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During the past year, Texas A&M joined the SEC Conference. Spirits are high at the recent winning of the Heismann by our very own Johnny Manziel. The Memorial Student Center opened on September 1st after two and a half years of renovation. This has given students a place to study together, eat together, and get to know each other in a central location. The campus feels more united for it. Texas A&M still holds true to it's reputation of kindness and chivalry, and the student body radiates with pride for attending such an incredible University.
==Highlights of 2013==
January: The Epsilon Rho executive officers started out 2013 with an officer’s retreat at Academic Advisor, Sarah Elmore’s house in Bryan, TX. This was the first time the new council had the opportunity to sit down and prepare for the year ahead. All of the officers expressed their goals for 2013, planned the chapter calendar, and made important decisions regarding the Epsilon Rho Chapter as a whole. Officers were able to get to know one another and strengthen the bond of the Council. January 14th, 2013 was the first chapter meeting to start the semester.
February: For Valentines Day, instead of having a normal day at Nehemiah we had a Valentines Day Party on the 14th, which included decorating cookies. Nehemiah Center of Navasota is an after school program to help at-risk kids enhance their growth. Each girl in our chapter is required to volunteer at least two times per semester in Navasota to help the kids with their homework, read with them, and play on the playground. Our annual RIF event (Reading is Fundamental) on the 16th was very exciting for the kids at The Nehemiah Center of Navasota. The Kappa Pickers performed and two A&M football players read books to the kids to get them excited about reading. Our chapter donated many books for the kids to take home and encourage them to read. Five wonderful Houston Alums came to the event along with kids at Nehemiah and their families. They enjoyed new books to take home, along with hot dogs, chips, and lemonade to snack on during the event.
To educate PC’12 on Recruitment, a Rookie Workshop was held on Sunday the 24th from 2:00pm to 4:00 pm. The new pledge class was informed and advised on how to vote and what Work Week and Recruitment would entail. On the 23rd, all Fathers were invited for a day in College Station to eat lunch at the Dixie Chicken and attend a Texas A&M basketball game in Read Arena. The 24th marked our first speaker of the semester. He was a local police officer who talked about different laws pertaining to alcohol. “Texas Tuxes”, our annual Semi-Formal Date Party, was held on the 28th.
March: We kicked this month off with the Province Meeting in Lubbock on the 1st-3rd. Twelve officers attended this meeting, learning many strategies to help make our chapter as successful as possible. During this retreat we were awarded with the Philanthropy Excellence Award for our dedication and support to our local philanthropy the Nehemiah Center of Navasota. This award encouraged us to continue working on all areas of our chapter. We had the honor of hosting Chelsea, our Leadership Consultant, during the 17th through the 22nd. Chelsea not only helped us address issues that are challenges for us, she also highlighted the areas where we excel. On Saturday the 23rd our chapter participated in Big Event along with an all Men’s Organization called Ol Ags. Big Event is a university wide community service project that A&M created to give back to the community around us. Recruitment team conducted another Rookie Workshop on the 24th for PC’12 to prepare them for Work Week and Recruitment. Also on the 24th was the kick off of Senior Programming. At their meeting they discussed interview tips along with dressing for success for professional interviews. Lastly, Professor Welch from Mays Business School, came to talk to the chapter about self motivation and dreaming big.
April: At our chapter meeting on April 1st, we had our guest speaker, Dr. Stoker speak to us about interviewing. He stressed the importance of being prepared for the interview and also expressing your knowledge about the company rather than just talking about your qualifications. Chapter Workshop was held on the 7th from 2 to 4 to prepare the entire chapter for success during Recruitment. Senior Programming was also held on April 7th with a chance to go ice-skating at a local ice rink. April 10th was the exciting roommate reveal for the girls living in the house for the upcoming year. During Aggie Parents Weekend, Kappa hosted a luncheon at the Kappa house for anyone who could attend with their parents. Kappa Krawfish, a philanthropy event, was held at Veteran’s Park on April 14th with around 300 people who showed up to eat crawfish and support Kappa. The Kappa Pickers performed along with a local band Votary and all the proceeds went to the Nehemiah Center of Navasota. Also on this Sunday was a yoga class at the rec center as the activity for Senior Programming. On April 21st a Kappa Trainer came to visit and presented a PowerPoint show on Ritual. She expressed the importance of Ritual and how it binds us all together.
