Zeta Chi
| Zeta Chi | |
|---|---|
| ZX | |
 | |
| Founded | November 20, 1993 |
| College | Marist College |
| Location | Poughkeepsie, NY |
| Homepage | Zeta Chi Homepage |
| Media related to Zeta Chi Chapter | |
Marist College, established in 1929 in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Zeta Chi founded November 20, 1993
445 initiates (as of January 2014)
Contents
Zeta Chi on Social Media
The Zeta Chi chapter is very active on several forms of social media. We regularly post photos, upcoming events, fundraisers, and birthdays on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Zeta Chi also has a blog that sisters contribute posts to each several times each month. Topics that have been covered on the blog include study abroad experiences, big/little week, i-week, philanthropy events, and more. In addition to these social media handles, our chapter also appeared in Poughkeepsie Journal last semester for the RIF event we held at an after school program.
Twitter Facebook Instagram Tumblr
To visit our blog please visit KKGmaristcollege on the Wordpress website.
About Marist College
Marist College is a private liberal arts college on the east bank of the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, New York. The site was established in 1905 by the Marist Brothers, and the college was chartered in 1929. Approximately 4,500 undergraduate students attend the Poughkeepsie campus. In the 2013 issue of U.S. News and World Report's "America's best colleges", Marist was ranked 8th in the category Regional Universities (North). For the tenth year in a row, The Princeton Review named Marist as one of the nations best schools in its publication "The Best 373 Colleges".
Highlights of 2011
Host of Alpha/Rho Province Meeting, NYU Installation, recognized for our new member program, Sisterhood and Morale Award, RIF event at a local children's center, top 10 fundraising teams for Relay for Life, second place in greek week, first successful off campus initiation event, exceptional growth in the chapter.
Campus: New Hancock Center for technology built on campus, as well as the underpass which connects the east and west sides of campus. Greek life is expanding rapidly, this past fall during informal recruitment, we gained 14 new members, which is a higher number than we have ever had for informal recruitment. Chapter: The chapter has grown phenomenally. We have 80 members now, where last year at this time we had around 45. Because of this, the chapter is very young. Most of our members are sophomores (more than half) and therefore most of those in leadership positions are very young - which has been great for our chapter!
The chapter struggles with the growth, but along with the growth, the chapter struggles with losing so many seniors in the coming year. We are overcoming these challenges by learning to accept the growth and understanding that growth is not a bad thing. We work hard to maintain the "small chapter feel" that we are all so used to.
Highlights of 2012
This previous year, the Zeta Chi chapter was very involved in philanthropy. Events we participated in included RIF events, Relay for Life, Marist Hunger Walk, The KKG Foundation, and The National Eating Disorders Association. This past spring Marist College's greek community also held their annual Greek Week olympic-style games, in which Kappa Kappa Gamma placed first out of four sororities. Individually, one of our members Robyn Crabtree made the 19th annual World Maccabiah Games and will be playing water polo for team USA.
Active member Amber also gave birth to healthy baby girl on December 19th! Unfortunately, the chapter also came together that same month after the Sandy Hook shooting, as two of our members were from the town and personally connected to many involved. Though a difficult time, the Zeta Chi chapter is a group of very supportive girls and has been helping the members to cope.
Marist College has been undergoing many changes on campus with the renovations to the Lowell Thomas Communications Center last spring and now the beginning of a major addition to the Student Center. Marist's student population is growing rapidly with each passing year, and so is the Zeta Chi chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma. This past week we were proud to welcome 26 new members! The Zeta Chi chapter is a group of amazing girls who have all been very involved in making improvements to our chapter in areas including academics, philanthropy, and campus involvement.
Highlights of 2013
In the past year the Zeta Chi Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma has become an even closer group of girls through scholarship, leadership, and philanthropy. At the Province Meeting in 2013, Zeta Chi was honored with the Sisterhood and Morale Award. Two members of the Chapter, Lauren Garner and Deanna Clark, also received the Undergraduate Kappa Scholarship for 2013. We continued our tradition of attending the Marist Singers and Marist Dance Ensemble shows in order to support our sisters, while we also had fun at other sisterhood events such as ice skating, having a picnic at the Vanderbilt mansion, taking a self defense class, and having a Kappa Kindergarten day where we distressed with coloring and other fun, nostalgic activities. Philanthropy events that Zeta Chi had the opportunity to take part in included visiting a nursing home within Poughkeepsie, taking the Polar Plunge for the Special Olympics, having a Bake Sale for Relay for Life, running a RIF event at Clinton Elementary School reading to children, creating a reading carnival for Bridges to Hope tutoring program, hosting a Bake Sale for Breast Cancer Awareness, and donating Christmas gifts to children through participating with Marist’s Giving Tree program.
