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Epsilon Psi

13,435 bytes added, 18:26, 20 December 2021
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|Image= [[File:EpsilonPsi_House1.jpg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1978|10|14}}
|College= [httphttps://www.ucsb.edu/ University of California, Santa Barbara]
|Location= Goleta, CA
|Homepage= http[https://wwwucsb.kappa.org/ Epsilon Psi Website]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Epsilon_Psi Media related to Epsilon Psi Chapter]}}
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Each year we joined other Greeks in Campus philanthropy activities and intramural activities.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
==Highlights of the 1990's==
 
In 1990 we were active on campus, winning 1st in KD’s soccer tournament. WE raised money for the Rape Crisis Center. WE focused on scholarship and the entire house had a GPA over 3.0. In 1991 our house was redecorated including new floors and new furniture.
With other Greeks on campus we participated in Walk America and AIDS Walk and worked with Special Olympics. Our chapter President was given the Chapter President of the Year at the Greek Awards Banquet. At Kappa Province Meeting we won 1st in Scholarship, Gracious Living, Philanthropy and Public Relations.
In 1995 all pledges in every house attended Greek Awareness Programs to inform them of t campus problems and also positive issues. As a philanthropy we participated in fixing up and painting houses for Habitat for Humanity.
In 1997-1998 we had a successful philanthropy event to raise money for the salvation Army. We had a 20th chapter Reunion. We volunteered at the annual Goleta Lemon Festival.
We earned the highest house GPA of 3.13.
 
 
 
==Highlights of 2010==
 
Kappa Kappa Gamma at UCSB is always recognized for our great efforts in every aspect of the Greek system and on campus. A prime example of our amazing recognition was our great success at UCSB Greek Awards, which were held during Spring quarter of 2009 in downtown Santa Barbara. Not only did we win for "excellence in philanthropy" for our annual Kappa dash and "chapter advisor of the year" for our outstanding advisor Jeanne Dixon, but we also won the best award of the night, "chapter excellence!" This was so exciting for our chapter because we certainly do excel in various areas and this award was a verification that we are a dominating sorority on campus.
 
In addition to winning many awards, we also participated in many philanthropies, including our own and all of the other Greek houses. This year in Kappa Dash, despite the poor economy, we still raised around $17,000 for the Ovarian Cancer Coalition of great California foundation, supporting breast and ovarian cancer. This amount of money is by far the greatest funding that any sorority or fraternity raised for a charitable organization. In addition, we also sold Valentine's Day grams in mid-February, and we were able to donate a few hundred dollars to the national Kappa philanthropic group, Reading is Fundamental. Besides our own efforts, we also participated in numerous other philanthropies including SigEp football, Pi Phi capture the flag, Theta kickball, AdPi wiffleball, AePi soccer, and SAE pumpkin carving. We also placed 2nd in ATO's all sorority volleyball tournament and also placed 2nd in Lambda Chi's watermelon bust week!
 
Although our entire chapter is great as a whole, each individual member is extremely unique and lends great diversity to Kappa Kappa Gamma. Most of our member highly excel in academics, which allowed us to place 6th out of 20 houses in grades for Fall quarter of 2009. Also, a few of our officers attended province during Spring quarter, and another officer attended the Kappa leadership conference in Ohio during this past summer. They were all able to give us great ideas to strengthen our chapter upon their return. Besides our officers, every single member is amazing and their involvement in school and in the community is very impressive. Our chapter is lucky to have girls who are on the club volleyball team, UCSB lacrosse team, UCSB cheer team, and perform in various UCSB dance performances. We also have some young ladies who are members of the Associated Student Board and the Program Board, which sets up various events and concerts that are popular on campus. One of members attended the UN climate change conference overseas in Copenhagen, which was attended by President Obama, Governor Schwarzenegger, Al Gore, and more prominent public figures. Many of our members also hold prominent internships such as working for the Santa Barbara Film Festival, helping on the red carpet for E! network, and managing the UCSB branch of the website, Hercampus.com. These are just some of the accomplishments held by our incredible members.
 
In conclusion, the past year has been full of worthy recognition, numerous awards, and most importantly has been a fun year to remember!
 
Although there are only 10 sororities on campus and only about 11% of total Greek involvement, the Greek system seems like it is huge because there is so much pride in each and every house. Kappa always continues to stand out on campus as classy role models who are involved in a multitude of groups. At UCSB, we are very lucky to have a campus that is stationed right on the beach, and very frequently, you can spot a Kappa on campus studying on the sunny lawn or beach, tabling in the arbor to promote a Kappa event, or even contributing to a beach clean up for community service.
 
Our chapter is definitely one of the most united and spirited houses on campus. All of our members are extremely eager and talk all about Kappa wherever they go. Any day on campus or in town you will spot a few girls wearing Kappa clothes, and definitely their Kappa book bag. Every single girl, no matter what age or year, is friendly with one another, which definitely differentiates us from other houses. We have very good relations with the other sororities and fraternities and hold the reputation of being kind, intelligent, classy, fun, and well-rounded.
 
Our chapter had financial issues meaning that many girls could not afford to pay dues. We overcame this by putting some girls on payment plans, and we also had a fundraiser hosted by Twisted Jewelry company, which was just for Kappas in our own house. We were able to raise enough money and buy cute jewelry, which resulted in being able to have our winter date party, Sapphire Ball, even despite our financial issues. We also had some problems filling the house, which are still present, but we were able to better the situation by having new and eager members move into the house.
 
 
 
We hold meetings every Monday at our chapter house and formal meetings in a lecture hall on campus.
 
