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Eta Nu is located approximately one block from Santa Clara University's campus. Our chapter house is home to 18 girls and our housemother and is a welcoming home for all our sisters. While we are only associated with the city of Santa Clara, all our members attend Santa Clara University. Santa Clara University is located in Santa Clara, California where palm trees and flowers cover the campus. The campus is extremely picturesque and has over 5,000 undergraduate students as well as an additional 3,000 graduate students. Undergraduate students are in one of three schools: The College of Arts and Sciences, the Leavey School of Business, or the The School of Engineering. Additionally for graduate students there is a school of Law and the Counseling Psychology, Education, and Pastoral Ministries program. Students have an array of 44 majors to pick from as well as many other minors. Santa Clara University is continually growing and improving their academic reputation. There was construction along our front drive leading up to the mission and now it is a pedestrian walkway with a gorgeous fountain in front. Our campus continues to improve itself and rise in rankings not only among the most beautiful campuses across the nation but as well as academically.
==Highlights of 2014==
2014 was an outstanding year for the Santa Clara Kappa Kappa Gamma Eta Nu Chapter! Eta Nu remains to stay active in all possible philanthropy events and our Santa Clara community. Eta Nu Kappas participate in various school leadership positions and continue to be involved in a variety of organizations and clubs on campus. We are so proud of everything we have accomplished this past year and only hope to grow and succeed in the years to come!
Our Winter Quarter began quickly with Initiation Week. This week is very special to our Chapter as it gives us the chance to catch up with our sisters who have returned from study abroad. Our Eta Nu family is together again and we can focus on what Kappa means to each of us. Activities during the week ranged from decorating badge boxes to family dinners and movie nights. For the third year in a row, Initiation took place at the University of California, Berkeley house. The weekend began with Fireside on Friday night followed by Initiation on Saturday morning. Many family members of actives and new members were able to attend, making it very special for our Chapter. Eta Nu was very excited to initiate 44 young women into our sisterhood.
Winter quarter continued with officer elections and transitions. As always, the Nominating Committee spends a lot of time and effort in considering the next future leaders of the chapter. We could not be happier with the group of women that came together to lead Eta Nu through another successful year. Keeping busy in our community, our girls did some fantastic dancing in support of Alpha Phi’s “Star Search.” Eta Nu proudly supports philanthropy events through our participation and donations. Eta Nu was very excited to hold our Second Annual “Kappa Karaoke” event. Eta Nu raised over $600 for the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation! We had a great response from our community in support of the event. Everyone had so much fun at the event and we look forward to more successful years of Karaoke.
For our Winter Sisterhood Event, Eta Nu came together and made Valentine’s Day cards for members in our chapter. Each member was assigned another member at random and hand made a cute card for the girl. Not only was the day filled with crafts and fun, but we had Chipotle to feed our hungry stomachs! The following week Eta Nu celebrated with our annual Sapphire Ball Formal Dance. This is a favorite event for Eta Nu as it gives us all the chance to come together and have a wonderful evening of fun and dancing.
For Parents’ Weekend, Eta Nu held an open house reception for girls to show their parents our house and what “being a kappa” means to them. A variety of t-shirts, photos, and food were on display to welcome our parents. As always, our “KKG” letters were placed outside the house for our sisters and parents to take pictures together!
Every year our Chapter looks forward to visiting local elementary schools in support of Reading is Fundamental. In 2014, we had a huge turn out of girls who wanted to participate in the event. As always, Eta Nu goes on Dr. Seuss Day! This is such a fun way to be creative and silly with the children. This year we were thrilled to be able to supply every child with 2 books! Our Chapter Council was excited to make a team for Delta Gamma’s Philanthropy Event, Anchor Slam (a basketball tournament). We were even more excited when our girls won the entire event and brought home a winning plaque to hang in our living room!
As our quarter came to a close, our Academic Excellence VP kept us all in check by putting a strong emphasis on Academic Excellence Month. Academics stayed on our minds through the various events planned for us. From ice cream to guest speakers, Eta Nu was happy to talk about how to better our academics and achievements!
Spring quarter is always a busy, yet fun time for Eta Nu! The sun is shining in beautiful Santa Clara and many philanthropy events take place! Spring for Eta Nu started off with the taking of our composite pictures. Later that week a few girls from our Chapter traveled and helped with Princess Project. This event gives high school girls the opportunity to pick out prom dresses and accessories. Eta Nu always looks forward to attending this event and helping the girls look beautiful. That same day, other Kappas were busy supporting Alpha Delta Pi’s Philanthropy Event, Country Club Cup. It was a beautiful Spring day filled with fun, laughter and country club games.
A few weeks later, we had the pleasure of hosting our LC, Page, for the second time. Our Chapter loved spending the week with Page. Soon after, Eta Nu celebrated together with our Spring Fling Semi Dance. It is always a wonderful event to dance the night away with our sisters. To end the night, the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen sent the seniors off in style with a very enthusiastic O-Pat. We were sorry to see them graduate in June, but very excited to see how they continue to stay apart of Kappa in the future! We were very busy that week as our big philanthropy event, Kappa Karnival, was that Saturday. The day was perfect weather to walk around the carnival-like events and eat popcorn, snow-cones, and cotton-candy. We were very proud to raise $6,367 for Lymelight Foundation! The Lymelight Foundation is very close to Eta Nu’s heart as it was founded by one of our member’s family who suffers from Lymes disease. Sororities, Fraternities, and other organizations love to participate in our philanthropy events, as we do in theirs!