Along with the Kappa trainer was a cooking class for the seniors at Marci Cory’s beautiful home. Our annual formal called Monmouth was held on the 18th along with Pi Beta Phi. We had a live band, photo booth, casino, and face painting that kept everyone occupied and having fun the whole night. Senior Programming ended on the 28th with a dinner that six alums attended with Houston alums hosting. The seniors were transferred to Alum status by Carolyn Hoyle, a local alum, who performed the ritual. The Houston alums made the traditional small blue pillow for each of the new alums to keep their Key safe and a few alums told their stories of why Kappa has been an important part of their adult life. The last date party for the semester had a theme of YouTube Hits chosen and voted by the seniors graduating in May. This date party was held on the 30th, which was the last day of classes to kick off the week of finals.
May: We took advantage of the “Kappa Library” in the house while preparing for finals and also congratulated the graduating seniors for the semester.
August: As the fall semester was about to begin, 44 members of PC’12 moved into the Kappa house to embark on Work Week held on the 12th through the 16th. During this week all the members of the chapter work rigorously to prepare for Recruitment. During this week we have one special night when we invite parents and friends to our preview of our recruitment skit. This year was especially exciting because our theme of our skit was changed from Monopoly to Disney. The amazing recruitment team worked very hard to change and improve our skit, which turned out as a great success. Recruitment began on the 19th and started with the theme “Candy Land” and ended with “Don’t Mess With Kappa” theme for Bid Day on the 24th. We welcomed the new sixty nine wonderful and bright young women of Pledge Class 2013 on Bid Day. We also had the wonderful opportunity to welcome our new house mom, Momma Hurley to our family. This first meeting of this semester marked an announcement of achieving 2nd ranked in grades for Panhellenic for the past semester with an overall GPA of 3.36. We also announced that our chapter won the Penny Wars, which was a competition put on by Panhellenic the past semester. During this meeting all the current officers introduced themselves and expressed what their duties are to the new pledge class of PC’13.
September: To kick off this month we sent a check to the Nehemiah Center of Navasota for $9,590.68 from our earnings from Kappa Kolor and Kappa Krawfish. We also sent a check for $1000 to the Kappa Foundation. September 8th was a day full of activities. First PC’13 had their retreat starting at 12pm to 5pm. Girls participated in many activities throughout the day to get to know one another. That night 65 girls attended the Panhellenic event to the Women’s A&M Soccer game vs. Baylor. Kappa won this event with the most attendance and received $100 toward our local philanthropy. The 12th - 15th, one of our chapter members was honored to attend Leadership Academy. She learned through this retreat how to channel her values and passions into being a better leader personally and in Kappa. As a way for the new pledge class to get to know one another, girls had the opportunity to pull tickets together for the SMU football game on the 13th. Big Little Reveal is an especially exciting night for the new pledge class and occurred at the Kappa House on the 18th. September 19th marked our first date party of the semester. The theme was “New Kappa’s on the Block”, which was celebrated with 90s costumes. On the 22nd, the first Ritual Review was held for PC’12, and the entire chapter attended a Ritual Review on the 29th. On the 23rd the Academics Award Ceremony was held. We celebrated girls who made great grades last semester, which included 10 girls who upheld their overall 4.0’s and 32 girls who received 4.0’s for the past semester. At the Monday meeting on the 30th for our guest speaker we had girls within out chapter speak about their experiences with study abroad. This gave other Kappa’s within our chapter a chance to learn about all the opportunities throughout A&M pertaining to the study abroad program.
October: This month started off quickly with Inspiration Week (I-Week). On the 1st, PC’13 and PC’12 had a mixer to paint pumpkins at the Kappa House. On the 2nd, PC’13 and PC’11 had a chance to mingle and make s’mores. And lastly on the 3rd, PC’13 and PC’10 devoured ice cream sundaes and PC’10 shared their experiences with the new pledge class. Then came the exciting weekend of ritual. Fireside was concluded on the 4th and initiation on the 5th. 68 new members were successfully initiated and had a wonderful time sleeping at the Kappa house on Friday night.
