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|Image= [[File:Eta_Mu.jpg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|2007|04|29}}
|College= [httphttps://www.ucsc.edu/ University of California, Santa Cruz]
|Location= Santa Cruz, CA
|Homepage= [httphttps://ucsckkgucsc.celectkappa.org/welcome Eta Mu Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Eta_Mu Media related to Eta Mu Chapter]}}
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Our Chapter supports RIF to help under served kids discover the joy of reading and books. We also help support local organizations to give back to our Santa community.
Our chapter added a DEI officer to our Chapter Council in an effort to educate our sisters and give voices to our BIPOC members. We elected Aryn Williams-Escobar as our DEI Chairwoman and she did an outstanding job in our Fall Quarter. Every meeting we would do a spotlight on a sister who talked about her identity which helped educate our sisters about new cultures and family dynamics. For example, our Indian sisters presented an informational presentation about the Punjabi Farmers Strike happening in India and shed light on what it means to be an Indian American in the U.S. and the stereotypes it follows. Furthermore, our PR Chair has made sure to represent all sisters in our Instagram Account and made posts about what it means to be an ally, a statement supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement,informational guides on what gaslighting and microaggressions are, and many more posts and stories. We celebrated at a local park with crafts and games. Also, the Minnie Stewart Van visited and we got to tour around the van to see the historical events that led to Kappa’s Founding. Sisters also experienced a VR tour of Monmouth College and how our founding sisters founded Kappa. On October 13, our PR Chair posted a celebration picture celebrating our Founders Day as well.
[[File:Etamuphotos.png|thumb|virtual]]
==Highlights of 2021==
Although this year for Eta Mu was mainly online, we still managed to strengthen our
connections with each other. Starting off the year, we had workshop for the whole chapter
hosted by the Behind Happy Faces Program. The Behind Happy Faces Program is a two-part
system to teach lessons. The curriculum utilizes creative PowerPoint presentations to expose
participants to the knowledge necessary for understanding mental health in their lives. The
interactive exercises that coincide with the PowerPoint presentations have been constructed
to maximize retention and improve participants’ emotional relationships to themselves and
others. This system is designed to deliver information in a short time frame, in order to meet
participants where they are, in the culture that they live. This program helped us be more
honest with each other and reflect on our mental health in especially in a college setting. In
February, we had our annual Presents Brunch for our Phi Class to celebrate big/little pairings
and bigs were able to present speeches about their littles. During Spring Quarter, we had
COB Recruitment and were able to get nine new members for Chi Class and I initiated them
through a virtual ceremony. We then celebrated Eta Mu’s Birthday by meeting at a nearby
park to take pictures and hang out socially-distanced. Towards the end of the quarter, our
Membership Chair came up with Kappa Kash which helped incentivize members to come to
events and promote Kappa Events in turn for points and prizes. We then hosted a senior
banquet for our seniors before graduation in June.
During Fall Quarter, we had another virtual formal recruitment and were able to get 24 new
members for Psi Class. We were able to do bid day in person at a nearby park as well as
big/little reveal, so that was amazing to see and hopefully made the new members feel
welcomed. Not many events were held to due to COVID procedures in place on campus and
off campus and all of our meetings remained online. I initiated Psi Class on November 21st
and following that day we voted on our new Chapter Council for 2022. It was more of a slow
year but I hope that as COVID procedures loosen, our chapter can have more events next year
in person.
We support Mental Health for America to live fully in the service of others by becoming
advocates for mental health and well-being. Kappa members will unite to educate, raise
awareness and reduce the stigma around mental health and well-being through fundraising
and service.
This year we raised money for our philanthropy through a virtual Kappa Talent Show, a Yoga
event, and a fundraiser at Woodstock’s Pizza.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
We had a number of DEI presentations this year held by our DEI Chair. We hosted cultural
presentations during meetings that spotlighted member’s cultures. We also hosted
presentations on African-American History Month, Asian American Heritage Month, and
some discussion panels on more gender-neutral language within sororities.
Operating in a Pandemic
Mostly everything was online until Fall Quarter where there were a few events held in person
including bid day, big/little reveal, and philanthropy events. However, all meetings were
online including elections and initiation.
[[File:Eta Mu1.jpg|thumb|recruitment]]
[[File:Traveling.jpg|thumb|Chicago]]
[[File:Social Distancing.jpg|thumb|buying plants]]
[[File:Graduation.jpg|thumb|some of the graduates]]