One of the challenges that the Zeta Chi Chapter had to overcome was the large group of new members in the Spring of 2013. The Chapter had never taken in so many new girls at once and it was difficult to get used to the larger pledge class size. The Chapter overcame this challenge by trying even harder to get to know one another, meeting with owl pals, bonding the pledge class of 25, and attending sophomore, junior, and senior events to get to know the girls in each grade even better. Activities put on by Standards in our Core Groups, like Jeopardy focusing on Kappa facts and history, brought the Chapter and the new girls even closer together.
The recent changes on the Marist College campus the construction of the new Marist academic music building. The construction included the addition of the following departments, offices, and committees: academic affairs, faculty affairs, student affairs, information technology, the Student Government Association, dining services, alumni, and the Board of Trustees.
The planning process for this project was guided by a keen awareness of and commitment to sustainable practices as evidenced by the inclusion in the project of features such as a vegetative roof and rain garden for storm water control and energy efficient lighting, windows, curtain wall, and appliances. The new academic building also includes: three classrooms, a band rehearsal hall, a choral rehearsal and recital hall, nine practice rooms, a string ensemble room, a music library, a piano lab, a computer lab, a conference room, and four faculty offices. There was also the addition of a new and improved dining hall where there are large wooden trusses that support the cathedral ceiling and plenty of seating to fit hundreds of more students compared to the previous cafeteria.
The overall nature of the Zeta Chi Chapter is welcoming. We strive to welcome in girls that have dedication to academics and scholarship, leadership potential, and characteristics of a loving and caring friend that will make a memorable lifelong sister. Going from 14 Chapter Council Positions to 16, represents our passion to be a leader within the Chapter that can positively affect and bring together each and every sister. We love to have fun, involving ourselves within Chapter activities, and create memories that will last a lifetime.
Highlights of Spring 2014
This semester, Spring 2014, our recruitment was "Kappa and the City!" We to highlighedt all of the great resources that Kappa has to offer internationally. Of course, we demonstrated to the PNMs the bonds of sisterhood and the strength of our sorority. Over the past year standards has created kore groups, passed around the hoots jar, supportive sister and celebrated sisters are announced each week, as well as weekly standards meetings to check in with the sisters. So far this semester we hosted a Kappa Kappaccinos sale in order to raise money for the Special Olympics and the Polar Plunge that we took apart in February.
The Spring 2014 semester was filled with events to welcome the new pledge class, the Alpha Pi’s, and to unite our growing chapter of 111 women! Sisterhood events of the semester included supporting our sisters apart of the dance ensemble at the MCDE Dance show, we had some delicious chocolate fondue, relaxed before finals week with a yoga class and participated in an Off-Campus Safety Seminar. An especially exciting time, for our new members was the superhero-themed Greek Week! After a week filled with eating competitions, an adorable talent show, and a few sporting and field events, Zeta Chi was victorious and came in first place for sororities! This was a great time for new members to bond and show some Kappa spirit. Zeta Chi sent off our seniors with best wishes and few tears down by the river with a picnic.
The chapter was extremely active when it came to philanthropy and community service. Zeta Chi made teams for both Relay for Life and Autism Speaks Color Run. At Relay for Life Kappa raised $4,795 for the American Cancer Society and was the second highest fundraising team! Other events included participating in the Polar Plunge and selling Kappa Kappacchinos to support the Special Olympics, a bingo brunch at a local nursing home, and a Poughkeepsie cleanup with Marist’s fellow Greek organizations. For our spring RIF event, our philanthropy chair, Amera Labib, used her creativity and organized our first annual Kappa Kickball Tournament. Teams donated one book per team member, which was then donated to our reading carnival. The reading carnival, at a local elementary school’s after school program featured face painting, coloring, and each child went home with several books, a bookmark of their own creation and a smile on their face.
