374
edits
Changes
→Highlights of 2014
Currently our President is the only member in our chapter to wear a historic badge. The pin is passed down from the outgoing President to the incoming President at the time of each transition so the badge is always being worn. Attached are picture of the pin and the inscription on the back reads "Pres. Badge Richmond Alums" and "ZO 5-2-87".
==Highlights of 2015==
We began 2015 with Recruitment and ended the week with 3 new Kappa members. This had been one of our best recruitments ever, excluding a helium shortage that limited our balloons for decoration, everything ran smoothly throughout the week. We followed Recruitment with Officer Transitions, holding our triplet meetings and officer retreat. Overall we have realized that transitions are something that our chapter needs to work on and set that as a chapter goal to work on for the 2016 transitions. In February we hosted Kappa Kisses on campus, our traditional Valentine’s Day Philanthropy Event. This provided the new members an opportunity to get involved right away and understand one of the many ways Kappa fits into the Greek community at Richmond. We also had a successful New Member Period where the new members learned all about Kappa’s history and traditions, their meetings helped them to bond as a pledge class – a foundation we have seen through out the year as they have remained close. Our next event was Inspiration Week. We were lucky to have a Leadership Consultant with us during this week so that she could help us to make sure we were executing the week to the best of our ability, inform us on areas we needed to improve, and give us some great ideas for next year. Inspiration week was complicated for us this year as it was bookended by St. Patrick’s Day and Sigma Chi’s Derby Days Philanthropy Event. As a whole, the chapter handled the restrictions of the week admirably and we were able to initiate all of our new members without any problems. This was one of our most successful Initiations, our CC had worked on solutions to any problems we have had in the past and everything ran smoothly. After the new members were initiated we were able to hold our spring social “Sapphire Ball.” The formal ran smoothly due to the attentive planning of our social chair and excellent risk team. We finished off the spring semester with our philanthropy event Richmond Carnival, which was a new event run jointly with Sigma Phi Epsilon. The event was a success and we are looking into continuing it in the following years. Our final event of the year was our senior banquet where we said goodbye to out outgoing seniors and celebrated their time at the University of Richmond and in Kappa.
Our first event of the fall was our philanthropy Kappa Kourtside. This event has become a tradition for our chapter and improves every year. This year we had more than 75 teams participate and raised over 1,000 for RIF. This continues to be our most successful event. We also attended Kappa Delta’s bid night in order welcome all the girls to the Richmond Greek Community, KD is new on campus and did not have any older members to celebrate the night so all the chapters on campus came together to celebrate their new members. In addition we took part in “Girls Fight Back,” an Standard of Excellence (SOE) event that taught us self defense. Our next event was also and SOE, partnering with Delta Gamma and Kappa Delta, we hosted “Finding Kind” which opened our eyes to the problems of Girl on Girl Bullying. Our president, Hannah Cassatly, heard Erin Fischer speak at SEPC and had the great idea for this event. We initiated our Owl, Key, and Fleur de lis Groups this fall, as a project to improve Kappa attendance at nonKappa events. This semester has been a learning period and we hope to utilize it more in the future. We participated in many small philanthropy projects as well. We partnered with YouthLife this October as well to host a field day for the kids. They came to campus and the chapter met them on our intermural fields to play games and spent the afternoon running around. The children and our sisters alike loved this event. Kappa also worked alongside Richmond’s Women’s Soccer Team and hosted a “Think Pink” Auction where pink jerseys worn by the players were auctioned off during the game and the proceeds were donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. We also participated in Richmond’s Trick-or-Treat Street, which is a Halloween Carnival through which neighborhood kids can participate and celebrate a safe Halloween. This is one of our favorite events to participate in, the kids have so much fun playing the games and everyone loves to dress up in costumes. Our last activities of 2015 included a senior programming event where we participated in the Rope’s Course on Campus, and our final philanthropy event of the semester Kappaccino. We hosted Kappaccino for the first time last year to offer coffee to students studying for exams while our campus coffee shop was closed. After the success last year we hosted the event again with even better results. We improved the amount we raised and had even more of our chapter members involved in the event. This is an event we know will continue in the future.
Describe the recent changes on your campus and describe the overall nature of your chapter.
There were two changes to campus over this past year. The first was the introduction of our Standard of Excellence (SOE) programming and also the introduction of Kappa Delta to campus.
SOEs are events that are planned and organized by the different Panhellenic organizations on campus that promote good character and introduce useful skills for our future. They have included events that open our eyes to the dangers of bullying and drinking, as well as risk management and can be as instructive as resume workshops. As a whole these events benefit the chapters and members of the Greek Community because the help us to improve ourselves and be better prepared for life during and after college.
Additionally the University of Richmond welcomed Kappa Delta to campus this fall. The began their process of colonization in the spring, tabling and hosting events so that interested girls on campus would have opportunities to learn more. This September they hosted their first recruitment and on bid day the entire Greek Community came out to welcome KD’s new members. Their introduction to campus has brought the chapters even closer together and prepares us for the return of FIJI in the spring as they have their first recruitment on campus in five years.
Overall our chapter has become very close. We have worked hard to create foundations in the pledge classes during their new member periods and have seen the results. We have continued to use our cottage more and more so it really feels like a central place for our chapter. Many of our members use it as a study space as well as a location for pledge class movie nights or a place to bake cookies. We actively participate in the philanthropy events on campus, and have been making it a goal to improve our attendance at non-Kappa events. We are looking forward to Recruitment in January as we are already excited to meet our newest pledge class and add more sisters to our Kappa family.
Chapter Philanthropy:
What organization(s) has your chapter historically/traditionally raised money for, or donated hours to, in your community?
Traditionally our chapter has worked with organizations in our community that have Kappa members involved with them. This in the past, and today, has included the Boys and Girls Club, Youth Life, the Dominion School for Autism (The Founders Center of Commonwealth Autism), and programs at individual elementary schools where we have gone to read books or create a haunted house.
Why did your chapter choose this organization(s) to support?
We take pride in supporting the organizations that our sisters are passionate about. This is we are involved with a number of different organizations and are constantly participating in new events. The University of Richmond has a great organization – The Bonner Center for Civil Engagement – which a number of our members are involved in and through their ties we have been able to reach out to a number of organizations.
==Highlights of 2020s:==