Open main menu

Changes

Zeta Lambda

11,302 bytes added, 00:50, 16 June 2013
→‎Highlights of 2011-2019
(From chapter’s History Report: Scholarship, group honors/awards, traditions, special events, changes on campus or within chapter, overall nature of the chapter, chapter goals, challenges and how they were overcome, etc.)
==2012==
'''Housing:''' The past year has been a period of growth to achieve chapter goals and to strengthen the bonds of lifelong friendships. The spring semester began with formal recruitment, February 9-12, when we welcomed 21 new members to our fraternity. The sisters bonded with the new members through chapter gatherings and sister only social events during our annual Inspiration Week, April 16-20, which led up to Initiation. All members, both new and old, wore various colors each day of the week to symbolize qualities of Kappa such as loyalty, sincerity, friendship, and beauty.
The first event was the “Blue & Blue Dinner” which was held in the house as a time to bond with all sisters while enjoying a lovely dinner. Tuesday was “Kappa Hearts and Poems”, where older sisters made their new key sister a heart that had a picture of them together on the front and a sisterly quote of their choice on the back. Wednesday, key sisters bonded over delicious Rita’s Italian Ice. Thursday, the Return of the Pledge Pin ceremony was held in the chapter room followed by a special surprise for the new members. Friday was Fireside, which was held at alumni Steph Kubric’s house. After fireside, the sisters stayed at the house and the older sisters prepared for Initiation. The next morning, Initiation was held in our house and 21 new members were finally welcomed as actual sisters into our fantastic fraternity.
Shortly after bid day, the new members continued to bond with each other and the older members by attending monthly sister only social events. A few months after bid day, in April, our annual spring formal took place. The theme of our formal was “A Night in Vegas”; the hall was decorated with confetti, playing cards, and chips. This social is very important to all members because it is the last formal with the current seniors before they graduated in May. Everyone treasured this social because it was the last time this particular chapter would be all together. The third date social was held in November of the fall semester, called Kappa Krush, with a theme of “Kappa has the Key to my Heart”. It was an amazing event to bring everyone together to celebrate a wonderful start to a new and successful school year.
'''Philanthropy:'''Also, throughout the year, the sisters were encouraged to strengthen the bonds that bind us together by attending other important events. For example, after bid day in the spring semester, an annual sister only is held to teach the new members how to make their first letter shirts followed by the whole chapter attending brunch in the cafeteria; a tradition that takes place each year. All sisters and new members proudly wear their letters for all of the campus to see. Also in the spring is our annual Mother’s Day Brunch, which we have changed to be called the “Special Person’s Brunch”. It was changed so that sisters who would like to share this special day with another person other than their mothers can do so. A slide show was made to demonstrate to our special people what Kappa is all about, memories shared throughout the years, and how proud our chapter is to call ourselves Kappas.
In November, during Homecoming Weekend, we had a special alumni cookout. We invited alumni’s back to cookout with the current chapter, catch up with good conversation, and to show off our house. The cookout included hamburgers, hotdogs, soda, and various other treats while showing off our brand new furniture, various awards, and scrap books to all of the alumni that came back. This was a great opportunity to bond with our sisters who had come before us. Also during Homecoming weekend we were proud to have one Kappa up for the title of Homecoming queen, Miss Eva Pfeffer. Eva Pfeffer clinched the title, allowing Kappa to have bragging rights of having W&J’s homecoming queen for two consecutive years in a row. In December, the annual sister only was held to decorate the house for “Light Up Night”. Though our house did not win, we were still proud of the brightly strung lights, the frosty windows, and the beautifully decorated Christmas trees around the house. All the sisters worked together to make the house look merry and festive for the holiday season.
Throughout the semester, the sisters participated in numerous philanthropic activities within our own chapter as well as with the other fraternities and sororities on campus. Our largest philanthropic event was our 5th annual “Catch the Cure” baseball tournament, which helped raise awareness and money for breast cancer. All proceeds went towards the Susan G. Komen foundation. Overall, this was an amazing event that brought not only the Greek organization together, but the Washington and Jefferson community as a whole. A total of 19 teams filled Cameron Stadium to participate in our event. Guests enjoyed music, endless amounts of food, and competitive fun for a great cause. Once again all the sisters of Zeta Lambda were very excited and proud of how well our annual philanthropy event turned out; we raised a total of $5,028. We pride ourselves on this event and look forward to its arrival every year. In the fall semester, we participated in Pi beta Phi’s lip-synching contest, “Arrowbands”, in which we came in 2nd place of six fraternities. We also participated in Kappa Alpha Theta’s annual dodge ball tournament. In December, we ended the year attending various events such as Washington and Jefferson’s “Up Till Dawn” and the Big Brothers/Big Sisters holiday party. Kappa was ranked 2rd highest GPA in the fall semester for all female fraternities at Washington and Jefferson. Everyone was proud of our fraternity and our great achievements.
'''Convention Awards''':In addition to social and philanthropic events, Zeta Lambda has held recruitment events to meet potential new members. This year our recruitment chairman, Nicole Raupach, thought of new, creative events to meet the potential new members. The first event “Kappa Karnival” was held at our house, where the sisters could meet potential new members over carnival foods and games. With this being a new event, there was a great turnout of potential new members. The next event was “Kappa Kupcakes” which was held in October. All potential new members came to our house and decorated a cupcake that was previously made with pink icing and sprinkles for our breast cancer awareness month bake sale. The next day, we held a bake sale with the cupcakes the potential new members decorated and all of the proceeds went to the Susan G. Komen foundation. The event and bake sale were both very successful for our chapter. Our last two recruitment events include “Kappa and Co.”, which is a classy “Tiffany” themed event served with cheesecake bites, and “Christmas with the Kappas”, which could perhaps be our most fun event that included Christmas music, delicious Christmas cookies, and punch. Each event held by our chapter was very successful and helped us get to know potential new members and allow those potential new members to see how fabulous is it is to be a part of our fantastic chapter. All of the new events turned out fabulous.
This year we witnessed President Barack Obama get re-elected for a second term as the President of the United States. We also witnessed the natural disaster of Hurricane Sandy. Ashley Ayre, a current Kappa senior, placed a box in our house and asked for any type of donation to help out the victims. Ashley and her mother collected numerous items from our generous chapter and brought them to New York when they went on a trip to see a friend. Another catastrophic event we witnessed was the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. This tragic event really made us realize to never take life for granted, always say I love you to the ones you love, and appreciate life everyday you are given. This brought our chapter closer together on a whole different level, if that is even possible.
'''CAMPUS AND CHAPTER PROFILE'''
CAMPUS: Washington and Jefferson College is a small, private, liberal arts school with a main focus of academic excellence. The students of W&J are well-prepared for careers in business, medicine, law and a variety of other professions. The Greek community is an integral part of W&J with 40% of the student body actively participating in the Greek life on campus. The Greek community enables the students to be actively involved on campus and plays a central role in the philanthropic and social activities of the campus.
CHAPTER: Over the past year, Kappa Kappa Gamma has proved to be an essential part of the Greek community, as well as the W&J community. Our members pride themselves on being actively involved in a widespread assortment of sports, clubs, and activities. Our members are involved in everything from being captains of various athletic teams to being officers of service and academic fraternities. Not only does our chapter like to be involved in the activities on campus, but we also pride ourselves on our academic success and achievement. The Zeta Lambda chapter sets a positive example to all potential new members and the student body in general with numerous sisters whom achieve Dean’s List (semester GPA of 3.5 +) and Alpha/Beta scholars (who represent the top students at the college in terms of overall grade point average). By showing academic excellence to the college, a strong commitment to each other, and having well-established ties to the community, Kappa Kappa Gamma is an ideal example of Greek Life in our small community at Washington and Jefferson College.
 
