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→Highlights of 2020
|Image= [[File:Zeta_Epsilon.jpg|200px]]
|Founded= {{start date and years ago|1981|10|24}}
|College= [httphttps://www.lawrence.edu/ Lawrence University]
|Location= Appleton, WI
|Homepage= [httphttps://wwwlawrence.wixkappa.comorg/ze-kkg/index Zeta Epsilon Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Zeta_Epsilon Media related to Zeta Epsilon Chapter]}}
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Zeta Epsilon supports Reading Is Fundamental, Harbour House, and the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. Each of these organizations is very important to our chapter.
==Highlights of 2020==
One of the first memories of 2020 was welcoming our new pledge class! During primary recruitment our first round was to have the potential new members get to know our chapter by casual conversations. In this round we inform the PNM of what Greek life is like at Lawrence and what the chapter is like. There are posters around the room that tell the PNM about all of our major and minors and the extracurricular activities everyone in is involved in. Round two is all about our philanthropy. This is when we inform them about the organizations that we support. During this round we colored bookmarks to give to the children for a local elementary school. This is the round where we get to know the PNM very well. Round 3 focused on our ritual. This round is more personalized to the PNM by telling then how we saw Kappa in them. We initiated our 7 new members on January 28 and January 29. Our philanthropy for winter term was “Kappa Kappaccino.” We sold coffee and donuts on campus to raise money for Harbor House. We had our new member formal on the second floor of Warch Campus Center. We provided snacks and drinks, along with multiple backdrops for pictures. We had multiple backdrops for pictures. This was a great event to celebrate your new members. On March 12 we were told that campus will be closed for next term do to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This was a very sad day for everyone because it meant one less term with our lovely seniors. To honor our seniors, we put on senior sendoff that Saturday to say goodbye. The sophomores sang a song to the seniors. We did change some of the lyrics to make them more Kappa oriented. The juniors performed a skit for the seniors as well. We then fulfilled our tradition where our seniors give us their old Kappa shirts and we all wear everything that we are given. By the end, we are all wearing several layers of clothing and we take a picture. Our last day on campus was on March 18 which was the last day for the school year of 2019-2020.
Spring term was very different to everyone at Lawrence. This was the first term that was all online. To keep in touch during the pandemic we had Zoom coffee dates and other fun activites. We also tried to have movie nights on Friday, but we had some technology problems. Our chapter did not have a philanthropy event spring term due to COVID-19.
Our first chapter activity together was on September 20 which was our first chapter meeting for the school year. It was different than normal because it was all online. It was so nice to see all of our sisters for the first time in 6 months. We had continuous open bidding online with themes of game night and spa night. We got two great new members. Our VP Membership went to their rooms to give them a little goodie bag. We celebrated together with an online Zoom bid night. We were able to do a trivia event about our new members in the style of Jeopardy. On November 7 we had big/little reveal. To reveal who the big and little pairings, the bigs did a TikTok. It was a great change on how we normally do big/little reveal due to COVID-19. This term we had the privilege to initiate two new members: Kate and Lyss on November 14, 2020 in an all-in-one ceremony, with Elmhurst University, because of the Pandemic. We had our election on November 8. Genesis was the head of Nomination Committee and presented the slate that we voted on. Lexi Praxel was elected as our new President. Ally Herrera was elected as standards. Elizabeth Liebou was elected as VP Operations. Sam Tolu was elected as VP Internal Affairs. Jessica Hopkins was elected as VP External Affairs. Kate James was elected as VP Finance. Sarah Yochem was elected as VP Membership. Anna Kallay was elected as VP Membership Development. Marlee Matthews was elected as Ritual and History Director. The philanthropy for fall term is that our chapter donated money to Harbor House for their needs. We are doing this because other types of philanthropy events are really hard to do because of COVID-19.
Another obstacle that arose fall term was the movement of Abolish Greek Life. Our Chapter addressed this by having people from headquarters come to a chapter meeting to talk to us about the movement across the country. They also walked us through different situations on what could happen and where to go from there. The next meeting, we came up with ideas to improve and change the chapter for everyone. Also, during the meeting with headquarters, we talked about changing primary recruitment. We are currently in the process of adjusting recruitment, so everyone feels more welcomed.
Overall, it was a great year filled with good and bad times. We learned through a pandemic that has taught us so much about each other and about ourselves.
Chapter Philanthropies:
Harbor House
Reading is Fundamental
Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation
Each of these organizations represent the causes that are important for us as a chapter to support.
The chapter included Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training this year by adding a DEI officer. During fall term our chapter had a small committee that came up with different activities to talk about DEI. We had a speaker come to talk to the chapter about their experiences in Greek Life. We are also changing how the chapter does primary recruitment.
