gaining twenty-one New Members through recruitment this Fall, the Marshal held the Pledge-In ceremony on October 9th , one week after Bid Day. Leading up to Inspiration week, she prepared Eta Zeta for Initiation by holding twice-weekly Initiation reviews, requiring each member to attend at least one per week. She wanted girls to really know the songs for Initiation. The Sunday starting Inspiration week she had two girls stand up in front of the chapter and tell members what kappa means to them. This got the Initiates excited to join a strong bond of sisterhood. On Wednesday, November 16, the Marshal planned Blue and Blue and Flowerside for the sisters of Eta Zeta as a way to strengthen the bond between our sisters as we prepared for Initiation on Saturday. At Blue and Blue, letters were written from Initiates to their future littles telling them about Inspiration week and how they are feeling and about their Kappa family. Bigs wrote letters for their littles to read the night before Initiation. In addition, the Flowerside ceremony took place the same night as Blue and Blue, where the New Members received flowers from their bigs that represented them in some way. Littles of graduating seniors also spoke on behalf of their bigs at this time. A thorough Initiation review followed the ceremony to prepare everyone for Saturday. On November 18th, Fireside ceremony took place and before that everyone helped to set-up for Initiation. Getting prepared for Initiation was a little challenging this year since the New Member period was shortened. However, the chapter worked together. On Saturday, November 19th, twenty-one New Members were Initiated. The Marshal met with the newly initiated members of Eta Zeta in order to debrief from Initiation.

At the end of Spring 2016 we said goodbye to eleven Kappas. This year our chapter has a graduation class of seventeen. The Education chair recently organized Founder's Day at the Westwood Country Club in Rocky River. We were in attendance along with various alumni from the Cleveland area. The chapter has also been actively participating in education events and programming nights. During the fall semester, the chief of the John Carroll police department gave a presentation about substance abuse, and the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center gave a presentation about sexual assault and harassment. The senior class of 2016 also participated in some fun sisterhood events at the end of the year, and care packages were sent to the Kappas that were studying abroad. Overall, this past year has been successful and we are looking forward to more educational events in the future. Eta Zeta’s housing chairman continually strived to maintain a clean, inviting space on the sorority floor for all of the sisters. She used her budget to add new decorations to the floor before recruitment and saw a great reaction. Girls are always in the lounge and it is always a welcoming and homey atmosphere. In addition, she utilized the Kappa House Board who generously funded a new vacuum and microwave. Along with Residence Life on campus, she implemented creating the roster for the floor sooner (in November vs. February) to avoid people signing leases to live off campus, which was a small issue in the chapter this year. She continues to reserve rooms on campus to hold all of Eta Zeta’s events and submits work orders to fix anything that needs repair on the floor.

Our 2016 Membership Chairman said recruitment was wonderful. Kappa Kappa Gamma was able to welcome twentyone new members during formal recruitment. This year we had a 100 percent retention rate on the first day of recruitment thanks to all the hard work from our members. Through formal recruitment we reached our school's capacity of membership and did not participate during informal recruitment. In the Spring, Kappa Kappa Gamma participated in a workshop to practice conversation skills and the Membership Chairman also had a separate workshop to educate our new members on the recruitment process. In the Fall she created events to get girls excited for the long weekend ahead. There were a total of two workshops one to improve conversation skills and another pertaining to the logistics of recruitment. Throughout the weekend everyone had high spirits and were excited to welcome our new members.

The new member period for Eta Zeta was shortened from eight weeks to five weeks in order for them to be initiated before semester break. While it was a lot to take in in a short time, the New Member Educator worked very hard to ensure a smooth, enjoyable transition for all the girls. Her goal was to be creative with her position and think as much outside of the box as possible because she believed that the program was becoming repetitive each year. Keeping with tradition and following all of the events, she put her own twist on things. The new members also completed the "Not Anymore" program prior to being initiated.

