| Eta Nu | |
|---|---|
| HN | |
 | |
| Founded | January 10, 2009 |
| College | Santa Clara University |
| Location | Santa Clara, CA |
| Homepage | Eta Nu Website |
| Media related to Eta Nu Chapter | |
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, Calif., established 1851
Eta Nu Founded January 10, 2009
77 Charter Members
547 initiates (as of June 2018)
Some of Chapter’s Outstanding Alumnae: (If you have chapter alumna who have received recognition in any of these three categories, please list them with the date(s) of recognition.)
Fraternity Council Officers:
Fraternity Loyalty Award Recipients:
Fraternity Alumnae Achievement Award Recipients:
Contents
History of University
Santa Clara University, founded in 1851 by the Society of Jesus as Santa Clara College, is California’s oldest institution of higher education. It was established on the site of Mission Santa Clara de Asís, the eighth of the original 21 California missions.
The college originally operated as a preparatory school and did not offer courses of collegiate rank until 1853. Following the Civil War, enrollment increased and by 1875, the size of the student body was 275. One-third of the students were enrolled in the collegiate division; the remainder attended the college’s preparatory and high school departments.
Santa Clara experienced slow and steady growth during its first 60 years, becoming the University of Santa Clara in 1912 when the schools of engineering and law were added. In 1925, the high school was separated from the university, taking the name of Bellarmine College Preparatory in 1928.
For 110 years, Santa Clara was an all-male school. In 1961, women were accepted as undergraduates, and Santa Clara became the first coeducational Catholic university in California. The number of students tripled over the next decade. The size of the faculty also tripled, and the university began the largest construction program in school history, building eight residence halls, a student union and the athletic stadium. In the early 1970s, the board of trustees voted to limit the size of the undergraduate population, an action that was intended to preserve the character and ensure the quality of the university for generations to come. In 1985, the university adopted Santa Clara University as its official name.
The 106-acre campus is located in Santa Clara, Calif., at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay, approximately two miles from San Jose International Airport. The university enjoys a moderate climate year-round; the sun shines approximately 300 days a year.
At the center of the campus is Mission Santa Clara de Asís, surrounded by the roses and palm trees of the historic Mission Gardens. The more than 50 buildings on campus include residence halls, two libraries, a student center and extensive athletic facilities.
Colonization
The colonization Recruitment was led by Joanie Cook Cohen, Colorado, and assisted by Coordinator of Chapter Development Amanda Compton Ruffo, UC Irvine; Chapter Consultant Jessica Myers, Washington; Leadership Consultant Kate Greene, Ohio State and Tara Singhal, Creighton. Also participating in this Recruitment were members from big sister chapter UC Davis assisted by the UC Berkeley and Stanford chapters. Recruitment events were held on the Kappa Alpha Theta patio, at St. Clare’s Catholic Church and in the tent Delta Gamma used for Recruitment. Kappa’s colonization Recruitment was a true Panhellenic experience.
Interviews for the charter class were conducted at the Starbucks immediately off campus as no events could be held on the campus where Greeks are not recognized by the university. Exceptional support was received from the members of the San Jose and East Bay Alumnae Associations as well as other associations in the Bay Area who eagerly participated in new member interviews and assumed positions on the advisory and house boards. Cristin Carone Sanchez, UC San Diego, opened her home for the planning and membership selection meetings. Eta Nu’s preference brunch and formal pledging were held at the San Jose Doubletree Inn where 87 new members were pledged on October 18, 2008.
The months before Eta Nu was installed were a unique period for the charter members of Eta Nu Chapter. The new members were able to bond and nourish the new chapter in a short time. These women worked hard to build a strong Kappa reputation on campus and build strong relationships with the Greek community at Santa Clara. They looked for philanthropy to support and developed a strong feeling of sisterhood. One of the chapter’s first social events was a lovely semi-formal held in November.
As a new chapter on campus, Eta Nu faced several challenges. Where to hold the weekly meetings was solved by making arrangements with St. Clare’s Church near campus. As the new kids on the block, the members faced judgments from those who were not ready to accept a new group on campus. The new members had to learn to open up and accept each other as sisters. This was accomplished very quickly and easily. They accomplished this by dividing the new members into small groups each week, meeting together and sharing stories about themselves. Through this, friendships were formed and the groups felt more comfortable with each other.
Installation
Eta Nu Chapter was installed on January 10, 2009, in a ceremony held in Berkeley. All ceremonies for this installation were held in the chapter house during the UC Berkeley winter break when the chapter members weren’t in residence. This made it possible for the Santa Clara charter members to spend the weekend nights sleeping in sleeping bags in the chapter house which gave them the experience of living in a chapter house. Several additional members from the other province chapters joined the charter members for this slumber party. The 77 charter members were warmly welcomed into the traditions and history of Kappa Kappa Gamma during their initiation.
Fraternity President Denise Rugani, UC Davis; Chapter Consultant Jessica Meyer, Washington and Pi Province Director of Chapters Amanda Compton Ruffo, UC Irvine, led the new members through a beautiful and memorable initiation. Extension Chairman Joanie Cook Cohen, Colorado, oversaw the installation planning.
Following the Fireside Friday evening, as everyone enjoyed dessert, the chapter received gifts from chapters and alumnae associations. A badge to be worn by the chapter president was given to the chapter by the San Francisco Bay alumnae associations; the philanthropy badge was presented by Joanie Cohen on behalf of the Denver Alumnae Association to be worn by the philanthropy chairman and a scholarship dangle to be worn or presented to a member as the chapter decided was presented by Carol George Sanders, Cal State Northridge.
The installation brunch followed the installation at the Clark Kerr Conference Center atrium and banquet room on campus. Chapter members from the UC Davis, UC Berkeley and Stanford chapters assisted with the installation. Members from the other Pi Province chapters and associations were there to welcome Eta Nu as the Fraternity’s newest chapter. This was a beautiful, sunny northern California weekend. This installation would not have been possible without the exceptional support of the UC Berkeley chapter, its house board, advisers and alumnae. It was a fabulous Kappa effort.
At the first chapter council meeting, Chapter Consultant Jessica Myers presented and displayed the archives which the Fraternity sent to Eta Nu to start its chapter archives. After initiation, the women continued to make an effort to establish the chapter’s role on campus as well as in the community. During the spring, the chapter held its first informal Recruitment and pledged 16 new members. These women were initiated as the quarter came to an end.
2009-2010
After a wonderfully relaxing summer, the members returned to campus refreshed and excited for the new year. One of the biggest changes and most exciting moments was getting its own chapter house. The house had been completely renovated during the summer and was beautiful with creative decorations such as small fleur-de-lis tiles in the floor. Seventeen amazing Kappas lived in the house this first year. The house made a huge difference in strengthening the chapter. The members were able to spend more time together and have a place for the meetings and sisterhood events.
The members were excited to plan and hold the chapter’s first official fall Recruitment. The themes for three of the days were Kappa is a Girl’s Best Friend, Dr. Seuss and the Secret Garden preference party. On October 14, 2009, Eta Nu pledged 41 new members.
In addition to a semi-formal, the chapter carried out several philanthropic activities. These included Kappa Kare Packages. Several groups of women put together small baskets of items such as decorated baby bibs, diapers, bottles and pacifiers. These baskets were given to a women’s shelter in San Francisco where they were given to 15 women with babies.
The chapter was composed of a diverse group of women who participated in all school events and were leaders, scholars and athletes who exuded compassion and leadership throughout the entire campus. After initiation in January 2010, the chapter had 118 members.
Since the chapter was only a year old, it was extremely difficult to make itself known and respected as those qualities come with time. Another hardship the chapter experienced was the dwindling participation in non-mandatory chapter events. The chapter made it a priority to be more involved and supportive. During that year, the members demonstrated through their actions and dedication that although a young chapter, it was a group of extremely strong and intellectual women who individually were amazing but together were unstoppable. The women of Eta Nu progressed immensely in 2009 and became stronger as a united unit which showed the true meaning behind sisterhood.
The 2010 year was one filled with chapter development and sisterhood events for the women of Eta Nu. Following winter break on January 9, 2010, 41 new members were initiated. The UC Berkeley chapter graciously welcomed Eta Nu to its chapter house for a beautiful initiation ceremony. Following this initiation, Eta Nu celebrated the chapter’s first anniversary.
Winter 2010 was filled with philanthropic and sisterhood events. The chapter had two teams participate in Alpha Phi’s star search and helped contribute to their philanthropic efforts. Eta Nu continued to show a campus-wide presence with a large turnout for Kappas to the Game and a successful parents weekend meet-and-greet at the chapter house. The winter Reading is Fundamental (RIF) event was a successful chapter book collection followed by reading to second-grade students in a nearby elementary school. Eta Nu brought home first and second place in Kappa Alpha Theta’s dodge ball tournament and proudly displayed the trophies in the chapter house. The annual Sapphire Ball was held at the beginning of February in the beautiful Corinthian Grand Ballroom in San Jose.
Spring quarter started with the chapter’s first on-campus Relay for Life and its first Kappapalooza event which raised more than $2,500 for an organization called Four Pearls and the Kappa Foundation. Eta Nu wore matching Kappapalooza tank tops and danced the night away with fellow students, sold auction tickets and manned the busy kitchen. The chapter won first place in Sigma Chi’s Derby Days. An Eta Nu member was chosen as the Derby Darling after a stellar performance in the athletic activities. At the spring Panhellenic awards event, Eta Nu won the award for Chapter Progress, and its member Christine Ahlstrom was elected Panhellenic President.
