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→Highlights of 2017
== Highlights of 2017 ==
The Epsilon Sigma chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma had an incredible year in 2017. It started with an excellent rush, where we welcomed an entire new pledge class of great women to our chapter. The first week, in an effort to integrate the new class with existing members, each class hosted a night of bonding. The second years took them bowling, the third years did pizza and movie night, and the forth years hosted a potluck. All three nights went wonderfully, and they were followed with more weeks of fun bonding activities and dinners.
In April we had our initiation, and it was a great success; not only serving as a really special experience for the new girls, but as great momentum for the chapter as we continued to work to get off probation. Run by our incredibly capable marshal Amanda Payne, we ran our first fully accurate Initiation in many years. By this, I mean the LC who came to join us during the week leading up to Initiation worked with Amanda and the chapter to understand the songs, rituals, and physical process of the Initiation, which our chapter had struggled with in past years. We are hoping to continue this progress with the next Marshal. Amanda also integrated new traditions, such as having the new members write themselves a letter after Fireside, to be kept in a time capsule until they are seniors, when they will then be returned to them. She also added a Kappa quiz for the new members, which they had to take before Fireside. It covered the basic facts about Kappa, our traditions, symbols, and history. Overall, Epsilon Sigma is moving towards becoming a stronger chapter and understanding ritual as being more than just words in a book.
The rest of the spring semester flew by; with the weather turning we had lots of outdoor activities. Our social chair, Jayne Anne, put on great events, from a classic favorite, our “Wiggin’ out” date function, to a beautiful semi-formal at Verulam Farm. We also carried on our traditional mixer with Tri-delt, which is always a great way to make new friends. Our Risk Chair (and now President elect) Erin Winchester, helped to manage these events as well. She worked to improve transparency with nationals and hold all chapter members more accountable for their actions. After attending Kappa Leadership Conference, she also started implementing more programming into our chapter to promote the wellness of all members and teamed up with New Member Chairman to better educate new members on what it means to represent the Kappa name at all times.
Our academic focuses have also been tested this year. While we dropped in the school rankings, it was only due a tiny shift in our GPA. In an effort to combat this drop, we started a whole slue of programs to increase academic performance. We started the ‘A Jar,’ in which people can write their names and the good grades the got that week and be entered into a draw for a gift card. We also host weekly study nights at the house, complete with study snacks to help fuel our academic efforts.
We hosted two Fraternity visitors this past year, Jan Larson (EME Trainer) and Maddy Poletis (LC). Audrey Jackson, VPO, worked closely with Chapter Council and the VPO Committee to make their stays with us as comfortable as possible. Committees and Committee Nights were improved with the use of "GroupMe" communication and the delegation of various jobs within committees to give leadership roles to chapter members. Audrey also created a Food Committee to improve house meals and a T-Shirt committee to design our shirts. Committees still have problems, however, such as lack of participation among some members and the disproportionate sizes of committees. We are actively working to solve this problem, and have some potential ideas to resolve the issue such as combining the smaller committees and placing more active members in often-used committees (such as philanthropy and marshal). A couple smaller achievements include officer binders and anonymous surveys. Audrey created Chapter Council officer binders with their respective leadership guides, so officers can archive important documents and incoming officers can refer to them for help. And created a monthly anonymous survey for chapter members to anonymously submit their comments/questions/concerns. This is a great way for members to speak their minds and is very helpful for Chapter Council.
All of these efforts culminated in May. After overseeing the Chapter Strategic Plan and Strategic Goals to ensure that the Chapter Council was tackling the problems addressed in our Chapter Survey and in our probation letter, Lynn Kelly, our leader and president, informed us that our Kappa Kappa Gamma Headquarters removed our chapter from a letter of probation. They recognized our improved communication, financial organization and priority to decrease risky behavior. As a result, we have been able to begin a Capital Campaign for chapter house renovations. As a chapter we were overjoyed, to know that all our hard work had paid off, and that we were fully embodying what it means to be great members of Kappa Kappa Gamma.
This moment, however, was bitter sweet, as shortly after we had to say goodbye to our incredible fourth year class. We did so, however, with a bang. Sophia Gribaldi arranged a dinner for the graduating girls, and facilitated a presentation with baby pictures and letters from their parents. In addition, all the littles of the graduating girls read blurbs about them at their final chapter.
This fall has been very busy as well. During chapters we have held numerous FOAs that the chapter has benefited from and enjoyed. We learned about hazing and as well as UVA's honor system, and we even had one of UVA’s most beloved law professors, Sherri Moore, come talk to us as well. The house has been, like always, a happy place of friends and food. With our incredible house mom Mary at the helm, assisted by Judy the cook, Marlena the housekeeper, and Vaughn the house manager, we had a great crew of people making sure everything ran smoothly. We have accomplished a lot this semester, including making a food committee, which helps Judy plan the menus each week. We started a new system of signing up for meals, which has helped Judy know how much food to make for our chapter, and assisted in our goal of reducing food waste. Vaughn also implemented a new system of signing up to live in the house where girls who want to live there all year get priority, and as of now all of the rooms are full for the next school year.
Caroline Kenny, our recruitment chair, has successfully implemented a new voting software system that has turned our voting during formal recruitment totally digital. She has also worked closely with her assistants, Elle McLeod and Elizabeth Izlar, to delegate certain tasks to make the rush planning process more collaborative. In general, we are excited to meet some wonderful new women, and cannot wait to welcome some into our chapter. We hope to carry on a strong kappa tradition and legacy in the year to come, and we know that rush is a vital part of making that happen.
This August, UVA and the surrounding community of Charlottesville made national headlines as neo Nazis and white supremacists marched across our grounds in the name of hate. As a school and as a town we have wrestled with this disgusting display of ignorance and cruelty, and sought to right it through thoughtful conversation and productive new guidelines and rules that better protect and embrace our diverse community. As a chapter, this has been an ongoing process as we try and find the right ways to contribute. The Black Student Alliance put forth a list of demands for the University. While we, as a chapter, decided that signing it, and taking a political stance as a group, was not the purpose of Kappa as whole, we hope to continue to support and foster a safe and thoughtful environment for all students and citizens.
Despite this disturbing and heart wrenching start to the year, as a chapter we have tried to face forward. After a year of hard work, we were thrilled to get off our probation, and actively worked to continue to engrain the positive habits and transparent communication with nationals and the chapter. We have achieved incredible academic success, with many members earning 4.0’s, and even more gaining acceptance into the McIntire School of Commerce, the Batten School of Leadership, as well as even a few medical schools. Our sisterhood bonding activities are at an all time high, and as a chapter we have never been more cohesive and unified. We hope that this continues into the coming semester and year, and look forward to all that it has in store.
With Mackenzie Shannon as our chapter’s fearless philanthropy leader, we had a very successful and community driven year. We hosted two large events, Breakfast for Books and Kappasta. We raised $4,783 at Breakfast for Books, which we held over Kappa Parents Weekend in the Spring, and loved hosting all our parents and families in our house. This fall we raised about $2,000 at Kappasta, the chapter’s all time favorite philanthropy. All the house girls get together to clean the house, put up fun Christmas decorations, and make everything as warm and welcome as possible for all our new guests. The event is also great because it attracts lots of first year girls, and its always a great time to get to know them better and teach them about our philanthropic efforts.