Last year, Kappa passed a bylaw that stated members must attend one Panhellenic event per semester which has been a great way to get all our sisters involved with other greek life. Eta Zeta showed a great presence at other greek life activities, philantrophy events and Panhellenic fundraisers. This year Kappa had one member serve on the Panhellenic Executive Board as Vice President of Finance and Administration. Three other members were also chosen to be Recruitment Counselors (Pi Chis) and assist with the potential new members during fall recruitment. At the end of the semester, three members were elected onto the Panhellenic Executive Board for the following term - President, Vice President of Scholarship and Standards, and Vice President of Public Relations.

This past year, after taking over Public Relations Chairman from a member who had previously held the position for the last 2 years, she worked hard in continuing to maintain a favorable image for Eta Zeta over social media and other digital platforms, but implemented brand consistency to help our chapter become better recognized and distinguished from other organizations. For example, she created a new social media logo and cover photo for the chapter and created different campaigns and graphics showcasing our members (eg. 30 Reasons Why We Love Kappa, National Kindness Week, Kappa Keeper of the Key). As a result, the chapter and members received lots of positive feedback and were featured multiple times on the Kappa Headquarters Instagram account. Through her PR efforts, she tried to encourage members to become more involved in the chapter by taking an interest in following their sisters' accomplishments, headquarters news and supporting other Greek organizations on and off campus. She also created materials such as flyers, banners, buttons and social media advertisements to promote our philanthropy events like Kappa Dog Day and Kappasta. In addition, she updated the chapter website through the GIN system by including new officer and position bios and pictures, uploading new images of members and adding a new section under the website menu that included our campus involvement. She also put together the annual newsletter which will now be sent out every December since officer transitions are conducted then. This makes the most sense to summarize the events that took place in that time frame (from January - December) based on the members who held the positions then. She also completed the Chapter Honors Report and sent it in to headquarters in May. Overall, many positive strides were made this year for Eta Zeta’s public relations.

To continue to build relationships with the Greek organizations on campus, Eta Zeta had many social events. In the spring, we had a Board Game mixer with Beta Theta Pi, a Letter Shirt mixer with Delta Tau Delta, a Gym Day with Sigma Phi Epsilon, and a Floor Hangout with Lambda Chi Alpha. We also had many mixers during Greek Week including a Pizza Party with Kappa Alpha Theta. Sapphire Ball was in late April. In the fall, Kappa had a Tailgate and Cookout mixer with Sigma Phi Epsilon, Pumpkin Carving with Lambda Chi, Karaoke with Beta Theta Pi, and Christmas Cookie Decorating with Delta Tau Delta. Eta Zeta held a "Perfect Pairs" date dance in early November. The Events Chairman worked hard to improve behavior at date functions and continue implementing all risk management procedures. In the future, Eta Zeta hopes to cultivate relationships with all Greek Organizations on campus and to improve Panhellenic relations with more sorority mixers.

During the Risk Management chair’s term, she worked to promote healthy living habits to the chapter in new, fun ways. She made many upbeat playlists through Spotify in which the whole chapter could access for workout motivation. She has offered workout plans and diet plans to anyone who is interested. She continued the Buddy system from last year, which assigns buddies to each member for all social events in order to be responsible for each other’s actions and promote low-risk behaviors. Our risk behavior has improved greatly from last year due to the immense efforts of the Events and Risk Management Chairs to relay to the chapter the importance of respectable actions. The chapter has become more reliant on each other and constantly working towards no high-risk behavior at all. Along with that, the chair brought in Brian Hurd, the head of campus police, to discuss the risks of underage drinking. He even had the chair undergo sober checkpoints to illustrate how someone would be tested. This was a great reminder to the chapter of the real, legal consequences that can come with alcohol. The risk management chair is also planning a fitness event off campus through Orange Theory Fitness. She worked extremely hard and increased the morale of the chapter this past year.

