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One of our Kappa sisters, Meg Gould, proudly wears a badge that has been passed down to her throughout her family. Mentioned above, Meg Gould has received two of the biggest honors that UVa has to bestow upon someone; she is the only student member on the Board of Visitors and lives on the lawn. She has received both of these honors because of her excellence in academics, and passion for her involvements around the UVa campus. From the best internships in Washington DC, to serving on UVa’s honor committee and more, Meg has been an incredible influence within Kappa and representative of Kappa and the values we hold dear to the Charlottesville community.
==Highlights of 2015==
Epsilon Sigma had a hard working, productive, and rewarding 2015! The chapter began the year with a very successful recruitment! We welcomed in 46 New Members into the Epsilon Sigma chapter. We started the semester with many bonding events for the first years. Every night we paired them with each grade of older girls to do fun activities and get to know each other. We enjoyed our first movie night/ post UVa- Duke basketball game Sisterhood Event. Annie Clark, our new president, and the rest of Chapter Council went to great ends to incorporate different points in the Focus Letter into our plans for the upcoming year. Megan Kingsley, VP of Academic Excellence, met with girls that have lower GPAs and helped them make a plan for how to improve their grades and get connected with tutors. Grades were overall encouraged in Epsilon Sigma throughout the year by Wednesday study nights in the house. The abundance of snacks led to an abundance of kappa girls studying hard every single Wednesday night.
Our Treasurer, Sharon Houston, started the year by making a spreadsheet that broke down the budget for the fellow officers and created a system of keeping up with our finances. Many other things were scheduled and created this month by various officers such as the GIN website, FOA’s, Bystander Intervention training, New Member Education, Parent’s Weekend, gifts for other sororities and more! By February, we kept up our enthusiasm by having a Kappa Kappa Cinema sisterhood event with heart decorations, movies, and candy! We continued to recognize academic achievement by giving Smarties to the girls that had a 4.0 last semester!
The New Members had Bigs and Littles reveal followed by more fun and bonding events! They also continued to learn about Kappa history and the chapter as a whole learned about starting new local businesses in our FOA. We took our composite photos and had our first date function. Initiation was definitely the high of March as mothers and grandmothers came to surprise the New Members! The night before we had ritual review and our fireside sisterhood event with pizza and fun memories from each new member’s childhood.
The “Kappa Attendance Skimm” was created to help improve the chapter’s understanding of our Bylaws and Standing Rules attendance policies. We all attended an FOA on hazing with the Gordie foundation and our Kappa Semi- Formal. The New Members had a great Big Sis Week and New Member retreat at JumpCville. With our philanthropies, Spike for C’ville, where we raised around $3,000 for Reading is Fundamental, and Cavalier Kickoff, where we raised $1,200 to benefit SARA, a non-profit in Charlottesville that provides support for women and children who have been affected by domestic violence, Kappa had a serving April. In addition to the work we put into these philanthropies, we had a date function, FOA with the One Love foundation, Something of Value Conference, Recruitment workshop, Greek bagels and bonding event hosted by Kappa, Tuesday HOOSday date function with Tri- Delta, Yoga on the Lawn sisterhood event, chapter breakfast before Foxfields, and launched Kappa Study Buddies to connect older and younger members of Kappa that are interested in the same major or field of studies. Every member of Chapter Council and Kappa as a whole was extremely busy putting on and attending all of these events. As May approached, our member, Catherine Hedrick, received one of the highest honors at UVa, which is the Gus Blagden “Good Guy Room” on the lawn that recognizes someone that is serving and humble. We were sad to say goodbye to our fourth years who went on to do consulting, nursing, medical school, investment banking, education reform, much more.
In the summer months of June, July, and August the house girl’s rooms were renovated with new blinds, drawers, sitting stools, and more. Also, a new suite was remodeled for the house mom, Sam and Judy created a smoothie bar for the girls (big hit) and the downstairs area where we eat and study was slightly remodeled with new tables and computers since many members of Kappa study there daily.