2010-2011
Fall Recruitment was successful resulting in welcoming 54 new members. The chapter celebrated the new pledge class with an interactive sisterhood at a sports venue filled with trampoline walls and floors. The chapter celebrated Founders Day with the San Jose Alumnae Association, and the fall pledge class was initiated November 13, 2010.
Eta Nu’s chapter house was located one block from the Santa Clara campus which made it the perfect gathering spot for the 160 members and their activities.
In addition to seeing the Kappa sisters, many incentives to attend the non-mandatory events such as apparel distribution and baked goods were instituted to emphasize the importance of attendance and reiterated what was considered a valid excuse.
Another challenge was getting to know each other in a chapter that had nearly tripled in size in three years. To assist with this, several small sisterhoods were held.
Highlights of 2011
In 2011, Eta Nu continued establishing itself as a leading fraternity on campus. It joined in every possible philanthropy event hosted by other Greek organizations, took an active role in the campus Panhellenic and fully involved itself in several clubs on campus. Eta Nu celebrated the second anniversary of its founding and looked forward to another building year.
Winter quarter 2011 began with the chapter hosting a Fraternity Trainer whose topic was developing bonding and trust between the members.
The chapter members participates in several philanthropies this year including Alpha Phi’s philanthropy Star Search, Jog for Jill walking in support of the late Berkeley Kappa Jill Costell, Mr. Casanova and Panhellenic’s fundraiser. To support RIF, Eta Nu supported Dr. Seuss Day by reading and making hats with children at a local elementary school.
Spring quarter began with a visit from Fraternity Leadership Consultant Kristin Hanricka. The members hosted an alumnae event at the Kappa Kastle chapter house. This was a huge success, and the members hoped it would become an annual event.
The chapter took part in several philanthropies this quarter including Theta dodge ball where it placed third and later that day its Evolution of Superior Being mural took first place; Sigma Chi hosted its Derby Days and Eta Nu took first place in the Fashion Show; Kappa held its Relay for Life and Delta Gamma hosted its annual Anchor Splash. Kappa Karnival was a huge hit and included a dunk tank and water obstacle course. The Greek Awards event was held in downtown San Jose where Eta Nu received the following individual awards: Greek Scholars Robin Landis and Carolyn Linck; Spirit of Service Ellen Thompson; Panhellenic Award of Distinction Megan Sopko and Charlotte Allen; and Outstanding New Member Dominque Troy. Eta Nu also received the Outstanding Chapter Program Award.
Fall quarter began with Recruitment and a visit from Leadership Consultant Kelcey Schmidt, Georgia Southern. The chapter celebrated its successful Recruitment with a 1980’s-themed bid night where the 57 new members were taken ice skating and to a potluck at the Kastle. This year the chapter celebrated Founders Day 2011 at the Kappa Kastle with many local alumnae
The chapter had now grown to 160 active members, and the chapter received an Academic Focus Letter from the Fraternity Council. Eta Nu met the challenge, and all its members shot for Pi, a new academic plan developed by the Vice President Academic Excellence.
Highlights of 2012
2012 was a great year for Santa Clara Kappas! We have officially established ourselves as a presence among the campus, enough so that our Panhellenic Council was able to add another sorority after our successful charter. Kappa joined in every possible philanthropy event that was hosted by other Greek organizations as we support all our other sorority sisters and try to keep the sense of community alive. Eta Nu was an active part of our Panhellenic delegation as well fully involved in various clubs and leadership roles around campus. Eta Nu celebrated its 3nd birthday of the Chapter's installment and looked forward to another successful year keeping our foothold as one of the top sororities.
Eta Nu’s winter quarter began quickly as our first week back was Initiation Week! Planned by our wonderful Marshal, the week was filled with bonding experiences for the Epsilon Class as well as the “families” within Kappa. Girls decorated they key boxes so that after receiving their keys, they would have a safe place to store them which would be unique to them. That Friday, Fireside was hosted at our wonderful Chapter House and then all the New Members as well as some actives drove to Sarah Bedford’s house in Hillsboro in order to have a sleepover before Saturday morning initiation. The remaining actives drove out the next morning bright and early to help set up and participate in the ritual. Many advisors and family members came and even some alumnae from the area. We were especially blessed to have the mother of our new sister, Erin Root and the sister of Ellie Mcquestion in attendance as well.
After that Eta Nu settled back into a regular routine. We elected our new officers and had a smooth transition period and officer voting that was overseen by Sareena Helton, the LC, when she came to visit us. Her trip was filled with fun adventures including the aquarium. Following a page from last year, we had a wonderful Sisterhood event to see the movie “The Vow” and there was not a dry eye in the theatre. Kappa supported Delta Gamma’s philanthropy event “Anchor Slam” by cheering on the competitors. Other philanthropies that Eta Nu was represented at included Jog for Jill: walking in support of the late Berkeley Kappa, Jill Costell as well as Alpha Phi Star Search where Eta Nu was able to show off our amazing dance-moves and support a great cause. Eta Nu also hosted a wonderful brunch and house tours during Parent’s Weekend as we left old shirts and pictures of events around the house so our parents could see the bonds we had formed.
March held two important events including the ever anticipated Sapphire Ball as well as our RIF day. To promote RIF, Eta Nu supported Dr. Suess' day by reading and making hats at a local elementary school where the Principal is a mother to a kappa. We also partook in a joint effort with Sigma Chi to host a team for Relay for Life so we could have people walking all 24 hours of the event. After working hard on our academics, Kappa placed 1st in the Panhellenic Compilation so we were able to compete in all events in the Spring as we were no longer on our “Focus Plan” - way to be academically excellent girls!
Spring for Eta Nu started off with the taking of the composite pictures. We had a wonderful date Dash of “Dynamic Duos” and girls were ever so creative. Kappa Alpha Theta's philanthropy, Theta Dodgeball, which allowed Eta Nu to demonstrate our athletic ability as we won after a fiercely competitive final round versus Alpha Phi. In keeping with our Philanthropic support, Kappa had multiple teams participate in Sigma Chi’s “Derby Days” where the senior team took first with their can construction of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Frattiness” design. The Juniors wow'd in the fashion show with their bathroom, and the rest of Eta Nu showed their talents during the Sigma Sing-Off. Kappa placed second overall at the event which we were very pleased about as we always enjoy supporting great causes.
Next, Eta Nu supported Sigma Pi’s philanthropy by participating in their All-Day Volleyball Tournament where after a heated battle, we placed 2nd overall. Congrats Girls! As spring is always filled with philanthropy events, Greek Awards are hosted reward all of our hard work as a Panhellenic Association. This year, Kappa was recognized for Outstanding Fraternity Values, Outstanding New Member Program and Outstanding New Member, Cynthia Baricevic. Our biggest honor was being named Outstanding Chapter of the Year! This was our first time and hopefully not our last!
For sisterhood, we took a wonderful hike up and around Palo Alto and some of our pictures made it to the cover photo for the Kappa Kappa Gamma Facebook page. We were very excited about this! Kappa Karnival had a record of 34 teams participate and continues to grow as our annual event gathers more awareness. The day was perfect weather to walk around the carnival-like events and eat popcorn, snow-cones, and cotton-candy. We were able to raise over $700 at the door and over $2000 from the teams! We were even dubbed with the title of being Sigma Chi’s “Favorite Event of the Spring Quarter”. While Karnival may have been Sigma Chi’s favorite event, the girls favorite event was our Kappa Kandyland themed Spring Semi-Formal Dance. The venue, located in downtown San Jose overlooked the city which gave us some gorgeous views when we could tear ourselves away from the dance floor. To end the night, the juniors, sophomores and freshman sent our seniors off in style with a VERY enthusiastic O-Pat. We were sorry to see them graduate in June, but very excited to see how they continue to stay apart of Kappa Kappa Gamma!
As always, Fall Quarter began with a multitude of recruitment practices leading up to heavily anticipated Fall Recruitment! We had a surprise sisterhood to Santa Cruz for a fun day at the beach and of course, an opportunity for some wonderful pictures. This was a great way to let off some steam and catch-up before school started. Eta Nu’s attitude was always positive and it paid off as we received a fantastic Zeta Class of 51 members!
We could not have asked for a better group of girls to accept into our family after a fun-filled night of bowling during Bid-Day and everyone wore our adorable Recruitment/Bid-Day Shirts to “Stay Golden”. The New Member program began shortly after that and continued throughout the fall quarter. After recruitment, Eta Nu was blessed with a phenomenal visit from LC, Kristi Watts. We loved her Southern Charm and her ability to connect with every girl she met in our chapter. She met with all council members and was able to co-teach a Zumba class with one of her fellow Texans at the house, Eta Nu definitely has some moves! We were sad to see her leave but look forward to her upcoming visit in the Spring.
Fall held a varieties of mixers including ones with fraternities as well as a Cookie-Exchange with the newest addition to Santa Clara Panhellenic, Alpha Delta Pi. This was a great way for Eta Nu to help show their support of the new Sorority as well as meet their Charter Class. We also supported a local philanthropy, Project Open-Hands, as girls served meals to the homeless.
