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Delta Beta Kappas made a point to support Duke Panhellenic’s goal of increasing Greek unity between different chapters on campus. As such, several of our members attended Kappa Alpha Theta’s event to support Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) and Tri Delta’s event to support St. Jude’s Hospital, among other on-campus events. This increased unity not only amongst our own members but between members of other sororities, also.
==Highlights of 2014==
The Delta Beta chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma thrived this year in academics, sisterhood, and philanthropy. This year, seven of our members participated in Duke University’s Greek Emerging Leaders Program. The members included Rachel Louie, Hala Daou, Brett Finkelstein, Ally Byer, Alexandra Bratton, Caitlin Penny, and Nicolette Sorenson. Along with strengthening our relationships with other Greek organizations on campus, the chapter also joined together to further strengthen the bond amongst our sisters. The leaders of the Sisterhood Committee dedicated time to strengthening sisterhood bonds in a fun and exciting way. In the beginning of the fall semester, the chapter had a kick-off event at the home of the Sisterhood Committee Chairs, Izzy Clayer and Lexy Steinhilber. After classes on Friday afternoon, sisters were invited to gather at the home to share summer stories, new semester goals, and enjoy delicious drinks and treats together. The committee has also hosted a number of small meet and greet events at on-campus eateries. This has been a great way for sisters to catch up with one another in an informal setting. Finally, the Sisterhood Committee hosted a Halloween pumpkin carving event where Sisterhood organized a Halloween themed get together. All the sisters ate, carved pumpkins, and enjoyed one another’s company. The Sisterhood Committee has had a lot of fun promoting our sisters’ extracurricular activities this past year and continues to encourage our chapter to support our sisters in their many different endeavors. Further, our chapter also received an incredible class of new members. The chapter is very proud thanks to the dedication of its women to the sorority and its sisters.
This past year was extremely exciting for Delta Beta’s philanthropy initiatives. To begin with, in the fall, we held our 7th Annual 5K Race for Camp Kaleidoscope (“Camp K”). Camp K is an organization run out of the Duke hospital that provides a true summer camp experience for pediatric patients treated there. Camp K serves children treated at the Duke hospital battle chronic or life threatening illness, and gives them the opportunity to attend summer camp under the supervision that they need. This year we actually raised the most funds in our chapter’s history, as we surpassed the previous year’s goal by 75% and raised over $15,000.00. Additionally, Delta Beta continued existing chapter traditions as we hosted our annual Reading is Key event at the John Avery Boys and Girls Club in Durham to support Reading is Fundamental. We held this event in the spring as the whole chapter got together and spent a few hours reading to the students at the local Boys and Girls Club while interacting with creative stations based on the book. We also hosted a book donation so that each student went home with a brand new book. Our chapter continued our support of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation by hosting the first annual Kappa Kappauchino event during finals week. We sold coffee and donuts outside the library and will donate 100% of the proceeds to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. In addition to our annual events, individual sisters participate in philanthropy initiatives and community service on behalf of Delta Beta, including planning Special Olympics at Duke and volunteering in orphanages in Durham. Overall, the chapter has a strong commitment to service both inside and outside of Kappa Kappa Gamma.
In addition to our philanthropic success, our chapter continued the hosting of weekly meetings in the house for the women of Delta Beta (“Kappa Keypsakes”) to discuss personal experiences and struggles in order to further develop the support system with in the chapter. This is the second year of Kappa Keypsakes. Further, during a chapter meeting this fall, our Vice President of Standards also led an open discussion about disordered eating on Duke’s campus. Sisters volunteered to share personal stories about their own struggles with eating disorders and the conversation concluded with ways in which we can all be more supportive of each other in order to reach our full well being. Finally, Delta Beta recognized the 83rd anniversary of Founder’s Day by celebrating both old and new traditions with alumni and active members.
In the beginning of the year, Delta Beta laid out goals for the 2014-2015 calendar year. The goals included increasing the efficiency and enthusiasm of weekly chapter meetings, fostering the desire to spend time with sisters, improve chapter attendance, and the Executive Council really strived to be good mentors for all their Kappa Kappa Gamma sisters. In order to reach these goals, the sisters of our chapter upheld characteristics of respect, accountability, support, and collaboration to inspire our chapter’s growth. As with last year, a challenge to meet these goals was chapter attendance. To increase chapter attendance our chapter continued to make chapters more meaningful in various ways. This included weekly recognition of one member who had accomplished something that week and guest speakers. As previously discussed, the efforts set forth by the Sisterhood Committee also greatly helped to increase chapter attendance and foster the sense of sisterhood needed to accomplish our chapter goals.
As the on-campus apartment housing for the Delta Beta chapter is relatively new, there has been many progressive changes throughout this past year. Most notably, our chapter has been working with Duke Housing to plan sisterhood events such as a house-wide manicure/pedicure outing and a sorority-wide Thanksgiving dinner in the common room, to name a few. Additionally, with the help of our wonderful president, Katie Chaplin, our chapter added a brand new Kappa themed bench outside of the house that we're very excited about. In this spirit of making the house a more comfortable and inviting space, we are also currently organizing a gift registry for the common room to be held in the next couple months. While the Kappa house has seen a lot of promising changes since we were first given the space, we have been struggling to meet a new class-based living requirement imposed by Duke that calls for 30% of the house to be filled with upperclassmen. As we have traditionally filled the space with the new sophomore pledge class as a way for them to bond, this has been a new challenge for the housing committee and sorority. In the next year, we hope to restructure the class dynamics of the house while continuously making improvements such as the ones previously mentioned to make the space a more enjoyable place for everyone.
Chapter meetings are held weekly in a university lecture hall. In the fall of 2012, Duke University created designating housing for all sororities on campus for the first time in the university's history. The 2015 Pledge Class was the first pledge class to all live with each other in the "Kappa House". The Kappa House is university owned housing on Duke's Central Campus. The Kappa House is a large multi-unit apartment building with one main common room and 10 four bedroom apartments. We have one of the largest apartment buildings on campus which allows a total of 40 sisters to live in the house.
==Highlights of 2020s:==