Spring is filled with many Philanthropy events for our Greek System. Kappa Alpha Theta’s philanthropy, Theta Dodgeball, allows Eta Nu to demonstrate our enthusiastic athletic ability! In keeping with Philanthropic support, Kappa had multiple teams participate in Sigma Chi’s “Derby Days.” The week consisted of various events ranging from a can drive, fashion show and sing off. We were so happy as our Junior Team won the weeks events! Next, Kappa supported Sigma Pi’s philanthropy by participating in an all day beach volleyball event. We all loved having some fun in the sun while supporting a great cause.
Later that Spring, Greek Awards are hosted to reward all of our hard work as a Panhellenic Association. Eta Nu was happy to receive The Outstanding Scholarship Award. Some of our members won individual awards such as the Outstanding New Member Award, Greek Scholar Award, Spirit of Service Award, and Panhellenic Award of Distinction. Every year we look forward to these awards as they acknowledge all the hard work of our members and Greek community! As the quarter came to a close, the seniors celebrated their wonderful memories in Kappa Kappa Gamma by having a Senior Brunch and Tea. The seniors had a last chance to gather together and reflect on how special their experience in Kappa has been thus far.
As always, Fall Quarter began with a multitude of recruitment practices leading up to a heavily anticipated Fall Recruitment! Chapter Morale started high as our President announced we received honorable mention for Recruitment and won the Gracious Living Award at Convention 2014! Our Chapter was very excited to be recognized for our hard work and we only hope to continue to grow and live up to our full potential. We were so excited to welcome our LC, Whitney, into our house. From beach adventures, movie time and talking about Kappa, we loved getting to know Whitney. We had such a fun week with Whitney and hope she comes back for a visit with us soon!
Our hard work and passion throughout Recruitment proved to pay off when we received a fantastic Theta class of 48 members! We were beyond thrilled to welcome such a genuine, thoughtful and fun-loving pledge class into our family. We all celebrated with a fun-filled night of Bid-Day bowling. Our Bid Day Theme was “Only the Best Get Picked.” Everyone wore our adorable Recruitment/Bid Day Shirts and flower headbands. The New Member program began shortly after and continued throughout the fall quarter.
Soon after Bid Day, Eta Nu gathered to celebrate our Founder’s Day. We celebrated at a Kappa Alumni’s beautiful house with brunch, bonding, and learning for all. The following weekend, Eta Nu was thrilled to have our very first New Member Presentations. The day was filled with breakfast treats, family, friends, and recognizing each individual member of our Theta Class. This is a tradition Eta Nu looks forward to continuing in the future!
Soon after, our sisters gathered with Sigma Chi and had our third annual Powderpuff Football Game. The week was filled with fun activities such as our team draft, Thanksgiving Dinner, and intense practices all leading up to the big game Saturday. The day was filled with enthusiasm and fun for all, but the best part was that throughout this process we were able to donate toiletries and diapers to Next Door, a women’s shelter. Philanthropy continued with a visit to Milpitas Food Bank, a local philanthropy that serves meals to the residents of Milpitas.
Later that week, our New Member Chairman held our annual New Member Retreat. The girls engaged in group-bonding exercises where the Theta class was grouped off and asked to brainstorm what Kappa means to them and then shared their answers with their class. All in all, the retreat served as a bonding opportunity between the Theta class members and was a very successful event. The quarter continued with our Fall Semi Dance- Fall Ball. The girls loved the venue, food, and dancing. Semi dances are always a fun night for the ladies of Eta Nu.
This took us to Thanksgiving break and followed with our last week before Christmas break. Eta Nu was surprised at Chapter with a Christmas Cookie Decorating Sisterhood! It was so fun to see everyone in their Christmas gear and share our holiday cheer before Christmas Break. We took a Chapter Christmas card photo that was sent to all our family and friends! As always, the last week of Fall Quarter is also Big Little Week! This week is filled with presents, surprises, sweat, laughs, tears, and many late nights for the big sisters. The week was great and all the families welcomed their new addition to the clan with an array of silly outfits and surprises. We are glad everyone was able to participate and share in one of the best nights of the year!
Most of the changes Eta Nu Chapter has experienced in the past year has been due to shifts in The Panhellenic Council. Since we are not affiliated with Santa Clara University, our community relies heavily on this council to manage our Greek community. Over the last year, Panhellenic Council went from having one advisor to having two new advisors. Furthermore, Panhellenic Council has changed the way the council positions are elected. Positions are now elected by an annual rotating system amongst sororities, with Panhellenic President and VP Recruitment elected by the Panhellenic Council itself. We hope that these changes will help Panhellenic Council to become more efficient and successful in the future.
Eta Nu Chapter would be described as a group of genuine, educated, and passionate young women. We constantly thrive to better ourselves and our community through chapter education, community outreach, and sisterhood bonding. Our Chapter values taking care of one another and looking out for the best interest of our members. We value and appreciate the differences between one another. We hold true the importance of our sisterhood and care we have for one another. We are a strong group of young women that strive to continuously push ourselves and reach our full potential.
Our chapter meetings take place in a rented facility, The American Legion, about 5 minutes away from our chapter house. Eta Nu has lived in our beautiful house for the past 5 years. All members have the opportunity to live in the house. We rent our house from a local realty company, Real Source Property Management. 18 sisters can live in the house at a time. Our chapter has always lived in the same house.