For Founders Day, Eta Nu was invited to attend the Brunch hosted by the San Jose Alumnae Association. We had so much fun getting to mix and mingle with them as well as bring goodies and food to help celebrate. Our Panhellenic Delegation arranged for a speaker to talk to all the Sororities about how to protect ourselves, “Girls Fight Back”. Many girls loved the enthusiasm the speaker showed as well as the audience participation and the sound effects.
Another Panhellenic event, Greek Gatsby was hosted and Kappa participated by donating a basket for the silent auction as well as having girls attend the event. It was a fun-filled night for the greek community and Panhellenic was able to raise money for a wonderful charity. One of the highlights of Fall Quarter was our new annual fall Semi-Formal event, Kappa Korral! Hosting a western-themed dance in the backyard was extremely fun as girls tried to two-step the night away with their dates. Hay-bales and saddles were generously donated for the night so pictures could be taken highlighting our theme. Girls enjoyed the atmosphere, music and the wonderful snacks! Our Fall closed with Big/Little Reveal Week! As always, this week was filled with presents, surprises, sweat, tears and QUITE a few late nights. It went off without a hitch and all the families welcomed everyone their clan in a varieties of outfits and surprises. We are glad that everyone was able to participate!
Eta Nu was also recognized on the national level for Honorable Mention for our Risk Management program. This was the first time that Eta Nu was recognized on a national level. We are very excited for what is to come in 2013.
This past year, our Panhellenic Council added a new sorority, Alpha Delta Pi. This makes five total sororities associated with our Panhellenic council. Alpha Delta Pi rushed after the other sororities had met quota and had quite a turnout. They have been a great addition and we are excited about the expanding greek life. Eta Nu is located approximately one block from Santa Clara University's campus. Our chapter house is home to 18 girls and our house mother and is a welcoming home for all our sisters. While we are only associated with the city of Santa Clara, all our members attend Santa Clara University. Santa Clara University is located in Santa Clara, California where palm trees and flowers cover the campus.
The campus is extremely picturesque and has over 5,000 undergraduate students as well as an additional 3,000 graduate students. Undergraduate students are in one of three schools: The College of Arts and Sciences, the Leavey School of Business, or the The School of Engineering. Additionally for graduate students there is a school of Law and the Counseling Psychology, Education, and Pastoral Ministries program. Students have an array of 44 majors to pick from as well as many other minors. Santa Clara University is continually growing and improving their academic reputation.
Highlights of 2013
2013 was an outstanding year for the Santa Clara Kappa Kappa Gamma Eta Nu chapter! We not only were active in all possible philanthropy events, but Eta Nu really showed that we were Panhellenic women as demonstrated through our overwhelming support of our fellow Greek organizations. We also help various school leadership positions and continue to be involved in a variety of organizations and clubs on campus. Eta Nu celebrated its 4th birthday as a Chapter and look forward to the many memories that lie ahead for us!
Our winter Quarter began again with Initiation Week. This was a great way for all the girls to return after Christmas break and catch up with our sisters who had returned from studying abroad and really focus on what Kappa meant to each of us. Activities for the week ranged between decorating boxes for their new badges as well as family dinners and movie nights. This year, Initiation took place at the University of California Berkeley house. All the girls drove up on Friday afternoon and Fireside took place as to begin the process. Many family members of actives and new members were able to attend and it really made the ceremony special for everyone involved. Saturday morning, initiation took place and all the young ladies were added to our Eta Nu chapter! We could not be happier to call these ladies are sisters, “not four years, but for life!”
The next big step for Eta Nu was officer elections and transitions. The Nominating Committee really took the time and effort to consider our next future leaders of the chapter and we could not be happier with our Chapter Council. Our girls did some fantastic dancing in support of the Alpha Phi’s “Star Search” as well as the Panhellenic throwback event, the “Greek Gatsby.” Eta Nu proudly supported both these causes through our participation and donations. The First annual “Kappa Karoke” took place, our new winter Philanthropy event. We had an overwhelming response and our campus and fellow Greeks really rallied behind the cause and made it a fantastic success. For Parents’ Weekend, Eta Nu held an open house reception so girls could show their parents our house and what “being a kappa” meant to them. A variety of t-shirts, photos and food were all on display to welcome the parents. This was a huge success especially with all the baked goods our girls contributed! Also, some of our members were invited down to the installation of Eta Rho Chapter in Cal Poly. We loved being involved and supporting other chapters in the area and are looking forward to keeping close relations with them.
Spring quarter is always a busy blast for Eta Nu. The sun is shining and the Greek system really comes out in full force! Spring for Eta Nu started off with the taking of our composite pictures. Later that week we all bonded over a showing of “Bridesmaids” in our wonderful Kappa Kastle. We all gathered in our cozy little room and shared a night of fun and laughter. A week later, we had the pleasure of hosting our LC, Kristi Watts, for the second time. Our Chapter loved spending the week with Kristie through ice cream dates, country concerts, and movie marathons! That weekend Eta Nu had the pleasure of attending Pi Province. Many of our sisters attended and had the opportunity to experience one of the great opportunities we have to get to know our sisters in our area. Eta Nu was so excited to receive two awards: Standards Award and Most Improved Academics Award. We were the only Chapter to receive two awards, proving to be a very proud moment for us as a Chapter!
It was a great day filled with fun memories for all! Later that week, our Chapter was surprised with an America Themed Date Dash! What we thought would be a workshop, quickly turned into girls scrambling around, finding a date, and pulling out our red, white, and blue! Sisterhood for Eta Nu continued as we gathered in the “Rose Gardens” for a day of fun activities and bonding. Our sisters love being outdoors and enjoying the sunshine in the Spring. That week Eta Nu celebrated with our Spring Semi-Formal- Kappa Kaliente. It is always a wonderful to dance the night away with our sisters. To end the night, the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen sent the seniors off in style with a VERY enthusiastic O-Pat. We were sorry to see them graduate in June, but very excited to see how they continue to stay apart of Kappa in the future! We were very busy that week as our big philanthropy event, Kappa Karnival, was that Saturday. The day was perfect weather to walk around the carnival-like events and eat popcorn, snow-cones, and cotton-candy. We were very proud to raise over $1600! Sororities, Fraternities, and other organizations love to participate in our philanthropy events, as we do in theirs! Spring is filled with many Philanthropy events for our Greek System. Kappa Alpha Theta’s philanthropy, Theta Dodgeball, allows Eta Nu to demonstrate our enthusiastic athletic ability!
In keeping with Philanthropic support, Kappa had multiple teams participate in Sigma Chi’s “Derby Days.” The week was filled with exciting events, followed by a fashion show in which our Kappa Seniors dressed up as various board games and stole the show! Next, Kappa supported Sigma Pi’s philanthropy by participating in an all day beach volleyball event. We all loved having some fun in the sun while supporting a great cause! As Spring is always filled with many philanthropy events, Greek Awards are hosted to reward all of our hard work as a Panhellenic Association. Eta Nu was honored to receive Outstanding Chapter Development and Outstanding Philanthropic Commitment. Every year we look forward to these awards as they acknowledge all the hard work or our Greek community! As the quarter came to a close, the seniors celebrated their wonderful memories in Kappa Kappa Gamma by having a Senior Brunch and Tea. The seniors had a chance to gather together and reflect on how special their experience has been in Kappa thus far.
As always, Fall Quarter began with a multitude of recruitment practices leading up to a heavily anticipated Fall Recruitment! Our quarter started off with an exciting date dash with the theme “Opposites Attract.” It was so fun to see our sisters get creative and come up with silly costumes for the evening! Our Quarter continued with a visit from our LC, Page Tompkins. We loved getting to know Page and were so lucky to have her with us during our week leading up to Recruitment! Our hard work and passion throughout Recruitment proved to pay off when we received a fantastic Eta class of 46 members! We could not have asked for a better group of girls to accept into our family after a fun-filled night of bowling during Bid-Day and everyone wore our adorable Recruitment/Bid Day Shirts. The New Member program began shortly after and continued throughout the fall quarter.
Soon after Bid Day, Eta Nu gathered to celebrate our Founder’s Day. We celebrated at our beautiful house with brunch, bonding, and learning for all! That week, our sisters gathered with Sigma Chi and had our second annual Powderpuff Football Game. The week was filled with fun activities such as our team draft, Thanksgiving Dinner, and intense practices all leading up to the big game Saturday. The day was filled with enthusiasm and fun for all, but the best part was that throughout this process we were able to collect school supplies to send to a school in the Philippines.
Philanthropy continued with visits to Project Open-Hands, a local philanthropy that serves meals to the homeless. Every year Eta Nu loves going back and supporting this organization. That week, Eta Nu was surprised with a Sisterhood to Sky High! This was a wonderful night filled with jumping on trampolines, intense games of dodgeball, and chances to catch up with new and active members. Eta Nu LOVED our visit to Sky High and hope to go again in the future! Our quarter continued with our Fall Semi Dance- When In Rome. The girls loved the venue, food, and dancing. Semi dances are always a favorite memory for Eta Nu! This took us to Thanksgiving break and followed with one of the most anticipated weeks of the year…Big Little Week!! As always, this week is filled with presents, surprises, sweat, tears, and QUITE a few late nights. It went off without a hitch and all the families welcomed their new addition to the clan with an array of silly outfits and surprises. We are glad everyone was able to participate and share in one of the best nights of the year!