The philanthropy chair continued with our annual fall Kappasta event to raise money for Reading is Fundamental. It was football themed and titled “Kappasta Bowl”. This year, a total of $2,563 was raised in addition to approximately 400 books. An event is in the planning to distribute and read the books to local schools. In the spring, Eta Zeta hosted the first annual “Kappa Dog Day” in which hot dogs were sold and there was also a hotdog eating competition in order to raise money for Kappa Kidney Camp. This was a very successful event that got other students on campus involved with one of our philanthropies and also allowed for some friendly competition. The chapter has continued to be involved in many service events on campus including Danie’s Day, a day of service with children who have downs syndrome, and Through the Eyes of a Child, where Kappa has a coloring page table and pictures with Santa for children from inner city schools of Clevelend. The members have continued collecting service hours that are over and above the required amounts.

We have had no major changes on campus this year. Our chapter is very respected on campus and has a good reputation. We are known for being involved in many things other than just our chapter, constantly exploring our other interests and expanding our experiences. Despite a few bumbs with high-risk behavior in the past, the chapter has motivated each other to become more responsible of their actions and respectable of their sisters. No matter the issue, the chapter and their council always work together to establish the best solution and overcome whatever lies ahead. Eta Zeta has supported Reading is Fundamental through our annual Kappasta Event, where we offer endless pizza, pasta and salad to our campus and community for a small monetary donation or a childrens book donation. We have also supported Kappa Kidney Camp and the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation with various smaller scale events throughout the year.

Reading is Fundamental is our national sorority philantrophy, but also a great foundation in which all of our members believe in. The Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation is a great way for us to give back to Kappa and support our fellow sisters all over the country.

Highlights of 2017:[edit]

As the Eta Zeta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma continues to grow, we continue to focus on high standards of the fraternity while participating in community service, sisterhood and campus involvement.

At the beginning of 2017, the VP of Standards was very excited to get started. She wanted to create a committee that was there to support each member of Eta Zeta. In the spring, she started the support by implementing a sister of the week presentation to highlight one member of the chapter. To go along with this, she wanted to highlight the seniors as well, so she created a senior spotlight. By the end of the Spring semester, we had a night on the floor that consisted of minute to win it games, and more! This was a good rap up to the academic year. Coming back in the fall, she planned a retreat with different activities to build sisterhood and prepare for recruitment. In October, we continued the tradition and went to Patterson's Fruit Farm. Our VP of Standards received an idea from two members on her committee and decided to go with it, so each member was paired up with another member in the same academic class. Each pair wrote a letter to each other about how lucky Kappa was to have them as a part of this chapter. Also, our VP of Standards has implemented a quote of the day that is sent through the Ginsystem. Another way our VP of Standards and her committee continues to build sisterhood by having a Movie Monday on the floor. This allows all the members to join on Monday nights and watch a movie together to start off the week. To end this semester, she prepared a holiday party that built sisterhood before we leave for break. We went ice skating, ate dinner together, played games and other activities. She has made it a priority to continue to strengthen our sisterhood and create a positive environment for the entire chapter.

The VP of Organization has been very busy changing how committee nights are done. She split up the committee’s to be subdivided differently. Now we have one representative from each committee announce the update. This is a new way to get more girls involved in committee night. Our VPO has been able to set up and welcome two Leadership Consultants to our chapter in the spring and in the fall. She had to organize their schedules, plan who was taking them to different meals and plan fun activities to show both of them around Cleveland and John Carroll!

Our chapters VP of Academic Excellence kept our standards high this semester by creating different programs so that we all can encourage each other. She started making study rooms around the busy times of the semester. She would reserve a classroom to encourage members to bring homework and to study. The VPAE has continued to do the Kappa Fridge where once a week people can write down a positive accomplishment for the week dealing with their classes and the VPAE picks one randomly out of a bag to acknowledge one sister who did an awesome thing that week. The name is placed on a “fridge” in our study lounge. She has created study buddies for everyone so that every member has a resource to help them with scheduling classes or with any class in general. Finally, she has been giving members a pearl dangle to go on their badges if they received a 4.0. This is an awesome way to be congratulated on all the hard work.

The Eta Zeta's corresponding secretary has been busy making door decorations for all the sororities and fraternities in Hamlin Hall. She has made creative and fun decorations each month. She was also in charge of ordering badges for our new members. And she has also continued to have the secret admirer box on the floor which allows our members to write notes to each other and to be read aloud in chapter. This gives our members a chance to keep a positivity throughout the chapter!

