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|Image= [[File:Epsilon_Mu.jpeg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1970|03|07}}
|College= [httphttps://www.clemson.edu Clemson University]
|Location= Clemson, SC
|Homepage= [httphttps://chaptersclemson.kappakappagammakappa.org/epsilonmu/ Epsilon Mu Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Epsilon_Mu Media related to Epsilon Mu Chapter]}}
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The chapter meets Monday nights in Tillman Hall, which is one of the most famous buildings on campus. We meet in the auditorium, but the hall is home to classrooms and offices as well. Chapter council meetings are held on Wednesday nights in the chapter room on the Kappa Kappa Gamma hall.
==Highlights of 2019==
The Epsilon Mu chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma here at Clemson is one of the more well-rounded sororities on campus with the individual involvement of our members, the grades we make, and the passion we have for our chapter and our university. We have members that are involved in the Clemson University Guide Association, Undergraduate Student Government, Student Alumni Council, Tiger Pride, various Honors and Business societies, club sports, and many more organizations. Epsilon Mu has always strived for success in academia and our hard work in the Spring semester of 2019 brought our total grade point average to 3.533. This brings our chapter to 7th place out of 12 total sororities and 8th place in all of Greek Life, surpassing the average GPA of Greek Life campus wide, 3.360. It is this hard work that earned our chapter the Scholastic Achievement award for the year.
This year our new members participated in Epsilon Mu'''Housing:''' s first ever New Member retreat! Accompanied by our chapter council officers and some upperclassman volunteers, our 89 new members enjoyed a fun filled, relaxing weekend full of games and bonding activities in the mountains of North Carolina at Keystone summer camp. This was an awesome opportunity for our girls to get to know one another and begin building relationships and making memories that they will carry with them the rest of their lives!
Our chapter celebrated Founders Day this year with a large celebration dinner and ceremony. We gathered at a local venue and enjoyed some delicious food, quality conversation, and a few meaningful words from Blake Bernard, our Education Chair, as well as some Epsilon Mu alumnae and mothers. This has become one of our chapter's favorite evenings because we get to celebrate Kappa Kappa Gamma a recognize that the bonds that brought us together will keep us together now and for years to come!
Our chapter is an extremely close knit group of women, including both active members and alumnae. This year our Chapter Council advisor, Susan Jezek, put together an entire board of advisors to assist our chapters leaders, providing guidance and advice, enabling them to lead our chapter to the best of their ability. This advisory board was an enormous success and we look forward to the things our chapter council will be able to accomplish with such a great resource. It is because of this that our chapter received the Alumni Development award for the past year.
Campus has been growing rapidly throughout the last few years with the grand opening of the Douthit Hills facility and the new College of Business building well under way, scheduled to open for classes in Fall of 2020. The atmosphere at Clemson remains the same, including the flood of Tiger Pride that sweeps in every Saturday of the fall semester to watch our Tigers play. Clemson won the National Championship in January, making us the reigning champs going into this years playoffs. Greek Life at Clemson continues to thrive, however sadly our friends in Kappa Alpha Theta did lose their charter in Spring 2019. In response to this, Panhellenic create an expansion committee to look into the possibility of chartering a new chapter in the coming years! The Epsilon Mu chapter remains a close knit group of strong, outgoing women who act as leaders all across Clemson's campus.
'''Philanthropy'''
This year, through multiple events and fundraisers, such as our 2nd annual donut eating contest, Krispy Kreme Grabbers, a silent auction at Parents Cocktail, and Reading is Key at the local elementary school, our chapter supported the Epsilon Mu Scholarship Foundation, Reading is Fundamental, the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation, and various other foundations. Krispy Kreme Grabbers nearly tripled its total from the year prior and nearly $2,000 was raised at the silent auction.
In Epsilon Mu, we pride ourselves in empowering our members to support the causes that they are passionate about. That being said, this year we incorporated almost 10 new events into our normal schedule to help raise money for different organizations that our members are involved in.
==Highlights of 2020:==
Despite having a completely virtual recruitment process due to COVID-19, we recruited and initiated our largest pledge class ever of 95 women. The Epsilon Mu chapter was also thankful to be able to hold our favorite tradition/sisterhood event, Kappas Can Cook where our upperclassmen hosted new members for dinner in order to build sisterhood and morale (while following the “pod” guidelines.) Kappa Kappa Gamma at Clemson University was also ranked top 3 in a modified float build for homecoming.
[[File:Kappa Kares Book Drive.jpg|thumb|Kappa Kares Book Drive]]
'''Philanthropy & DEI Initiatives'''
After the events of this past summer that brought the country’s attention to racial injustice, we decided to readjust our approach to our annual Reading Is Fundamental event. We wanted to take action and continue our mission of education and service by hosting the Kappa Kares Book Drive. Funds raised by this drive were used to purchase books written by authors of various ethnicities as well as female authors, that featured characters of diverse backgrounds and physical abilities, and/or introduced topics of inclusivity, racial justice, and social equality. These books were donated to local elementary schools, foster homes, after school programs, and other organizations reaching underserved communities in the Clemson area. We were able to successfully raise $15,798 and are in the process of purchasing books and locating children and the organizations that serve these kids that are in need of these resources to continue this mission. The Epsilon Mu Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma strongly supports our national philanthropy while also supporting many local philanthropies such as the Clemson Child Development Center, Helping Hands, Clemson Community Cares, and the Littlejohn Community Center.