Eta Nu is located approximately one block from Santa Clara University's campus. Our chapter house is home to 18 girls and our housemother and is a welcoming home for all our sisters. While we are only associated with the city of Santa Clara, all our members attend Santa Clara University. Santa Clara University is located in Santa Clara, California where palm trees and flowers cover the campus. The campus is extremely picturesque and has over 5,000 undergraduate students as well as an additional 3,000 graduate students. Undergraduate students are in one of three schools: The College of Arts and Sciences, the Leavey School of Business, or the The School of Engineering. Additionally for graduate students there is a school of Law and the Counseling Psychology, Education, and Pastoral Ministries program. Students have an array of 44 majors to pick from as well as many other minors. Santa Clara University is continually growing and improving their academic reputation. There was construction along our front drive leading up to the mission and now it is a pedestrian walkway with a gorgeous fountain in front. Our campus continues to improve itself and rise in rankings not only among the most beautiful campuses across the nation but as well as academically.
Highlights of 2014
2014 was an outstanding year for the Santa Clara Kappa Kappa Gamma Eta Nu Chapter! Eta Nu remains to stay active in all possible philanthropy events and our Santa Clara community. Eta Nu Kappas participate in various school leadership positions and continue to be involved in a variety of organizations and clubs on campus. We are so proud of everything we have accomplished this past year and only hope to grow and succeed in the years to come!
Our Winter Quarter began quickly with Initiation Week. This week is very special to our Chapter as it gives us the chance to catch up with our sisters who have returned from study abroad. Our Eta Nu family is together again and we can focus on what Kappa means to each of us. Activities during the week ranged from decorating badge boxes to family dinners and movie nights. For the third year in a row, Initiation took place at the University of California, Berkeley house. The weekend began with Fireside on Friday night followed by Initiation on Saturday morning. Many family members of actives and new members were able to attend, making it very special for our Chapter. Eta Nu was very excited to initiate 44 young women into our sisterhood.
Winter quarter continued with officer elections and transitions. As always, the Nominating Committee spends a lot of time and effort in considering the next future leaders of the chapter. We could not be happier with the group of women that came together to lead Eta Nu through another successful year. Keeping busy in our community, our girls did some fantastic dancing in support of Alpha Phi’s “Star Search.” Eta Nu proudly supports philanthropy events through our participation and donations. Eta Nu was very excited to hold our Second Annual “Kappa Karaoke” event. Eta Nu raised over $600 for the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation! We had a great response from our community in support of the event. Everyone had so much fun at the event and we look forward to more successful years of Karaoke.
For our Winter Sisterhood Event, Eta Nu came together and made Valentine’s Day cards for members in our chapter. Each member was assigned another member at random and hand made a cute card for the girl. Not only was the day filled with crafts and fun, but we had Chipotle to feed our hungry stomachs! The following week Eta Nu celebrated with our annual Sapphire Ball Formal Dance. This is a favorite event for Eta Nu as it gives us all the chance to come together and have a wonderful evening of fun and dancing.
For Parents’ Weekend, Eta Nu held an open house reception for girls to show their parents our house and what “being a kappa” means to them. A variety of t-shirts, photos, and food were on display to welcome our parents. As always, our “KKG” letters were placed outside the house for our sisters and parents to take pictures together!
Every year our Chapter looks forward to visiting local elementary schools in support of Reading is Fundamental. In 2014, we had a huge turn out of girls who wanted to participate in the event. As always, Eta Nu goes on Dr. Seuss Day! This is such a fun way to be creative and silly with the children. This year we were thrilled to be able to supply every child with 2 books! Our Chapter Council was excited to make a team for Delta Gamma’s Philanthropy Event, Anchor Slam (a basketball tournament). We were even more excited when our girls won the entire event and brought home a winning plaque to hang in our living room!
As our quarter came to a close, our Academic Excellence VP kept us all in check by putting a strong emphasis on Academic Excellence Month. Academics stayed on our minds through the various events planned for us. From ice cream to guest speakers, Eta Nu was happy to talk about how to better our academics and achievements!
Spring quarter is always a busy, yet fun time for Eta Nu! The sun is shining in beautiful Santa Clara and many philanthropy events take place! Spring for Eta Nu started off with the taking of our composite pictures. Later that week a few girls from our Chapter traveled and helped with Princess Project. This event gives high school girls the opportunity to pick out prom dresses and accessories. Eta Nu always looks forward to attending this event and helping the girls look beautiful. That same day, other Kappas were busy supporting Alpha Delta Pi’s Philanthropy Event, Country Club Cup. It was a beautiful Spring day filled with fun, laughter and country club games.
A few weeks later, we had the pleasure of hosting our LC, Page, for the second time. Our Chapter loved spending the week with Page. Soon after, Eta Nu celebrated together with our Spring Fling Semi Dance. It is always a wonderful event to dance the night away with our sisters. To end the night, the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen sent the seniors off in style with a very enthusiastic O-Pat. We were sorry to see them graduate in June, but very excited to see how they continue to stay apart of Kappa in the future! We were very busy that week as our big philanthropy event, Kappa Karnival, was that Saturday. The day was perfect weather to walk around the carnival-like events and eat popcorn, snow-cones, and cotton-candy. We were very proud to raise $6,367 for Lymelight Foundation! The Lymelight Foundation is very close to Eta Nu’s heart as it was founded by one of our member’s family who suffers from Lymes disease. Sororities, Fraternities, and other organizations love to participate in our philanthropy events, as we do in theirs!
Spring is filled with many Philanthropy events for our Greek System. Kappa Alpha Theta’s philanthropy, Theta Dodgeball, allows Eta Nu to demonstrate our enthusiastic athletic ability! In keeping with Philanthropic support, Kappa had multiple teams participate in Sigma Chi’s “Derby Days.” The week consisted of various events ranging from a can drive, fashion show and sing off. We were so happy as our Junior Team won the weeks events! Next, Kappa supported Sigma Pi’s philanthropy by participating in an all day beach volleyball event. We all loved having some fun in the sun while supporting a great cause.
Later that Spring, Greek Awards are hosted to reward all of our hard work as a Panhellenic Association. Eta Nu was happy to receive The Outstanding Scholarship Award. Some of our members won individual awards such as the Outstanding New Member Award, Greek Scholar Award, Spirit of Service Award, and Panhellenic Award of Distinction. Every year we look forward to these awards as they acknowledge all the hard work of our members and Greek community! As the quarter came to a close, the seniors celebrated their wonderful memories in Kappa Kappa Gamma by having a Senior Brunch and Tea. The seniors had a last chance to gather together and reflect on how special their experience in Kappa has been thus far.
As always, Fall Quarter began with a multitude of recruitment practices leading up to a heavily anticipated Fall Recruitment! Chapter Morale started high as our President announced we received honorable mention for Recruitment and won the Gracious Living Award at Convention 2014! Our Chapter was very excited to be recognized for our hard work and we only hope to continue to grow and live up to our full potential. We were so excited to welcome our LC, Whitney, into our house. From beach adventures, movie time and talking about Kappa, we loved getting to know Whitney. We had such a fun week with Whitney and hope she comes back for a visit with us soon!
Our hard work and passion throughout Recruitment proved to pay off when we received a fantastic Theta class of 48 members! We were beyond thrilled to welcome such a genuine, thoughtful and fun-loving pledge class into our family. We all celebrated with a fun-filled night of Bid-Day bowling. Our Bid Day Theme was “Only the Best Get Picked.” Everyone wore our adorable Recruitment/Bid Day Shirts and flower headbands. The New Member program began shortly after and continued throughout the fall quarter.
Soon after Bid Day, Eta Nu gathered to celebrate our Founder’s Day. We celebrated at a Kappa Alumni’s beautiful house with brunch, bonding, and learning for all. The following weekend, Eta Nu was thrilled to have our very first New Member Presentations. The day was filled with breakfast treats, family, friends, and recognizing each individual member of our Theta Class. This is a tradition Eta Nu looks forward to continuing in the future!
Soon after, our sisters gathered with Sigma Chi and had our third annual Powderpuff Football Game. The week was filled with fun activities such as our team draft, Thanksgiving Dinner, and intense practices all leading up to the big game Saturday. The day was filled with enthusiasm and fun for all, but the best part was that throughout this process we were able to donate toiletries and diapers to Next Door, a women’s shelter. Philanthropy continued with a visit to Milpitas Food Bank, a local philanthropy that serves meals to the residents of Milpitas.
Later that week, our New Member Chairman held our annual New Member Retreat. The girls engaged in group-bonding exercises where the Theta class was grouped off and asked to brainstorm what Kappa means to them and then shared their answers with their class. All in all, the retreat served as a bonding opportunity between the Theta class members and was a very successful event. The quarter continued with our Fall Semi Dance- Fall Ball. The girls loved the venue, food, and dancing. Semi dances are always a fun night for the ladies of Eta Nu.
This took us to Thanksgiving break and followed with our last week before Christmas break. Eta Nu was surprised at Chapter with a Christmas Cookie Decorating Sisterhood! It was so fun to see everyone in their Christmas gear and share our holiday cheer before Christmas Break. We took a Chapter Christmas card photo that was sent to all our family and friends! As always, the last week of Fall Quarter is also Big Little Week! This week is filled with presents, surprises, sweat, laughs, tears, and many late nights for the big sisters. The week was great and all the families welcomed their new addition to the clan with an array of silly outfits and surprises. We are glad everyone was able to participate and share in one of the best nights of the year!
