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2018 Highlights
The Eta Sigma chapter holds all of our chapter meetings, as well as the majority of our events, on the Chapman campus.
==Highlights of 2018==
An exciting highlight for 2018 Eta Sigma was taking First Place in our university’s annual Skit competition put on by the Greek Life community. It was our first time winning and our video actually went viral online. It is a choreographed presentation of The Parent Trap condensed down to six minutes. All hands were on deck for this huge event, with Kappas stepping up to make the show happen through everything from planning the dance to designing costumes, music, and lighting. Our favorite part about Skit is the fact that it allows so many members in the chapter to step into different leadership roles that allow them to utilize their gifts and strengths. Numerous members are nominated from the floor and voted into positions such as “choreography chair,” “costume chair,” and “skit chair.” All positions have the opportunity to work together in creating the set, sound design, lighting effects, costumes, as well as working on administrative responsibilities and communication efforts. They develop their teaming skills while developing their leadership skills and presence in the chapter as well.
Our chapter was honored to have been recognized at Kappa Convention for earning one of the top five for “Most Outstanding Chapter,” a “Lifetime Education Award,” and six honorable mentions (finance, chapter management, new membership, membership, standards, and public relations). We feel blessed to have been able to send seven actives, and were blown away by how much they got out of their experience. They came back with new ideas, new passion, and a renewed sense of focus and excitement about their involvement in Eta Sigma.
We were proud to debut a brand new event this past semester. On the weekend of October 13th, we held a combined Parents Weekend and Founder’s Day brunch in which we highlighted all of the important reasons that we call Kappa home. Here we held a silent auction to raise proceeds for our fall philanthropy event, Fleurish. It was incredible to hear current active members speak as well as alumni who were being honored for their years of devotion. We found that by combining our Parents Weekend event with our Founder’s Day Celebration, we were better able to convey the meaning and value that Kappa holds in our lives while honoring our founders. We were also able to increase chapter and parent buy-in regarding our annual philanthropy event, Fleurish (details below). It was amazing to see and hear the parent and alumni reactions to the unveiling of our Fleurish theme for 2018 – “Turn On a Light.”
We are also proud to have had Kaitlin Wong, an active member, serving on the 2018 Chapman Panhellenic council as Vice President of Recruitment. We found that having one of our members on the council increased our chapter’s allegiance to the Panhellenic community as a whole, and we are looking forward to two new active members serving on the council in 2019.
Another notable event from the year included Kappa Kamp, a 3-day sisterhood retreat held at the UCLA kappa house. Each year we find that Kappa Kamp instills a renewed sense of pride and excitement for the coming year in each and every one of our members lives. We are also able to define our values and priorities as we enter into recruitment season, and get to know sisters we may not know as well while deepening the bonds we have with our good friends as well.
Our Chapter Council held a retreat during January of 2018 and set forth 5 strategic goals for the year. They included the following:
1. Improve timeliness of programming. 2. Increase chapter member retention. 3. Utilize committees more. 4. Improve Ritual and Chapter History Knowledge. 5. Increase Accountability and Compliance with Bylaws and Standing Rules. While we truly saw improvement in each and every one of these aspects of the chapter, we especially saw improvements in numbers 1, 2 and 3. Programming was bettered through the VPO role which created a within-chapter-council calendar that allowed us to communicate dates, times, and events far in advance before releasing them to the chapter to avoid potential over programming. This, in turn, had a positive effect on attendance at chapter events. We also saw an increase in chapter member retention. We believe that this is primarily due to the betterment of the sisterhood within our chapter as a whole, the establishment of a more fluid and bonding new member program, and the intentional programming that we put forth for the chapter. We also saw many members step into leadership roles within their committees. We felt that this could be attributed to the pre-set and thought through agendas for their meetings, and different group chats that were created to increase communication between committees. Additionally, with some of our committees, we were able to nominate/ assign different roles that were larger to girls looking to take on semi-big leadership positions in the chapter. We saw many of these girls step into chapter council positions for the 2019 year. We look forward to continuing to improve on our goals in 2019 as well.
We have adjusted to Chapman Panhellenic’s switch to spring deferred recruitment, as historically recruitment was always held in fall at the beginning of first semester. With two sessions under our belt, we feel confident stepping into this next recruitment and are proud of the goals and values we uphold as a chapter and look forward to adding new members.
Our chapter is dedicated to supporting a number of philanthropies. Fleurish is Eta Sigma’s annual fall philanthropy event that is focused around the keynote performance of a motivational speaker. However, it is so much more than that. From October 22nd to 25th, the women of Eta Sigma set up a table in the Piazza to lead our community in meaningful activities and fundraise money. This year’s theme was mental wellness, prompting our community to think empathetically about our mental health and consider it in the same light we think about our physical health. The tabling activities asked students to sign a pledge committing themselves to mental wellness, share things that help them get them through the day, reframe everyday intrusive thoughts and worries in a positive light, and consider how they can individually turn to our Chapman community for support.
Then, on Thursday, October 25th, award-winning mental health advocate Ross Szabo gave his keynote speech about mental health in Memorial Hall. He shared his story of being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in high school, in a community where resources and education about mental wellness were scarce, and how building a platform for him to be vulnerable and share this story has helped him and others heal. He spoke in a candidly and uplifting manner, finding a way to make the audience laugh while asking sincere questions about how we treat ourselves every day.
In addition to this programming, Eta Sigma fundraised $21,000 for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Orange County chapter. This donation will help provide free support groups and educational resources for individuals in our community who struggle with mental health, as well as their families. This is a record amount of money fundraised for Eta Sigma chapter! Overall, Fleurish was a representation of the values of the women in our chapter. We gave our community a platform to open up, be vulnerable, and support each other, and the results of this have surpassed the week of Fleurish. As a result of this event, our community has barriers and stigmas broken down so people feel more comfortable asking for help when they need it, even if it just means talking to their friend about something difficult.
Additionally, we raised funds for Reading is Fundamental and spent a week tutoring students at the Friendly Center in Orange and were able to donate over 100 books to them. Also, we raised money for the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation.
We chose to have Fleurish this year focus on the issue of mental wellness, something we see affect our own sisters, the Chapman community, and beyond, and felt it imperative to foster positive conversations for how we can acquire tools to increase our mental health. We selected the local chapter of NAMI to fundraise for because they provide mental wellness resources to the nearby community.
'''Highlights of 2020s:''' Information from chapter history reports, scholarship, group honors/awards, traditions, special events, changes on campus or within chapter, overall nature of the chapter, chapter goals, challenges and how they were overcome, etc.