The recording secreatary was spent a lot of time and hard work updating and changing our Bylaws and Standing Rules. We are so happy with how she handled everything.

Our chapters treasurer has been busy adjusting and presenting the budget to the chapter. She has made it known to all members where the dues are going to for each position. She also gave a presentation for programming night that explained the differences between checking and savings accounts. She wanted to teach our members the importance of creating a personal budget and how to do create one.

The registrar tried to find new and creative ways to get the chapter involved in learning the history of Kappa Kappa Gamma, but more specifically the Eta Zeta Chapter. She started doing a history question of the week where she would ask a question during chapter dealing with Kappa’s history or our chapter’s history. The members would have an opportunity to figure out the answer and send it to her. She would go through them and whoever got the answer correct was put into a drawing at the end of the semester for a gift card. This was a fun way that she brought in history to our chapter.

This year our Marshal has been very busy going over and refreshing ritual during formal chapters and preparing for initiation. She put together a ritual review at the end of the spring semester to remind the members how important our ritual is. This fall semester, she has overseen the activities during the Inspiration Period. The Marshal has been holding song review since September to get the actives ready and this year the attendance has been phenomenal. During the inspiration period, she enforced a no booze, no bars, and no boys rule.

Describe the recent changes on your campus and describe the overall nature of your chapter. There were no major changes to our campus in the past year. We had some minor improvements to our dorm building that we are very excited for. Our chapter continues to be present on campus. All of our members are involved in many things other than just our chapter and continue to have leadership positions in other clubs or organizations around campus.

Chapter Philanthropy: What organization(s) has your chapter historically/traditionally raised money for, or donated hours to, in your community? The Eta Zeta chapter continues to support Reading is Fundamental through our annual Kappasta Event. We offer endless pizza, pasta and salad to our campus and community for a small monetary donation or a childrens book donation. We also support Kappa Kidney Camp and the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation with different events throughout the year. Why did your chapter choose this organization(s) to support? Reading is Fundamental is our national philanthropy.

Chapter Facility: In what kind of a facility does your chapter meet? Please attach a clear photo of where you typically hold chapter meetings – whether in a classroom, chapter house or elsewhere. We hold our formal chapter meetings in Rodman building on campus. 

Highlights of 2018[edit]

As the Eta Zeta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma continues to grow, we continue to focus on high standards of the fraternity, specifically promoting sisterhood, while participating in community service, academics, and campus involvement. Our chapter has also continued to have the highest Greek life grade point average with a 3.44.