Most of the changes Eta Nu Chapter has experienced in the past year has been due to shifts in The Panhellenic Council. Since we are not affiliated with Santa Clara University, our community relies heavily on this council to manage our Greek community. Over the last year, Panhellenic Council went from having one advisor to having two new advisors. Furthermore, Panhellenic Council has changed the way the council positions are elected. Positions are now elected by an annual rotating system amongst sororities, with Panhellenic President and VP Recruitment elected by the Panhellenic Council itself. We hope that these changes will help Panhellenic Council to become more efficient and successful in the future.
Eta Nu Chapter would be described as a group of genuine, educated, and passionate young women. We constantly thrive to better ourselves and our community through chapter education, community outreach, and sisterhood bonding. Our Chapter values taking care of one another and looking out for the best interest of our members. We value and appreciate the differences between one another. We hold true the importance of our sisterhood and care we have for one another. We are a strong group of young women that strive to continuously push ourselves and reach our full potential.
Our chapter meetings take place in a rented facility, The American Legion, about 5 minutes away from our chapter house. Eta Nu has lived in our beautiful house for the past 5 years. All members have the opportunity to live in the house. We rent our house from a local realty company, Real Source Property Management. 18 sisters can live in the house at a time. Our chapter has always lived in the same house.
Highlights of 2015
Santa Clara Kappa Kappa Gamma Eta Nu Chapter had an excellent year in 2015! Eta Nu Kappas continue to participate in various school leadership positions and stay involved in a variety of organizations and clubs on campus. Eta Nu remains to be active in all possible philanthropy events and in our Santa Clara community. We are very proud of everything we have accomplished this past year and only hope to grow and excel in the coming years!
Winter Quarter started off strong with Initiation Week. This week is very special to our Chapter because it gives us a chance to connect with our Kappa sisters and values. It also allows us to catch up with our sisters who have returned from their study abroad adventures. Having our Eta Nu family together again reminds us of the important role Kappa plays in each of our lives. Activities during the week range from an ice skating sisterhood event to family dinners and a ceremony for the return of the New Member pin. For the fourth year in a row, Initiation was held at the University of California, Berkeley house. The weekend started with Fireside on Friday night followed by Initiation on Saturday morning. Family members of actives and new members were able to attend, making it very special for our Chapter. Eta Nu was very happy to initiate 48 young women into our sisterhood. Winter quarter continued quickly with officer elections and transitions. As always, the Nominating Committee spent a lot of time and effort in considering the next future leaders of the chapter. We could not be more pleased with the group of women that have come together to lead Eta Nu through another strong year as a chapter. Keeping active in the Santa Clara Greek Community, our members showcased some fantastic dance moves in support of Alpha Phi’s “Star Search.” Eta Nu proudly supports other philanthropy events through our participation and donations. Eta Nu celebrated our successful quarter with our annual Sapphire Ball Formal Dance. This is a favorite event for Eta Nu as it gives us all a chance to come together and have a wonderful evening of fun along with lots of singing and dancing. The following week Eta Nu was very excited to hold our Second Annual “Kappa Karaoke” event in which other students create teams and perform. Eta Nu raised over $1,200 for the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation! We had a great response from our community in support of the event. Everyone had so much fun at the event, we look forward to our future events held for the foundation. For Parents’ Weekend, Eta Nu held an open house reception for girls to show their parents our house and what “being a kappa” means to them. A variety of t-shirts, photos, and food were on display to welcome our parents. As always, our “KKG” letters were placed outside the house for our sisters and parents to take pictures together! In addition to showing off our house, we raised over $250 for books that we donated at our Reading is Fundamental event. Every year our Chapter looks forward to visiting local elementary schools in support of Reading is Fundamental. In 2015, we had a huge showing of girls who wanted to participate in the event. As always, Eta Nu goes on Dr. Seuss Day! This is such a fun way to be creative and silly with the children. This year we were thrilled to be able to supply every child with 2 books! Our chapter is looking forward to reading and playing with the children again next year! Girls from our chapter were excited to make teams for Delta Gamma’s Philanthropy Event, Anchor Slam (a basketball tournament). As our quarter came to a close, our Vice President of Academic Excellence kept us all in check by celebrating Academic Excellence Month. Academics stayed on our minds through the various events planned for us. From ice cream to guest speakers and daily study rooms, Eta Nu was happy to talk about and support the bettering of our academics and achievements!
Spring quarter continues to be a busy, yet fun time for Eta Nu! The sun is shining in beautiful Santa Clara and many philanthropy events take place! Spring for Eta Nu started off with our smiling members taking their composite pictures. A few weeks later, we were lucky enough to send some of our Chapter Council to the Regional Leadership Conference in Fresno, CA. Officers were able to talk to other Kappa’s from all over the West Coast and get ideas on how to better each chapter. We had the pleasure of driving back from our conference with our lovely LC, Riley. Our Chapter loved spending the week with Riley and enjoyed gaining new insight on how to make Eta Nu the best it can be. Soon after, Eta Nu celebrated the end of the year together with our Spring Fling Semi Dance. It is always a wonderful event to dance the night away with our sisters. To end the night, the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen sent the seniors off in style with a very enthusiastic O-Pat. We were very busy that week as our big philanthropy event, Kappa Karnival, was that Saturday. The day had perfect weather to walk around the carnival-like events and eat pizza, snow-cones, and chicken wings. We were very proud to raise $8,738 for Lymelight Foundation! The Lymelight Foundation is very close to Eta Nu’s heart as it was founded by one of our sister’s family, as she suffers from Lymes disease. Sororities, Fraternities, and other organizations love to participate in our philanthropy events, as we do in theirs! Spring is filled with many Philanthropy events for our Greek System. Kappa Alpha Theta’s philanthropy, Theta Dodgeball, allows Eta Nu to demonstrate our enthusiastic athletic ability! In keeping with support throughout the Greek community, Kappa had multiple teams participate in Sigma Chi’s “Derby Days.” The week consisted of various events ranging from a can drive, fashion show and sing off. Next, Kappa supported Sigma Pi’s philanthropy by participating in an all day beach volleyball tournament. We all loved having some fun in the sun while supporting a great cause. Later that Spring, Greek Awards were hosted to reward all of our hard work as a Panhellenic Association. Eta Nu was happy to receive awards for outstanding scholarship, outstanding new member education, and outstanding sisterhood. Every year we look forward to these awards as they acknowledge all the hard work of our members and Greek community! As the quarter and academic year came to a close, the seniors celebrated their wonderful memories in Kappa Kappa Gamma by having a Senior Brunch and Tea. The seniors had a last chance to gather together and reflect on how special their experience in Kappa has been thus far. We were sorry to see them graduate in June, but very excited to see how they continue to stay apart of Kappa in the future!
After a long summer, Fall Quarter began with a multitude of recruitment practices leading up to a heavily anticipated Fall Recruitment! Chapter Morale was high after a fun week filled with bonding activities in preparation for recruitment. We were so excited to welcome our LC, Whitney, into our house. From park adventures, movie time and talking about our Kappa experiences, we loved getting to know Whitney. We had such a fun week and hope Whitney comes back for a visit with Eta Nu soon! Sisterhood day of recruitment was a themed day and our chapter wore lavender and white outfits. The backyard was decorated in lavender, white, and grey decorations. We had 325 PNMs come to Kappa that day. The next day was Philanthropy Day, and we were allowed to invite back 198 PNMs. The second day we wore different shades of blue dresses and made Dr. Seuss decorations for the backyard. Our assistant philanthropy chairman and a fellow junior gave a presentation to the PNMs about the different philanthropies we help. The next night was Preference Night and we had 98 girls come back to our house.
The actives wore navy dresses and the theme was "A Golden Opportunity" so there were plenty of gold and glittery decorations in the backyard. We read surprise letters to the actives and made a toast to Kappa--it was a really lovely night. Our hard work and passion throughout Recruitment proved to pay off when we received a fantastic Iota class of 52 members! We were beyond thrilled to welcome such an involved, gracious and cheerful pledge class into our family. We all celebrated with a fun-filled night of Bid-Day bowling. Our Bid Day Theme was “Kappily Ever After.” Everyone wore our adorable Recruitment/Bid Day Shirts and all sorts of girly tutu’s and tiaras. The New Member program began shortly after and continued throughout the fall quarter. Soon after Bid Day, Eta Nu gathered to celebrate our Founder’s Day. We celebrated at our house with brunch, bonding, and Kappa trivia bingo! Soon after, our sisters gathered with Sigma Chi and had our fourth annual Powderpuff Football Game. The week was filled with fun activities such as our team draft, Thanksgiving Dinner, and intense practices all leading up to the big game Saturday. The day was filled with enthusiasm and fun for all, but the best part was that throughout this process we were able raise money and donate to RIF and the Julian Street Inn, a homeless shelter. Later that week, our New Member Chairman held our annual New Member Retreat. The girls engaged in group-bonding exercises where the Iota class was grouped off and asked to brainstorm what Kappa means to them and then shared their answers with their class. They also made an adorable introductory video that was sent to all of the girls studying abroad so that they can start to learn the names of all the new Kappa’s!