We are excited to announce that our chapter has been approved to welcome ClemsonLife, a program for students with intellectual disabilities, into our next new member class.
'''Chapter Awards'''
The Epsilon Mu Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma won honorary mentions for the following awards: Chapter/Advisory Board Relations, Most Improved Academic Excellence, Standards, Public Relations, and Greatest Improvement. We also won the following awards: New Member Program, and Panhellenic Award. Epsilon Mu also received the following Chapter Excellence awards from the Clemson University Fraternity and Sorority Life: Alumni Development, Fraternity and Sorority Life Involvement, and Scholastic Achievement. We had one member receive a scholarship from the KKG foundation.
'''Sesquicentennial'''
We hosted a virtual celebration with alumnae and active members. We had one of Epsilon Mu’s founding members speak, and also a recent EM graduate who currently serves as Miss South Carolina. Additionally, we had an interactive social media campaign for both members and alumnae to participate in.
==Highlights of 2021:==
This year our chapter accomplished many events and received several awards and honors. First, Clemson Panhellenic as a whole received the 2021 Excellence Award from the National Panhellenic Conference. Epsilon Mu also celebrated 50 years, and our chapter hosted a great Founders Day brunch to celebrate this. Our chapter created the SOAR academic award this year which is an award we will give yearly to an individual who has the most improved GPA, also known as the most dedicated. This year Caroline Hall of PC 20 received the award for all her hard work. Our traditions for initiation of the new members being presented with letters from friends and family members congratulating them the night before initiation was completed again this year with a record number of letters received. Initiation went smooth as it was back in person, and we had multiple legacy members attend the ceremony as well. Our philanthropy changed a lot this year, and we are now supporting the JED Foundation which we were able to raise over $37,000 for in three months! From the university, Kappa received the Alumni Development Award, Fraternity and Sorority Involvement Award, Philanthropic Service award, and the Scholastic Achievement award, which we are all very proud of. These are just a few of our highlights from the year, and it can only continue from here.
'''Philanthropy'''
Our chapter locally supports numerous organizations and causes including Dance Marathon, Helping Hands, All In Foundation, and many more. Primarily, we support the Clemson Area Diverse Literacy Program, which we created in partnership with local businesses and community centers, to continue the purchase and distribution of hundreds of books to students in the local Clemson area. The books are written by authors of various backgrounds, ethnicities, races, genders and abilities to promote ideas of inclusivity, racial justice and equality. Thus far, we have raised over $17,000 and distributed over 900 books. We plan to continue this program for at least the next 5 years as a way to successfully transition from our previous literacy-based philanthropy to our new mental health awareness and well-being philanthropy. We partnered with the JED Foundation for our new mental health philanthropic efforts. We have successfully fundraised over $37,000 so far from fundraisers and events including First Friday, Kappa Kickball, Parent’s Cocktail Silent Auction, and Mental Health Awareness Week. Our Mental Health Awareness Week included a suicide awareness speaker, random acts of kindness, proceeds days, flower arranging sisterhood event, and serotonin boosts!
We are so proud of our efforts to not only support a nationwide mental health awareness push but our efforts to ensure the well-being of all of our members right here as well. We have done numerous social media pushes as well to spread the word and raise awareness by members of our chapter sharing their stories and battles with mental health. We have lots of events planned for the upcoming semester and year to continue our work and support of JED!
'''Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion'''
This year, Epsilon Mu implemented a DEI officer, and utilized the position to a great extent by bringing the chairman onto chapter council. Initiatives included having designated ‘office’ hours where members could speak to the DEI officer about any personal struggles as well as a weekly sent out submission form where members could submit a friend in need to be reached out to. Our chapter council led a mental health awareness week and brought Lizzie Borek, a Kappa alum and certified mental health specialist to speak to our chapter about suicide prevention awareness, following up her first speech to the chapter in spring 2021 regarding general mental health. We prioritized our members'''Chapter Convention Awards''':mental health through sisterhood events that promoted DEI values, self-care and general bonding within the chapter. PR also promoted these values with educating the chapter consistently throughout the term through social media, as well as by allowing members to be brave and share their mental health journey to normalize the stigma. The DEI chair attended monthly Panhellenic wellness meetings for education purposes, and also coordinated with various on-campus departments such as Clemson’s diversity office to gain perspective and ideas.
'''Operating in a Pandemic'''
During Covid-19 there have been changes made to our chapter overall, but the past two semesters we have been able to get back to normal some. Our chapter complies with all University mask mandates over campus, which includes wearing masks when we have chapter events on campus. We also had two separate initiation ceremonies to limit the number of individuals in the room to limit the spread of potential illnesses. Virtual options of meetings were provided if necessary.
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