To celebrate Kappa’s 150th anniversary, we did the virtual ceremony on October 11, 2020 following a chapter meeting. Our chapter also decided to have the readers for the celebration to be around the country to show that we are together even when we are apart.
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[[File:Zetaep4.PNG|thumb|bidday]]
==Highlights of 2021==
With 2021 being a challenging and difficult year due to the pandemic, KKG Zeta Epsilon was able to adapt and hold events, meetings, and activities online to continue to foster a loving Kappa community. We gained one member, Charlie Bunch, during Primary Recruitment and two members, Claire Zickel and Lucie Peltier, during Spring COBs! These three new members are also stepping up to take on leadership roles this upcoming year. We had to say goodbye to many seniors at the end of the school year, but we are so happy for the road that lies ahead of them! Before they graduated, we held a bonfire night planned by Jessica Hopkins where some of the new members were able to meet and mingle with the outgoing seniors. At this bonfire, we also continued to celebrate a Kappa tradition of our love of Taylor Swift by singing some karaoke and sharing our favorite Taylor albums and songs. The seniors were also able to have a Senior Night to celebrate their accomplishments and spend Sme together. Thank you so much to our amazing seniors; we love you! Our interim VP External, Charlie, hosted a screening from the JED Foundation which fostered a conversation about mental health and suicide, which talked about fighSng the sSgma against suicide and being open to these challenging conversations. At the end of October, Charlie also planned a Murder Mystery Dinner for the chapter, where we all dressed up as certain 80s characters and tried to solve whodunit. Some of our favorite moments during that dinner was Lexi Praxl’s impression of Keanu Reeves and Sarah Yochem being discovered as the murderer! Standards Director Ally Herrera also started a new tradition of Secret Sister, where you are assigned a fellow Kappa and over the course of a month, write them notes or make door decorations for them. The goal is to get to know everyone in the chapter a little bit better and have fun, little activities to do as a chapter. Ally also hosted pumpkin carving for Halloween, so everyone was able to decorate pumpkins together. Due to our chapter being fairly small, we had to combine and change officer roles so every position was covered. VP External and VP Internal now do everything under their VP roles, Finance and Operations were combined as well as all Member Recruitment roles. By the end of Fall term, Charlie Bunch ’24 was elected President, Claire Zickel ‘24 was elected as Vice President External, and Lucie Peltier ‘24 was elected as Vice President Internal. In addition, Lexi Praxl ’23 was elected as Vice President Finance and Operations and Ally Herrera ‘22 was elected as Member Recruitment. Thank you to Ally for taking on an officer role during her senior year!
During Winter and Spring of 2021, our chapter supported Edison Elementary School as a part of our philanthropy Reading is Fundamental. However, during Fall of 2021, we changed to support the JED Foundation in light of KKG changing their philanthropy to mental health and wellbeing. We chose to support the JED Foundation as it is one of the most prominent foundations in supporting emotional wellbeing and health, as well as them having a focus on college communities and their program and policy development.
How did the chapter support Kappa’s philanthropy? While we could not visit in-person, we were able to host online activities for the elementary kids. One fun activity we did was having Kappas dress as their favorite book characters. As our new philanthropy of mental health and wellness just began, we are hoping to host events on campus to help fellow students unwind and learn more about the JED Foundation and Kappa.
Our Member Recruitment and DEI Officer hosted a couple of screenings to start conversations about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Kappa as well as in a larger scale on the Lawrence University campus. During Fall 2021, we also met online with Tori Seymour who gave us a presentation about DEI in Kappa and how we can further our discussions and continue to foster inclusiveness in Kappa. We are really hoping that in Winter 2022 we can continue these conversations and host more DEI events that are open to the whole student body.
From our university adhering the CDC’s guidelines, all meeSngs for us were moved to an online format, via Zoom. Because of this, Primary Recruitment and Spring COBs were all hosted online. It wasn’t too difficult to continue via Zoom. Our Big/Little reveal was done by using TikTok, where our Member Recruitment Officer Jordan Adamson showed them over Zoom. After the Spring COB initiaStin in June, some Kappas were able to go out to brunch together to celebrate! Even as the pandemic has made in- person interactions more challenging, we continue to find ways to still have time together in a safe way. We also feel that due to the pandemic and its effects, recruitment was down a little as everyone was trying to adapt and cope during such an abnormal Sme. However, we are feeling very hopeful for this upcoming year with recruitment! As Fall 2021 began, we were allowed to start meeSng in-person a^er receiving negative COVID-19 test results from Lawrence. While the start of the year was a little slow from changing from Zoom to in-person, we are so happy to finally see each other face-to-face. We host all of our meetings in our Kappa Room on campus, while all wearing masks. While guidelines are slowly loosening up, we still remain wearing masks and respecting any guidelines that the CDC or Lawrence may give us.