All in all, the retreat served as a bonding opportunity between the Iota class members and was a very successful event. The quarter continued with our Fall Semi Dance- Fall Ball. The girls loved the venue, food, and dancing. Semi dances are always a fun night for the ladies of Eta Nu. This took us to Thanksgiving break and followed with our last week before Christmas break. As always, the last week of Fall Quarter is also Big Little Week! Most Bigs spent their breaks excitedly crafting away for the new members of their Kappa families. This week is filled with presents,surprises, sweat, laughs, tears, and many late nights for the big sisters. The week was great and all the families welcomed their new addition to the clan with an array of silly outfits and surprises. We are glad everyone was able to participate and share in one of the best nights of the year! We are very proud of the successful year Eta Nu had and cannot wait to see what will come in 2016!
Most of the changes that Eta Nu has encountered in the past year have been due to adjusting to the new Panhellenic Council. Greek life is not affiliated with Santa Clara University, so we rely heavily on the direction from our Panhellenic Council to manage the greek community. Eta Nu had three representatives on the Panhellenic Council this past year: Panhellenic Treasurer, Secretary, and our Panhellenic Delegate. With the advocacy of these members, Kappa Kappa Gamma continues to be as well informed as we can be about upcoming events and happenings.
The women of Eta Nu can best be described as caring, genuine, academic, personable, and involved individuals. We emphasize the importance of bettering ourselves individually and as a chapter through our community involvement, chapter education, and sisterhood bonding. Our chapter never fails to take care of one another and look out for the best interest of each member. We value and support the differences between each other. It is important for us to hold true to our sisterhood and care that we have for each and every member. Eta Nu is a group of strong women that strive to support each other in order to reach our full potential.
Chapter Philanthropy:
The organization in our community that Eta Nu supports is the Lymelight Foundation. This organization raises money to provide grants children in order for them to receive proper treatment, as well as raise awareness. The reason Eta Nu chose this organization is because it was founded by one of our sister’s family, as she suffers from Lymes disease. As a Chapter we wanted to show our support for our sister and her family as they strived to help others who suffered from this disease. To raise money for Lymelight Foundation, Eta Nu hosts our annual Kappa Karnival during Spring Quarter. This past Spring we were able to raise $8,738 for Lymelight! We also show our continuous support to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation and to Reading is Fundamental. In order to raise money for Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation, we host Kappa Karaoke in Winter Quarter. Eta Nu was proudly able to raise $1,224 for the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation! Our main form of donation for RIF is donating books to a local schools. Eta Nu’s favorite event in supporting RIF is when our sisters have the opportunity to visit Briarwood Elementary School on Dr. Seuss Day. In preparation for this event we had sisters and their parents donate books at our Open House during Parents’ Weekend. Our Chapter collected a total of 65 new books for this event and raised $255 for RIF! On this day we read to kids in three different classrooms, do Cat in the Hat crafts, and this year we were able to send each child home with 2 books! Eta Nu is very proud for all of the hard work that we put in to raise money for our organizations!
Highlights of 2016
Eta Nu started off 2016 strong with an academic and event-filled quarter. “I-week,” or initiation week, was held the first week back to campus where the older girls prepared for the upcoming rituals of initiation and the new member class bonded together decorating their pin boxes and spending time with their families. At Santa Clara, we are in a unique position where most of our juniors go abroad during fall quarter—we had 23 out of 35 members of our Eta class studying outside the U.S. in 2015! They were welcomed back with open arms and were thrilled to meet the new “littles” of their families. Per initiation tradition, the Eta Nu chapter traveled to the Kappa Kappa Gamma house at UC Berkeley on a Friday afternoon to host Fireside the night before initiation. The newest pledge class had a night full of bonding and after a short sleep, got initiated alongside their other Eta Nu sisters and Kappa family members who made the trip to Berkeley to celebrate with their loved ones. On the rainy morning of January 9, 2016, 51 new members were welcomed into our lovely chapter.
During I-week, our chapter hosted a philanthropic sisterhood event where we made fleece tie blankets for a local children’s hospital in support of Project Linus. It was a great opportunity to relax and spend some time catching up with each other after a long winter break while supporting our community. January continued with nominating and appointing new Council members where we were reminded how lucky we are to have such hardworking and dedicated sisters working behind the scenes to make our chapter as successful as it is.
Moving on and making a change from the previous winter philanthropy, Kappa Karaoke, Eta Nu had held in past years, we were pleased to introduce Kappa Kakes: a breakfast for dinner, Valentine’s Day themed event. Hundreds of pancakes and pounds upon pounds of bacon later, our redesigned fundraiser raised $900 for both the Kappa Foundation and Reading is Fundamental. This was a huge success for our chapter as it demonstrated the strong philanthropic passion we have and our ability to be innovative with our events. While the event itself only lasted two hours, many hours of prep work were key to its success. February also celebrated our chapter’s academic excellence and newly awarded title of highest Panhellenic GPA for the 6th quarter in a row! As February was nearing an end, our Sapphire Ball formal was held on the 24th. Taking place at the Corinthian Grand Ballroom in downtown San Jose, Eta Nu danced the night away, taking breaks to gobble up the delicious food and enjoy the lovely venue. The last weekend of February was Santa Clara Family weekend—the perfect weekend to host our New Initiate Presents. Visiting parents were introduced to the Kappa Kastle and gained insight to the bond between the newest set of bigs and littles in the chapter. With posters sharing fun Kappa memories and an introduction to GIRLS Academy, family members saw what KKG is all about and helped us raise a majority of our donation goal of $2500 for GIRLS Academy.
A final event in winter quarter was reading to children for Dr. Seuss day at a local elementary school, Briarwood. We had 14 girls from our chapter go in the middle of the day during their busy week to read to and spend time with 60 students, guaranteeing each had a book to take home. As the quarter came to a close, our academic committee continued to support our studies with frequent library study rooms and snacks to get us through the finals grind.
Another key success from winter quarter was how quickly we filled the house. With the newly appointed house chairman available to answer questions and discuss the option of living in, the house was full by the end of February! For the 2016-2017 year Kappa has 19 girls in the Kastle. We also learned a couple weeks after the quarter was over that Eta Nu had, once again, earned the highest GPA in the Panhellenic community-7 quarters in a row!
Spring quarter started off busy with a visit from our first Leadership Consultant of the year, Sarah, from April 3-8. Council members, Kappa Kastle live-ins, and other Eta Nu members welcomed her to our campus with frequent lunch and dinner dates and the occasional workout class. At the end, council worked together to evaluate her visit according to her helpfulness to the chapter and council as well as her values of inspiration and friendliness. We were pleased and flattered with the compliments she gave Eta Nu in regards to our organization, professionalism, and overall chapter unity- qualities we pride ourselves in. Sarah gave council members a unique closing activity where each position was given both compliments and advice from fellow members to help her with her roles going forward. Following the LC visit, our Spring Sisterhood event came up quickly on April 10th. While we indulged in Kara’s cupcakes, a couple girls shared personal stories about themselves and their families, thereby encouraging smaller table discussions that promoted trust, friendship, and deep communication.
Alongside the other Panhellenic chapters at Santa Clara, Eta Nu was happy to participate in a Panhellenic baseball game competition where we tried to get the most members to go support the Broncos. In terms of more official business, we got our budget approved after earlier versions showed incomplete House Board costs. Our treasurer and her advisor worked tirelessly to get those done. On campus, Kappa also had a Relay for Life team April 16-17th and multiple Kappa’s worked as team leaders and leaders on the organization board of the program! April continued to be jam-packed with a Spring Recruitment Workshop to prepare girls with expectations in terms of time commitments and responsibilities as well as recruitment outfit information. Our recruitment chair also implemented recruitment committees this year, such as “craft” and “house,” to motivate girls to work on what they truly cared about, and this workshop gave us all the opportunity to rank how we would like to spend our work week and recruitment practice. This year, Panhellenic was striving for a “values-based” recruitment, and it was helpful to get a presentation on how to (not) interact with potential new members during the first weeks of school and how to promote a “go greek!” attitude.
On May 2nd, the Santa Clara Panhellenic community hosted the Greek Awards in downtown Campbell, and Eta Nu was honored to not only have handfuls of seniors recognized for their high honors, but also for our chapter awards of Outstanding New Member Education and Outstanding Scholarship. The night was a great way to see the other houses and recognize achievements from all Panhellenic chapters.
Our annual Spring Fling dance was held on May 4, and thus given the theme of Star Wars (may the fourth be with you!). With our newly renovated backyard full of white roses and clean fences, Eta Nu was happy to host a “Pre-Key” event full of pictures and snacks before the night began! The venue of the semi-formal was at the Loft Bar and Grill in downtown San Jose, which provided space for chatting, dancing, and fun photobooth memories. Keeping on the trend of annual traditions, Kappa Karnival was held on May 14th; it was a sunny and laughter-filled day with 141 of our actives participating. We even had our sisters from the local Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at UC Santa Cruz, Eta Mu, come join us for the day! Some of the games of the day included a sack race, find the bubble gum in the whipped cream, tug-of war, and a bouncy house relay race. As Karnival is the philanthropy that Eta Nu chooses where to donate the money, we continued to support LymeLight for our graduated Eta Nu sister Sarah Bedford who had Lyme disease herself and whose family co-founded The LymeLight Foundation. Teams from all around campus, such as orientation leaders, dorm groups, and other Panhellenic chapters, came out to support us and our philanthropy and made it a truly wonderful day. In the end, $5000 was raised, which is a tremendous accomplishment.