In January, four Eta Zeta members travelled to The Ohio State University to help their Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter with their upcoming recruitment. The Eta Zeta chapter kicked off the 2018 year with our informal recruitment where we hosted a nail and spa event on our floor with the members and PNMS. Through informal recruitment, we received one new member, which was quota. The following week, the chapter hosted our semi-formal dance with the theme of Sweethearts/Valentine's Day. Two new members (1 from informal and 1 from formal recruitment) were initiated at the University of Akron during their spring Initiation. In March, One member was chosen to be a Leadership Consultant for Kappa Kappa Gamma, while another graduating senior member accepted a position with the Peace Corps as a Health Educator in Cameroon. In April, the Eta Zeta chapter participated in several events during Greek Week and completed the week by competing in John Carroll University's Lip Sync competition; our lip sync was to the theme of Shrek, in which was came in 4th place. At the end of the month we had our annual Sapphire Ball formal dance at Landerhaven. Finally, our last event of the semester was Kappa Dog Day for our Philanthropy, in which we raised $210.21 for the Kappa Kappa Gamma foundation and Kappa Kidney Camp by hosting a hot dog cookout to sell hot dogs and snacks on our university's campus. Over the summer we had several members hold internships at places such as Key bank and Progressive as well as three members travel abroad to Italy and London. In June, two of our sisters represented the Eta Zeta chapter at Kappa Kappa Gamma's Denver Convention, where our chapter received an Honorable Mention for Risk Management. For the fall semester, the Eta Zeta chapter hosted their formal recruitment in September. Our theme was CoCo Chanel. On bid day, which the theme was "Make it like its your Bid-day," and we welcomed eight new members. Also in September, our Public Relations chairwoman had the opportunity to attend the Kappa Kappa Gamma Leadership Academy at the Heartland Conference Retreat Center which allowed her to take a deeper look into herself but also learn principles of leadership as well as meet Kappas from all over the country. At the beginning of November, we also hosted an informal recruitment where we served donuts and cider and played games on the floor. Through this recruitment, we were able to welcome four new members to the chapter. In October, our chapter had our annual Kappasta event, where we event alumni, campus members, and families to share a pasta meal with us, During this event, our chapter raised $1412.00 for Reading is Fundamental. At the end of October, we invited the children of the University Heights community to trick-or-treat on the floor with all our sisters; we shared our Kappa chants with the kids and their families. To conclude the recruitment season, the chapter hosted big/little reveal on the floor that was PJ themed and then big/little pairs had a sleepover on the floor the night before Initiation. On November 17th, the Eta Zeta welcomed twelve new members into the chapter. Finally, we ended this semester with our fall date dance, which the theme was Decked in Denim. Through this semester our House chairwoman has been working diligently with her committee and our president to update and renew our floor. We have added new desks and chairs to the study lounge as well as re-organized and added new accessories to our lounge. Additionally, our chapter is required to do five hours of service every semester but many women go above and beyond by participating in weekly service such as Labre, Carroll Ballers, and EMT volunteering.

Other Miscellaneous activities that our chapter has completed include: Our New Member Chairman completed a series of "Owl Pal" event where current members pair with our new members to do activities such as making dream catchers, vases for plants, and other crafts. Our Risk Management chairman re-established a program called the "Kappa Klimb" by putting a list of our chapter names by the front door of our dorm floor for members to mark down their name when they climbed all 4 floors up to the Kappa floor instead of taking the elevators. In the spring semester our Secretary encouraged chapter members to read the chapter minutes by hiding 3 words or phrases within the minutes. Whoever the first 3 people to correctly report the words and phrases received candy at the next chapter.

With our chapter graduating a substantial amount of seniors in the Spring of 2018, the Eta Zeta chapter is going through a re-rooting, rejuvenating period of time. We are working on becoming more supportive and harmonious sisters to each other. Our chapter advisor recently facilitated a "retreat" event for the chapter in order to converse and communicate about any issues we feel we are having in the sorority. This event allowed a safe space to talk as well as increased morale and cooperation for the chapter as we entered exams.

Eta Zeta 2018

Philanthropy

Our chapter chose this organization because it is is a local charity that allows children with kidney ailments to experience a "normal" camp experience. The Eta Zeta chapter felt that this organization coincided with the values of Reading is Fundamental as well as was child focused. Additionally, the organization is unique and allows the chapter to be connected within the local community.

Highlights of 2019[edit]

As the Eta Zeta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma continues to grow, we continue to focus on high standards of the fraternity, specifically promoting sisterhood, while participating in community service, academics, and campus involvement. We have additionally maintained a scholarly grade point average this year, at 3.38. In February, we hosted 2 informal recruitment events on campus, and gained 6 new members. On March 31st, we held our own Initiation at John Carroll University to welcome the 6 new members into the chapter. In April, the chapter participated in several games and events during Greek Week and completed the week by competing in John Carroll University's annual Greek Life Lip Sync competition. The lip sync theme for Kappa Kappa Gamma was 'The Parent Trap,' and we came in 4th place. The following day, we had our annual Saphire Ball formal dance. Over the summer, we had sisters intern at companies in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Chicago. In September, we held an Informal Recrutment Event called 'Cotton Candy with Kappa' to promote Formal Recruitment, which happened shortly after. Also in September, member Sarah Flaherty travelled to Columbus, Ohio to attend Kappa Kappa Gamma Leadership Academy with one Kappa from every chapter around the country. While there, she did many activities in small groups and did many team building games to build skills of leadership and teamwork. At the end of September, John Carroll University had their annual Formal Sorority Recruitment, and the Eta Zeta chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma received 12 new members. The chapter welcomed the new members during bid day, themed 'Race Home to Kappa.' In October, the chapter celebrated Founders Day with a special Founder's Day dinner at Acacia Reservation. Soon after, the chapter hosted an Informal Recruitment event, 'Fall in Love with Kappa,' where we gained 2 more new members for the fall bid class. We initiated 14 new members in the Eta Zeta chapter on November 16th. Our Chapter President, Julia Korek, implemented the use of powerpoint slides during chapter, to help better faciliatate chapter, and make information more visible while the officers are speaking.