'''CHAPTER CHALLENGES'''
This year the Zeta Lambda chapter truly strives to make Kappa Kappa Gamma the leader of the Greek Community at Washington and Jefferson College. Although we pride ourselves on being outstanding Greek women, we also understand that there is always some room for improvement. Our main goal was to become more involved within the W&J community, as well as with other fraternities on campus. We accomplished this by discussing the issue among our fellow sisters and expressing how important it is to present to the Greek community a strong and united chapter. We made sure that a percentage of the chapter participated in every activity that was held by the college and by other fraternities on campus.
 
Another goal we focused on was maintaining a high GPA in the Greek community. This is an extremely important goal to each and every sister. We wanted to make sure that we showed other students, as well as the faculty that the members of Kappa Kappa Gamma are amazing students. As a way to show our appreciation to our professors and staff members, the sisters of Zeta Lambda elect one professor and one staff member every month to give the title “Professor of the Month” and “Staff member of the Month”, respectively. We pride ourselves on being the campus leaders and always strive to maintain and even surpass our academic goals. We strive to be leaders in not just the Greek community, but also in the athletic teams and clubs that we belong to. We feel that it is very important to set an example for others to respect and hopefully follow.
This has been an extremely wonderful year for the Zeta Lambda chapter and we are looking forward to the upcoming year and all of the fun-filled events and experiences it will bring to our chapter!
==Highlights of 2020s:==
Retrieved from "https://wiki.kkg.org/pages/Special:MobileDiff/5229"