Nearing the end of the quarter, on Week 8 Kappa Kappa Gamma and Sigma Pi got “married” for wedding week. With a fun rehearsal barbeque before the official wedding on Friday, May 20, our chapter was able to destress before the final stretch of the year and spend time with another Greek organization.
Spring came to a close with our wise owls keeping busy in study rooms organized by our VP of Academic Excellence and her committee. With a raffle incentive to win prizes for attending these study rooms, Eta Nu worked to motivate girls to keep a focus on their academics while supporting their fellow sisters who were doing the same. All the studying paid off with our 8th quarter in a row of the highest GPA within the Panhellenic community at Santa Clara. The Standards Committee also helped to reduce stress by invited a Kappa Alum and Advisor to host a fitness class after chapter. We left for summer with a sense of accomplishment in all that we had accomplished the past couple months at Eta Nu and excited to see all of our sisters again for Work Week at the beginning of September!
Over the summer our Eta Nu girls stayed happy and busy. With some sisters studying abroad in locations such as Copenhagen and London and other girls working with internships, it is clear that the driven spirit of Kappa stayed strong. At the biennial Kappa Kappa Gamma convention, Eta Nu was extremely honored to have been given the award for “Outstanding New Member Programming” as well as honorable mentions in finance and academic excellence! We understand the rarity of receiving these awards, and could not be prouder of our chapter.
On September 12, Work Week began one week before classes, per tradition, to help our chapter prepare for recruitment before the craziness of the school year. The house was buzzing with chatter of summer activities and how good it was to be back as we worked on crafts, learned the songs, and got the low-down on voting procedures. For sisterhood, the girls all went to Santa Cruz and enjoyed a day at the beach with some pizza, bonding games, and lots of picture-taking. Everyone was reminded how much recruitment truly is a team effort.
As the school year started, our chapter met up a couple times a week to reinforce songs, learn the dance for our mash-up song on Sisterhood day, as well as finalize the crafts for each day of recruitment. Our Marshall also led important voting workshops to make sure everyone—particularly the Iota class who had not been through recruitment before—understood and felt comfortable with the procedures. The two weeks until recruitment flew by, and before we knew it the active members were wearing their peach and white outfits, singing “rah rah for kappa” for over 300 girls who came to the house on Sisterhood Day. All the girls who had previously done recruitment served as mentors for the Iota class during the different parties and during voting. After day one, we were seeing tons of excitement from our members who were ready to meet more girls at Philanthropy Day and get to know some girls better on Preference Night. Philanthropy Day, as always, was centered around the main Kappa philanthropy, RIF, or Reading Is Fundamental. The house was decked out in Dr. Seuss day decorations, including a poster with the phrase “one fish, two fish, blue and blue fish,” which promoted our lovely colors blue and blue. The goldfish that acted as our centerpieces for they day were happily taken in as pets by some of our sisters. On Pref Night we were thrilled to see familiar faces walking back up to the Kappa Kastle, and the night was full of smiles, laughs, and emotions. Per tradition, active members had the opportunity to write letters to their sisters that they then surprised during the Pref Night ceremony. At the first of the two parties, we had four girls who wrote a letter to our very own Recruitment Chair, as well as other letters from Kappa families and friendships.
The next day, with all of our actives all dressed up in our “new bids on the block” bid day theme, Eta Nu welcomed 51 excited new members as they ran down Lafayette Street to the little yellow house on the corner! It was also great to have our recruitment counselors back after their hard work with Panhellenic over the previous couple weeks. Carrying balloons and customized fleur-de-lis, many actives picked up a bid day buddy to make sure each new member felt immediately welcomed into the chapter. With pizza, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and a “swag station” full of glitter and flash tattoos, we got to know our new members as we danced and chatted in the backyard. Soon, we were off to Sky High, an indoor trampoline venue, where it was clear that friendships were already forming.
Our second Leadership Consultant of the year, Hannah, flew in late the night of October 2nd during Philanthropy voting. Although the chapter was particularly busy with recruitment as well as midterms, each council member had the chance to talk with Hannah about her position. For her wrap-up, Hannah gave us a brief presentation about the new fraternity organizational structure and who to contact with questions or concerns for our position and/or district. As always, during the weeks after Bid Day, New Members were able to get oriented to each aspect of the chapter, whether that be finances or the chapter history, through our weekly Sunday afternoon meetings at the house. An additional sisterhood movie night was put on by Standards to encourage new members and actives to bond in the backyard on a Thursday night. All the new member programming gave the girls the chance to get their questions answered and get to know each other even better. Founders’ Day fell on a rainy Sunday, October 15 this year, just two days after the 146th anniversary of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Even though the weather wasn’t on our side, we were pleased to welcome local alumnae into our house for a fun brunch and brief ritual. Having just pledged 51 new members, this was a great opportunity for the different chapter classes to mix and for the new members to have a glimpse into our fraternity history.
Our infamous fall powder-puff football philanthropy event, Kappa Chi Classic, proved to be a huge success this year. One of our Eta class members suggested that the philanthropy support Comedor Milagro de Jesus in El Salvador. After studying abroad in El Salvador and working in the community of Tepecoyo with Angelica, she had witnessed Angelica open up her home to feed 25 malnourished children from the community every day. Angelica keeps up this service based solely through donations and her own money. Through a Tilt page, Eta Nu and our friends and family contributed $1550 in just a couple weeks! Kappa Chi also held a “penny wars” drive between Kappa Kappa Gamma and Sigma Chi, raising over $2000 total The week of the event held a draft on Wednesday to get the teams together and excited, a potluck dinner on Friday night, and a day-long flag-football tournament at a Marsalli park. It was a great opportunity for girls to bond with each other, particularly the new members meeting other girls.
Right after Kappa Chi, Big Little week was upon us! Trying to keep their identities a secret, the bigs decorated their littles doors, treated them to desserts and flowers and then two nights of baskets- the first with a “girls night in” theme and the second a classic “all out Kappa” basket! Reveal night was full of tangible excitement and lots of laughs, smiles and pictures. We broke out for dinner in our families so the Kappa class could get to know their bigs as well as grand-bigs and great-grand-bigs.
The final stretch of the fall quarter was just as busy as the rest of it. Eta Nu slated and voted on a new Philanthropy chair to finish out the term on October 31. Organized by our VPS, on November 10th, there was an optional trip to the clothing store Brandy Melville for the chapter to receive 25% off all purchases and spend more time with their Kappa families. On the weekend of November 12 and 13, the Eta Nu chapter and the Pi Deuteron chapter at UC Berkeley, hosted GIRLS Academy at the middle school right down the street from Kappa, Buscher Middle School. Spearheaded by our dedicated GIRLS Academy chairman, preparation work for GIRLS Academy started last fall after we were one of 8 chapters across the country to be elected to host such an incredible event. GIRLS Academy relies on the support of alumni groups, the individual chapters hosting it, as well as the support of the children and faculty at the middle school. The weekend is structured to include small group discussions about topics such as body image and time management, as well as a movie night, and graduation ceremony on Sunday.
Our annual Fall Ball was held on November 16th at Flames, a restaurant venue in downtown San Jose. It was held the week before Thanksgiving break, giving the chapter the chance to relieve some academic stress and spend time with their friends. The theme of our pre-key was “How Sweet It Is,” and cute photobooth stations and snacks were set up for girls to take pictures and mingle before loading the buses for the night.
Winter quarter came to a close as we studied for finals and squeezed in time to spend with our sisters before our long, four week winter break. Overall, 2016 was an amazing year for Eta Nu, and we look forward to what 2017 will bring!
Highlights of 2017
In January 2017, Eta Nu started off strong with an academic and event-filled quarter. “I-week,” or Inspiration Period, was held the first week back to campus where the older girls prepared for the upcoming rituals of initiation and the new member class bonded together and spent time with their families. The sisterhood activity during I-week was a workout class that was held at the American Legion. At Santa Clara, we are in a unique position where most of our juniors go abroad during fall quarter—we had 28 members of our Theta class studying outside the U.S. in the fall of 2016, and they returned to campus in January. The Eta Nu chapter traveled to the Kappa Kappa Gamma house at UC Berkeley on a Friday late afternoon to host Fireside the night before initiation. Everyone traveled on busses all together for the first time. The new pledge class had a night filled with bonding, and the next morning they got initiated alongside their other Eta Nu sisters and Kappa family members who made the trip to Berkeley to celebrate with their loved ones. On January 14, 2017, 49 new members were welcomed into the Eta Nu chapter. The chapter elected a new council with only two returning council members, so there were lots of fresh faces and new ideas, which made for an enthusiastic group.
In February, pledge classes participated in Alpha Phi’s Star Search philanthropy. Moving on and making a change from the previous winter philanthropy, Kappa Kakes, we were pleased to introduce a new philanthropy Cooking with Kappa, a Valentine’s Day themed spaghetti supper that was held on February 15th. The fundraiser raised $1,000 for both the Rose McGill Kappa Foundation and Reading is Fundamental though a Go Fund Me. At the end of the month, Santa Clara University hosted Family weekend. Kappa conducted the new member presents for all of the family members and held an open house on February 25th. The big sisters read letters to their littles at the New Member Presents ceremony in front of the parents and the rest of the chapter. They were touching and thoughtful. At the open house, Eta Nu hosted a Kendra Scott pop up boutique with 20% of sales benefitting RIF. February was Academic Excellence month and the VPAE gave a presentation every Monday at chapter. The presentations ranged from cover letters, resumes, interview tips to a career panel with Eta Nu alumna and other Kappas at the end of the month.