Highlights of Summer 2014
Zeta Chi's president Lauren Garner and advisor, Kait Smith attended the Kappa Kappa Gamma National Convention in Houston, Texas. Zeta Chi was very excited to receive honorable mentions in Panhellenic and Public Relations.
Highlights of Fall 2014
As the Fall Semester of 2014 progressed at Marist College, the Zeta Chi chapter continued to be as busy as ever. One challenge that our chapter had to overcome this semester was not holding recruitment and taking a new member class. However, the Zeta Chi chapter planned many events to keep the sisters involved and engaged! In September the Zeta Chi Chapter visited The Hudson Valley Animal Rescue Sanctuary (HVARS), which is a charity organization that specializes in rescuing and rehabilitating domestic wildlife as well as farm animals. The members of Zeta Chi helped with everyday activities such as cleaning, feeding, and playing with animals such as dogs, cats, and horses. Zeta Chi was also very active on the Marist Campus, having set up a booth at both the activity fairs and the parents weekend carnival.
Also in the month of September, Zeta Chi participated in their first sisterhood event, which was a private shopping trip to Francesca’s Boutique at the Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall. The girls found many cute owl, key, and fleur-de-lis items. During National Hazing Prevention Week, the Zeta Chi chapter along side other clubs at Marist College participated in a walk to raise awareness. All club members drew their hands on a large sign saying “These Hands Do Not Haze,” which is now hung up in the Champagnat (dormitory) breezeway.
In the month of October, the Zeta Chi Chapter participated in a philanthropy unity event with the other Greek organizations on campus called Habitat for Humanity Hut Awareness. This involved each Greek organization building a hut with cardboard. At the end, the cardboard that was collected by the Greek organizations was then recycled by the Habitat for Humanity club. Zeta Chi continued their tradition of having a Founder's Day event with alumni on October 13th, 2014. The education chair and registrar chapter council member planned the event on the Marist College campus in the Student Center. Members and alumni sat with their big/little family members and each family made a scrapbook page to be included in the end of semester scrapbook. Kappa also planned a sisterhood event for apple picking and pumpkin picking. The girls of Zeta Chi drank apple cider, picked apples, and took cute fall pictures with some pumpkins.
In the month of November, the girls of Zeta Chi were very busy. The next philanthropy event that Zeta Chi participated in was their annual Time to Be Thankful event. The girls of Zeta Chi visited the Pines Nursing Home in Poughkeepsie. They played games with the patients there and painted their nails. Kappa participated in another sisterhood event, Boxing, taught by Ron Lipton. There were two sessions of girls learning self defense and it was a great work out for all of those who participated. Another sisterhood event the girls participated in was going to Bounce, which is a indoor trampoline park. Also in the month of November, Leadership Consultant, Jo, came to visit. Many girls met with her and showed her the Marist College campus and the Poughkeepsie area. Zeta Chi participated in their semi-annual philanthropy event, Reading is Fundamental. This year, Zeta Chi held a Newlywed Game event between bigs and littles from all Greek organizations at Marist. We were able to raise $260 for Reading in Fundamental. The following weekend, Zeta Chi visited a local Poughkeepsie Youth Mission Outreach program and held a carnival for the children to participate in that included face painting, basketball, crafts, educational games and of course reading! Both events were very successful. On November 20th, Zeta Chi celebrated its 21st birthday. The girls of Zeta Chi walked around campus in their letters showing their love for their chapter, posted on social media and took pictures with a fun photo frame.
The first weekend of December, Zeta Chi held their annual Sapphire Ball at the Villa Borghese in Wappingers Falls. Each sister received a fun Kappa supperlative and enjoyed dancing the night away. Approaching finals week, we co-hosted a study break with Kappa Lambda Psi which included offering free coffee, hot chocolate and snacks to students in the library foyer. The weekend before finals, Zeta Chi held a holiday party which included a secret santa gift exchange and the first ever Kappa kash auction. Throughout the semester members earned "cash" for attending events and assisting chapter council members. They could then "bid" on various kappa goodies. The year was finished off with the election of a new Chapter Council.
Zeta Chi holds their weekly chapter meetings in a Marist College classroom in Donnelly Hall. Zeta Chi does not have housing for its members.