==Highlights of 2018==
 
One of our members was presented with the Robin Babini Community Service Achievement Award for demonstrating outstanding acts of community service. A few members attended the National Convention in Denver and our chapter recruited a pledge class of 62 girls in September 2018. During recruitment, our chapter worked together to create a natural and enjoyable environment for all. We participated in many philanthropies on campus this year and created a new event for our own philanthropy, Kappa Kapture the Flag. The event was a success and we will continue it in the future. We are also actively spending more time focusing on ritual in order to maintain the traditions of Kappa.
 
Our chapter is extremely unified and consists of a diverse group of ladies. Many members have shown interest in leadership positions this year and we are excited to welcome the incoming Chapter Council. Members of our chapter are involved not only in Kappa, but also in other extracurricular activities, like ROTC, professional fraternities, and on-campus clubs. We encourage as much participation as possible at UCSB and support our members in all their endeavors.
 
Our chapter raises money for the Ovarian Cancer Circle in addition to Reading is Fundamental. We also donate books to IV Elementary School. This year Epsilon Psi hosted a new philanthropy called Kappa Kapture the Flag.
 
We support Reading is Fundamental because it is Kappa's national philanthropy and our chapter believes giving children the opportunity to read and promote literacy is extremely important. We also choose to support the Ovarian Cancer Circle because it has a special place in our hearts. One of our members, Robin Babbini, lost her battle to ovarian cancer in 2006. Her mother founded the charity so we choose to support her in raising awareness for the devastating disease.
 
 
==Highlights of 2020==
 
This year, we were able to start the calendar year by having informal recruitment. We then had initiation for those girls, and a day later we had our very first Kappa Kabana date party. Not even a week later, we had to go home due to COVID-19. The house closed for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year, and events were continued online. We hosted virtual sisterhoods, including movie and game nights. Our meetings were short clips of our announcements edited together to form a “meeting,” that sisters could watch on their own. Fall 2020,we began to prepare for our virtual recruitment. Our chapter house opened up again, with major health and safety precautions. We had Polish week for recruitment over zoom, and were able to finish recruitment and host virtual Bid day, where we claimed 67 girls as our new sisters. We initiated them a couple of months later, through Zoom, and they got extra gear in their “initiation packages” to make it more special. Along the way, we had virtual sisterhoods and a book drive! ​Reading is Fundamental is Kappa’s national organization. The Ovarian Cancer Circle is close to our chapter because one of our sisters, Robin Babbini, died from Ovarian Cancer when she was a student at UCSB. ​Our chapter has created a Diversity and inclusion chair, and her position has created a committee to help her with all of the duties to help Kappa be a more inclusive space. Our DEI chair created a training for all of the panhellenic that she presented before recruitment, about implicit bias and racism in the Greek community. There was also a Facebook page where she would post infographics, news articles, and other information to help us all be more educated and aware. ​This year, we hosted our own Founders day over zoom where we played games like trivia, and performed the Founders Day ceremony ritual. This was important because the ritual hadn’t been
performed in several years, but it came back for the celebration of Kappa’s 150th anniversary. We were also able to pick up a cupcake from the house. We finished our celebration by tuning into the National sesquicentennial celebration.
[[File:Eppsi.png|thumb|sisters]]
 
 
 
==Highlights of 2021==
 
One of our members, Jessica Orozco, a 3rd year student, received a scholarship through Kappa.
Our chapter initiated a group of 69 new members on November 13th and 1 was initiated at a
later date. During our recruitment process, which was virtual, our chapter worked together to
create a welcoming and positive environment. We were allowed to have an in-person bid day
this fall which was organized by our new member chair, Avery Thomas. We had Summer Spink,
our DEI chair hold a presentation during recruitment about what our values should be during
the process of rush. Unfortunately because of COVID, we couldn’t hold our annual Kappa
Kapture, the flag philanthropy which is our big fundraiser for the year but instead, our
Philanthropy chair held a mental health awareness week in which our members were
encouraged to partake in random acts of kindness. Also this past spring we held an auction
online with prizes that were donated from various parents, alumni, as well as local businesses to
raise money for Active Minds. Regarding ritual within our chapter, I encouraged girls to come to
multiple ritual reviews held throughout the year.
Chapter Philanthropy
 
As a chapter we locally support the Ovarian Cancer Circle and will usually host events at
restaurants in Isla Vista which will donate 1⁄3 of their proceeds to our chapter for this
organization.
How did the chapter support Kappa’s philanthropy?
We recently as a chapter just voted to support Active Minds which is a non-profit
organization that focuses on the conversation of mental health in young adults through
peer-to-peer dialogue. We raised money in the spring with an online auction to support
mental health organizations. We plan on hosting Kappa Kapture the flag once certain covid
restrictions are lifted and everyone in Greek life can participate.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
 
Our DEI chair, Summer Spink, held weekly seminars in spring quarter that focused on different areas
such as the Jewish-American experience, climate change, women in Stem, etc. As a chapter we had
one mandatory seminar to attend but her seminars were always full! This fall, Summer hosted one
large event at a Monday night chapter meeting about cultural appropriation before Halloween to
ensure everyone would have a respectful costume and would better understand how to honor other
cultures. Overall every member was involved in DEI this past year in social media, chapter trainings
and more.
Operating in a Pandemic
Our meetings from January to June were all virtual and now this fall we were able to hold
in-person meetings once again with everyone wearing masks. We would also have an option
for zooming in if a girl was sick and unable to attend meetings. Our COB event in February
was virtual and so was their initiation. This fall our Bid Day was in person but masks were
required in the chapter house and initiation was also in person with masks. I hosted a
combined red-white room ceremony to lessen the contact that everyone would have with
each other which went very well. Overall our chapter handled the transition from in-person
to virtual and back to in-person quite well and we’re all happy to have the opportunity to be
back with each other again.
[[File:Ucsb.jpg|thumb|Sisterhood]]
[[File:Ucsb1.jpg|thumb|Social Distancing]]