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In context of the university that Zeta Omega is located at, the University of Waterloo ranked first for innovation for the twenty-fourth year in a row and first for reputation this year according to MacLean’s. It also raised 17 places in terms of word rankings. Regarding changes to the campus, the university opened a Science Teaching Complex, began construction on a new student residence, opened it’s Center of Excellence for Innovation in Aging, and expanded it’s entrepreneurship program, Velocity, to become North America’s largest startup incubator. Hopefully next year is as progressive and exciting as this one!
==Highlights of 2017==
In 2017, the Zeta Omega Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma at the University of Waterloo had an
incredible year due to our commitment to our chapter goals and our focus on sisterhood. The year
started off with an incredible and enthusiastic Chapter Council with Supriya Sethi leading as our
President. As a Chapter with our VPO Mariam Khattak, we focused on and worked hard to
accomplish our Chapter Goals: remember our "Whys"; improve Risk Management Education;
Improve Academic Excellence; improve sisterhood; and increase accountability. We kept these
goals in mind throughout the year and strived to accomplish them in everything we did as a
chapter.
The Winter Term was filled with incredible Sisterhoods planned by our VPS, Uma Chowhan that
kept us active when we went to Skyzone, allowed us to explore our creative side when we did a
painting workshop, and brought us together as we crafted new Kappa t-shirts together. In the Fall
Term we participated in Sisterhoods planned by our VPS, Simona Iancu including a mug crafting
event perfect for holding hot drinks we would need in the coming cold weather, and a holiday
themed meeting where we decorated gingerbread figures and exchanged Secret Sister gifts! A
perfect way to end a great year. In order to further our goals of improving sisterhood, remembering
our "Whys", and increasing accountability, we as a chapter worked hard to reach out to sisters we
don't know as well and share what we admire about each other through our Clothespin Dates,
Sister of the Week and Pen Pals. We also worked on self-mediating issues we had through Koffee
for Konversation - an informal way to solve personal issues between sisters without going through
Standards that also helped make meaningful connections between sisters.
As a Chapter we participated in many Philanthropy events that were focused on giving back to our
community and becoming more visible on campus. In the Winter we ran Movies and
Marshmallows where we took over the main Student Life Centre on campus and served hot
chocolate and played movies for our fellow students to help them through midterms. In the Fall
term our Philanthropy Chairwoman Kayley Marner continued our great philanthropy efforts with a
RIF-themed philanthropy by organizing for our chapter to help the program coordinators of Strong
Start's Get Ready to Read Program pack and sort materials. Our last philanthropy event of the year
was in support of World Kindness Day! We crafted and distributed lollipop flowers with words of
encouragement to students all over campus. It was even featured in an article written for our
Federation of Students website!
As our Risk Management Chairman, Mia Chan worked endlessly to accomplish our chapter goal of
increasing Risk Management Education by putting together great Risk Education workshops that
we participated in during General Meeting. Mia helped chapter when the new Risk Management
policies came into place and helped us as a chapter understand the important changes!
In Winter 2017 we hosted our annual Sapphire Ball! This year it was organized by our Event's
Chairman, Kiki Ghandour, and was held at the Delta Hotel in Uptown Waterloo. This incredible
yearly event celebrates the wonderful academic year before us and the accomplishments of our
sisters. As a chapter we hand out awards to some of our sisters to highlight everything they have
done for us! Here were the awards and the recepiants: Academic Excellence Award: Eleni Zaptses;
Chapter Goal Award: Supriya Sethi; Sisterhood Award: Mia Chan; Philanthropy Award: Mackenzie
Noble; Abby Shanmuganathan Memorial Award: Patricia Su; Alumna Award: Brittney Van Nood;
Senior Member Award: Uma Chowhan; New Member Award: Brett Doane; Outstanding Officer
Award: Mariam Khattak; President's Award: Maddie Braun.
In order to improve our Academic Excellence as part of our Chapter Goals, our VPAE Claire
Quong worked hard to encourage sisters to share their academic accomplishments, and work in
study groups based on their majors/programs. Another way to encourage sisters to strive for
academic excellence was the introduction of our Scholarship Pearls. For Winter 2017, two
Scholarship Pearls were given out: Most Improved: Meaghan B; and Most Inspirational: Tearney
Johnson-Jones. We look forward to continuing Scholarship Pearls and celebrating academic
accomplishments into the 2018 year!
In the Fall of 2017 our Membership Chairman Brett Doane and our New Member Chairman Niha
Amin welcomed our incredible Alpha Sigma Pledge Class. After a week filled with incredible events
all centred around our theme of "A Fleurishing Sisterhood", we welcomed 14 new sisters into our
sisterhood: Alezeh, Sydney D., Ekaterina, Grace, Ailish, Celina, Shannel, Alexandra, Hannah,
Lyana, Danielle, Pauline, Jamie, and Alicia. As a Pledge Class they participated in our sisterhoods,
philanthropies, and showed great enthusiasm towards building our sisterhood and being active
members of our chapter, all volunteering to help any officer wherever she was needed. We couldn't
be more thrilled they chose to join us and will be continuing our chapter and this Fraternity's great
legacy!
While welcoming new sisters is always incredible, saying goodbye to our seniors is always bitter
sweet. In 2017 we wished our senior sisters the best of luck as they continue their lives postgraduation
from the University of Waterloo and the Zeta Omega Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma.
We know our graduating sisters Meera, Ally, Kavita, Taylor H., Parnum, Diane, Kiki, Uthi, Valerie,
Uma, Karen H., Tearney, Eleni, Miya, Maddy and Jordana will do incredible things and we can't
wait to hear about all their successes! In the Winter our seniors spent quality time together in an
escape room! In teams they worked to escape by solving puzzles and riddles using clues, hints and
strategy to complete to objectives at hand. Clearly these wonderful women are well-prepared to
take on post-grad life! In the fall, our seniors participated in a paint night, where they relaxed and
explored their creative side. As senior sisters they participated in senior programming learning all
about financial management, how to save post-graduation, and about investing in TFSAs and
RRSPs.
We are so proud of our 2017 year and all our sisters, active and alumna, who helped make it an
incredible year! We look forward to 2018 and what the new year brings!
==Highlights of 2020s==