In March, Sapphire Ball took place on the 9th at the Biltmore Hotel close to campus. Committee competitions were implemented in March to motivate our members to get more involved. The committee earned points for various activities and the committee obtaining the most amount of points received a prize. Eta Nu also added song practice at the end of each chapter meeting to help improve ritual. As the quarter ended, our academic committee continued to support our studies with frequent library study rooms and snacks to get everyone through the finals grind. The chapter finished up winter quarter and embarked on spring break adventures.
In April, spring quarter started off with a visit from our first Leadership Consultant of the year, Katie, from April 2-7. Council members, Kappa Kastle live-ins, and other Eta Nu members welcomed her to our campus with frequent lunch and dinner dates and an occasional workout class. At the conclusion of her visit, council worked together to evaluate her helpfulness and advice to the chapter and council, as well as her values of inspiration and friendliness. We were pleased and flattered with the compliments she gave Eta Nu regarding to our organization, professionalism, and overall chapter unity- qualities upon which we pride ourselves. Wedding week took place the week of the 24th and Kappa “married the Sigma Pi fraternity at Santa Clara. The boys “proposed” to the chapter on Monday night and then a Barbeque and wedding ceremony followed on Wednesday and Friday.
In May, the Santa Clara Panhellenic community hosted Greek Awards in downtown Campbell and Eta Nu won the Sisterhood Award and the New Member Award. The night was a great way to see the other sorority houses and recognize achievements from all of the Panhellenic chapters. Kappa Karnival was held on May 6th. It was a sunny day with all of our actives participating and coaching teams of other Greek organizations or groups of friends. Some of the games at the carnival included a sack race, a water balloon toss, tug-of war, and a bouncy house relay race. Karnival is the philanthropy event that allows Eta Nu to choose where to donate the money raised and the chapter decided to continue to support LymeLight for their graduated Eta Nu sister, Sarah Bedford, who had Lyme disease and whose family co-founded The LymeLight Foundation. Teams from all around campus, such as orientation leaders, dorm groups, and other Panhellenic chapters, came out to support our chapter and philanthropy and made it a truly wonderful day. A total of $6,000 was raised, which is a tremendous accomplishment. Spring Fling was held on May 10th at California’s Great America, which was a fun change of venue from the prior year. At the last chapter of the school year in June, members stuffed backpacks for children from low-income families for back to school with the remaining philanthropy budget.
During the summer, some important risk management rules changed which were helpful to Eta Nu as the chapter struggles to find chaperones with the 25+ age requirement. The house was repainted and redecorated on the inside. Finance got majority of the chapter to pay by Echeck and Eta Nu’s credit card fees decreased by $2,000.
The chapter reunited on September 11th for work week before the start of school on the 18th. For the sisterhood that week, girls carpooled to Half Moon Bay where they played Jenga, roasted s’mores, and ate pizza. During work week, the girls prepared for recruitment by crafting and learning songs. The house was completely full with 18 girls moving into the Kappa Kastle. This year was unique as 17 out of the 18 girls were in the same 2016 pledge class. Additionally, 30 out of 49 Kappas from the Iota class went abroad for fall quarter.
October started out with recruitment from September 30-October 3. The first day was Sisterhood with a Kate Spade theme, the second day was Philanthropy with a Kappa Karnival theme, and the third day was Pref night with the classic blue and gold theme. This was the first year that the Philanthropy day was Karnival themed. The chapter decided to change the theme from Dr. Seuss to Karnival to spotlight Eta Nu’s largest philanthropy event of the year. Recruitment was very successful due to great conversations that allowed girls to connect on a more personal level than in previous years. The theme of Bid day was KKG Under the Sea with mermaid and ocean decorations. Eta Nu welcomed 52 new members to the Lambda class. The entire chapter celebrated at a trampoline place called Sky High that night after having dinner at the house. Eta Nu was looking to grow as a chapter this year, so the chapter had the opportunity to host an informal continuous open bidding event in the back yard following recruitment. This was the first time Eta Nu participated in this process and it was a great success, welcoming another 4 members into the Lambda class. Lots of wild fires started in the hills near Santa Clara, so the chapter helped by donating items for families affected by the fires through the Kappa Sigma fraternity. The GPAs were reported by Panhellenic, and Eta Nu had the highest GPA out of all the sororities at Santa Clara with an average of 3.52. The chapter enjoyed going to the San Jose Sharks hockey game on October 12th for the fall sisterhood. The busy month of October continued with Founder’s Day on the 22nd. The event was held in the backyard on a sunny day with 5 alumnae in attendance. Kappa Chi, our powder-puff football philanthropy event, was held on October 27th and Eta Nu raised $1,373 for Comedor Milagro de Jesus in El Salvador.
In November, Big-Little week began during week 8 and the bigs decorated their littles’ doors, treated them to desserts and flowers and delivered two nights of baskets- the first was a “girls night in” theme and the second was a classic “all out Kappa” basket! Reveal night was held on November 10th. We broke out for dinner in our families so the Lambda class could get to know their bigs as well as grand-bigs and great-grand-bigs. This year Big-Little was funded by the chapter. The second Leadership Consultant visited Eta Nu the week of November 13th and gave the chapter and council advise on how to end the year strong. Our annual Fall Ball was held on November 15th. It was held the week before Thanksgiving break, giving the chapter the chance to relieve some academic stress and spend time with their friends. The theme of our semi-formal was “Masquerade” and girls donned fun, mysterious masks. Winter quarter came to a close as we studied for finals and squeezed in some time to spend with our sisters before our long, four-week winter break. Overall, 2017 was an amazing year for Eta Nu, and we look forward to what 2018 will bring!
Highlights of 2018
Eta Nu started off the year in January with the initiation of the Lambda class. I-week was filled with fun bonding time as we reunited with our sisters who returned from studying abroad, played mini golf at a sisterhood event, and spent time with our Kappa families. Chapter elections were held right after initiation, and the previous and incoming chapter councils worked together on transitions. The chapter composite photos were taken in our house’s backyard in front of our beautiful wall of red flowers.
February continued with the installation of the new chapter council, as well as two separate philanthropy events. On Valentine’s day our chapter participated in a new event called Kappa Krush by selling and delivering roses to students across campus as a way to raise money for the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. Later in the month, some of our sisters participated in Dr. Seuss day to celebrate Reading is Fundamental by heading over to the local middle school to read to students. We also celebrated our new initiates during new initiate presents, and opened up our house to our parents during Santa Clara’s parents’ weekend.
March brought the end of winter quarter, so our sisters spent a lot of time cramming in the library. The AE committee provided moral support through events like Pie for Pi and study snacks in the library. Sapphire ball closed out the quarter, giving all of our sisters a chance to spend time together and have fun before finals.
We returned from spring break in April, ready to finish out the school year. The month was pretty calm, as our sisters adjusted to their new class schedules.
May was a packed month for us as school started to come to a close. Our social calendar was packed as we had our final semi-formal of the year and our wedding to the brothers of Tau Kappa Epsilon. Our sisters also began practicing for recruitment and got ready to say goodbye to our seniors. We ended the month by attending the Panhellenic Greek Awards, where Eta Nu won the Best Overall Chapter award.
June brought the last weeks of the year, but gave us just enough time for Kappa Karnival. The money raised at Karnival was donated to Lymelight Foundation, an organization founded by an alumnae of Eta Nu. All of our sisters’ studying paid off, as Eta Nu had the top GPA amongst the sororities at Santa Clara for spring quarter, and 22 of our sisters earned a 4.0 GPA.
June, July, and August were filled with travel, internships, and planning for recruitment. Our President and Vice President of Standards attended the Kappa Kappa Gamma convention, where Eta Nu won the Academic Excellence award. The summer ended with our sisters eager to return to school and reunite.
September began with all of our sisters returning to Santa Clara for work week, to get ready for recruitment. We spent time eating pizza at the beach in Capitola, learned Kappa songs, and practiced our conversations. Our sisters were well prepped for recruitment at the end of the month, and we had a great time meeting all of the PNMs. At the end of recruitment, we celebrated our 45 new members with a Kamp Kappa themed bid day complete with dancing, ice cream sundaes, and a grilled cheese food truck.
October was spent getting to know our new members, and spending time with our sisters. We celebrated Founder’s Day in our backyard by making keychains, talking to Alumnae, and eating brunch. The Mu class began their new member experience and began going on owl pal dates with the Lambda class. We went on a hike in the Santa Cruz mountains for a sisterhood event, and had fun playing flag football at our joint philanthropy event with the brothers of Sigma Chi.
November was filled with bonding as the Mu class had their new member retreat, and our sisters got ready for big little reveal. The Lambda class spent big little week decorating doors and dropping off baskets and treats. The month ended with Fall Ball, our first formal of the year. All of our sisters had a great time together before we left for thanksgiving break.
December was devoted to finals and getting ready for the holidays. Eta Nu earned the top GPA amongst sororities for the second quarter in a row, and 20 of our sisters earned a 4.0. Our sisters finished up the quarter and left campus for winter break. We spent a month celebrating the holidays and preparing for the initiation of our newest pledge class.