The Vice President - Standards, Liz Forsyth, hosted many fun sisterhood events throughout the year, like Bachelor Mondays, where many sisters would gather together in the elbow lounge to watch the television show. In February, she hosted a Galentine's Day event. In March, she hosted a game night and 'Something on a Stick Day' where she got corndogs and other fun foods on sticks for people to enjoy. In December, she hosted a holiday event, where the chapter participated in a Secret Santa a gift exchange. The Vice President - Organization, Lexi Iemma, hosted 2 successful visits from Leadership Consultants, who provided helpful feedback on how the Eta Zeta chapter is doing well, and how we can improve. The New Member Chairman, Hope Scherger, hosted several fun activities for our new members both in the Spring and Fall semesters called 'owl pal' events. The Housing Chariman, Karly Johnson, worked a lot to maintain the floor, and make it fun. She held a door decorating contest for St. Patrick's Day for girls living on the floor. She also worked dilligently with the chapter President on new changes to chapter housing, to make the floor transition as smooth as possible. The Events Chairman, Maddie DelBene, hosted many fun mixers in addition to the dance, like playing Volleyball with a fraternity on campus, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and having Ice Cream and doing face masks with another sorority on campus, Kappa Delta. The Philanthropy Chairman, Lauren Price, encouraged members to do weekly service and planned 2 successful philanthropy events during the year. In March, she planned Chips, Cheese, and KKGs where the chapter sold chips and queso on the quad to raise money benefitting Reading is Fundamental. The chapter raised a total of $476.85. In October, the chapter put on the annual philanthropy event, Kappasta, where we served pasta, pizza, and salad to raise money for RIF. At this event, the chapter raised a total of $1,366.

The Eta Zeta chapter is continually working on promoting sisterhood, maintaining open communication, and generally suppporting one another. The chapter is one of 5 sororities at John Carroll University, in addition to 4 fraternities. The Eta Zeta chapter is very panhellenic, often supporting other Greek Life in their philathropy events. John Carroll University recently announced a change in the residence hall housing Greek Life, and Kappa Kappa Gamma is looking forward to the transition, and hopes to make it a positive one.

Our chapter supports Kappa Kidney Camp, a local charity that allows children with kidney ailments to participate in a 'normal' camp experience. The Eta Zeta chapter felt that this organization correlated with the values of Reading is Fundamental as well as was focused on children. Additionally, the organization is unique and allows the chapter to be connected with the local community.

The chapter celebrated Founders Day with a special Founders Day dinner at Acacia Reservation in Lyndhurst, Ohio with the Cleveland Alumni Association.

Highlights of the 2020s:[edit]

(Information from chapter history reports, scholarship, group honors/awards, traditions, special events, changes on campus or within chapter, overall nature of the chapter, chapter goals, challenges and how they were overcome, etc.)

Housing

Philanthropy

Convention Awards

Note to Chapter Registrar: Please refer to your chapter archives including chapter meeting minutes and back issues of The Key to fill in any gaps in the above historical highlights. If your chapter archives are not complete, please research your university library, campus newspaper and yearbook archives for newsworthy information about your chapter. Please double check your work for accuracy. Contact chapter Advisory or House Board members, local Alumnae Association members, or your Province Director of Chapters for assistance.

Your efforts will ensure a complete and accurate history of your chapter for future generations to enjoy!