At our Monday Meeting we celebrated Founders Day with Lisa Hunziker, our guest speaker and alumna. Lisa spoke to the chapter about “Kappa Throughout the Years” and how special membership is in Kappa and how Kappa lasts a lifetime. After our meeting we had cookie cake and refreshments to celebrate. We conducted a Profit Share at Northgate Vintage on the 17th. Profit Shares consist of encouraging members and friends to go to a specific place, at a specific time and when checking out inform the cashier that you are in support of a certain organization like Kappa. The place the holds the profit share, like Northgate Vintage, donates a portion of the proceeds raised to our organization.
It is a great and easy way to help raise money for Kappa and our philanthropies. October 20th marked the New Member Presentation at the Kappa House along with Moms Day at Briarcrest Country Club. All the new members were presented to family and friends that afternoon after a successful Mom’s Day. We had 40 girls attend a “Dinner Swap” with the Sorority of Delta Delta Delta on the 23rd. This was the most girls we have ever had attend a dinner swap. We had our second date party for the semester called “Owl-o-ween” on October 24th. Sixteen Kappa’s attended the Aggie Greek Award Banquet on the 25th, which we were honored to accept the “Outstanding Community Relations” Award. On the 28th we had our Sister Sorority Event with Alpha Chi Omega at Froyoyo after the meeting, in which we had 59 girls attend. Our sister sorority is matched up by Panhellenic to encourage sororities to mix with each other. Lastly to end this exciting month, we had Trick or Treat on Sorority Row on the 31st. We had a chance to pass out candy and do an activity with all the kids that attended. We were paired with a men’s organization Alpha Tau Omega.
November: We kicked off November with another Panhellenic event hosted by Dillard’s. One hundred and ten girls from our chapter attended, which made us the chapter with the highest attendance. On the 4th we had a wonderful guest speaker who spoke about dressing for success and gave us interview tips for use in our future. We had our second Leadership Consultant arrive on the 3rd and stay all the way through the 8th. Emilee provided us with things we really need to focus on and also with attributes that we can continue to succeed in. On November 6th we had a Sisterhood event at our local bowling ally. Girls in all different pledge classes attended and had a blast bowling. We had another Profit Share at Newks Restaurant on the 12th to help raise awareness and money for our Kappa Kolor Run. The 16th marked our 2nd Annual Kappa Kolor Run, where many family and friends came out to run the 5K. This year we had four hundred and twenty five participants for the College Station community as well as students within A&M. The Texas A&M Yell Leaders started off the race with a few “Yells” to get everyone pumped up for the race. We also had a silent auction that was a huge success to raise money for Nehemiah. November 17th was the Powder Puff tournament, where we had 25 girls participate in. November 20th Kappa’s attended the Hunger Games Premiere with another sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta as another sister sorority mixer. “Ranch Party” on November 21st was our final Date Party for the semester. This party was with another sorority, Delta Delta Delta and was held at a ranch in Bryan, TX. On November 24th Chaplains put on a Kappa Fellowship Night at the Kappa house for movies and fun. Also that night was a tree decorating party that our new house mom hosted to get girls excited about the holidays. At every meeting this month we collected donations for the Rose McGill Holiday Sharing to help out a Kappa’s family in financial need this holiday season. We met our goal and bought gift cards from places requested by the family.
December: As activities were winding down, the Public Relations Chair hosted Kappa Chino on December 3rd. Kappa Chino is where our chapter gives our free Starbucks coffee and donuts to people on campus near finals week. This year we had fifty-two Kappa’s stop by the station to help out and hand out free coffee to anyone who wants it. During this week and the next the “Kappa Library” was opened at the Kappa House. Lastly, to close out the year we had out triplet meeting with all the advisors, previous officers, and new officers.
Describe the recent changes on your campus and describe the overall nature of your chapter.
2013 was a very big year for Texas A&M that included immense changes for our University. In July President Loftin announced that he is stepping down as President of Texas A&M University. Much of our University was upset by this announcement because President Loftin embodied A&M and made extensive changes to our school. Although he is leaving, his idea of a new and improved Kyle Field will continue on. Reconstruction to our football stadium began right after our last home game against Mississippi State on November 9th. The new stadium will be the biggest in the SEC and will hold 102, 500 screaming fans. And lastly, although he didn’t win, Johnny Manziel was once again a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. He himself changed Texas A&M football along side Coach Sumlin, who in December signed a six-year extension contract.
Our chapter is very genuine and down to earth. We love to volunteer at our local philanthropy and continue to look at Nehemiah as an opportunity to stay positive and help the wonderful kids who need support. We are also a very spirited chapter and love to have fun.