We returned to UVa in August excited for our new house and new school year! Sadly, amidst our excitement, a girl in the Greek system, Margaret Lowe, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. A few members of Kappa lived with her and, as a whole, Kappa members rallied around the girls that new her well both within Kappa and also in Pi Phi (the sorority that Margaret belonged to). We attended the candle light vigil, brought her loved ones breakfast, made them goodie baskets, wrote them letters, sent them flowers, and much more. It was incredible to see the sorority as a whole come together and support one another. In September, we had the Kappa Corner K, a philanthropy with Kappa Sigma, held to raise money for SpeakUp, a foundation that aims to increase awareness on depression in teens. We also had a Kappa/Pi Phi mixer at Roots Salad Bar where 20% of the proceeds went to Camp Kesem Foundation in honor of Margaret Lowe. In chapter we had an FOA by UVA professor and self defense teacher, Lisa Speidel, on self-defense and a Cookie day to boost morale!
We created a new budget for the school year with a spreadsheet for accountability and planned many more things for the Fall. In September, many members of Kappa were involved in leadership rolls in Pancakes for Parkinson’s, One Love, Dance Marathon, and many other UVa philanthropies. We had a Kappa Talent Show that every girl attended and participated in that bonded everyone together, especially during the first round of tests. Leadership worked hard for the Kappa Founder’s Day brunch at Morven Farms where we got to spend time with many alumni members eating and chatting on the beautiful estate. We had the privilege of hosting Beth Black during this month. All of Chapter Council got to meet with her individually and attend the Emerging Leader’s Meeting with her. Furthermore, we had a RIF event where we read books to a kindergarten class, made bookmark and gave each student a book to take home. In November, we had fun at our Parent’s Formal, planned by Meg Jarman, and held at Boar’s Head. Every member had a blast bonding with each other’s families! Two of our members, Sharon and Megan, hosted a beneficial FOA on learning how to use Excel. One of the best events of the year was in November, Kappa Thanksgiving, where each family cooked and brought a dish and we sat around and ate a delicious potluck feast while watching performances by Acapella groups! We also made progress with recruitment workshops and Triplet meetings with our incoming officers and advisors.
In December, we did Holiday Sharing with Sigma Chi where we bought Christmas presents for a Charlottesville family. We also raised money within the chapter for Christmas gifts so show our thankfulness for Marlena, our beloved housekeeper, our incredible cooks, Sam, Judy and Arthur, and our house mom, Toni. Everyone was sad to leave UVa and Kappa for the winter break but excited for the year to come!
The entire UVa community came together to support Margaret Lowe’s family and friends. Because of our age, death is not something that college kids are used to being around and Kappa was very conscious of this. Kappa not only supported Pi Phi in various ways discussed above, but also provided many avenues of support of Kappa girls. The amount of support that Kappa generated was special to be a part of and experience.
Overall our campus has not experienced much change this year. As for our chapter, the morale has increased this year amongst the members. We had many more sisterhood events where the different grades got to spend more time together watching movies, studying, tutoring each other, and overall growing closer. Kappa girls are successful in more ways than one. They are successful academically, and passionate about community service, student council, sports, honor council, sustainability, art, TedX, and music. These individual passions encourage participation from all members of Kappa in different, eclectic organizations impacting the UVa campus and the Charlottesville community. This atmosphere of passion and excellence that Kappa fosters helps to build well-rounded and highly motivated individuals that make both alums and present members of Epsilon Sigma proud.
Chapter Philanthropy:
What organization(s) has your chapter historically/traditionally raised money for, or donated hours to, in your community? Reading is Fundamental
Why did your chapter choose this organization(s) to support? Reading is Fundamental is Kappa’s nationwide philanthropy so, as a chapter, we have contributed to raising money for it. There are many under privileged elementary schools in our community and we believe in the power of books as an opportunity. Many of our members have little sibs, tutor at elementary and middle schools, and volunteer all over Charlottesville. As a whole we have seen the need for helping to educate fellow members of our community and increase literacy. As mentioned above, this year we read books to kids in the children’s hospital and gave them all a free book, which I know mutually impacted them and us alike.
==Highlights of 2020s:==