Changes
→Highlights of 2014
UCSD does not allow any housing for Greek life. We use University owned facilities.
==Highlights of 2015==
2015 has been an eventful and exciting year for the Zeta Nu chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma at UC San Diego. Our chapter was represented on the Panhellenic council through Claire Genesy, Vice President of Service, and Emma Tillfors, Vice President of New Member Outreach. Furthermore, we are thrilled to announce that Claire Genesy has been elected for Panhellenic President and Tori Estrada-Odama for Vice President of Athletics. Our chapter could not be more proud for these women and all they will accomplish as leaders and representatives of the greater Panhellenic community.
For scholarship, our chapter ranked first (1 out of 11) amongst sororities for our overall academic GPA in Fall of 2015. Our current Vice President of Academics, Andriana Romero, has reached many goals and plans that were set in 2014 to raise our ranking and promote academic excellence. Such achieved goals include extra Kappa study hours, GPA wars with the gentlemen of Sigma Nu, and providing different studying strategies such as the "Quarter at a Glance" planner to our chapter. She has also hosted “Kappa Kocoa and Kram" where we hold study hours by reserving rooms on campus during finals weeks and, as an extra treat, she brings donuts and coffee!
When it comes to traditions, the Zeta Nu chapter prides herself upon hosting sisterhoods. For instance, in late January 2015 we had a Brandy Melville sisterhood where all our members shopped with a great discount at the clothing store. Following, we had a yoga sisterhood at Core Power Yoga in La Jolla. In spring, our President Niaz bought the chapter dinner and conducted a sisterhood during meeting which included decorating cookies and a “walk the line” activity which asked members to step forward if, for example, they “had a shoulder to cry on during a rough patch” or “laughed so hard with a sister that she could barely breathe.” This Fall, we kick started recruitment training and workshops with a mini-golfing sisterhood and ended recruitment with our new members at Belmont Park, a small amusement park in San Diego. It was a great day to see everyone come together and welcome the new members before joining the Alumnae Association in a pasta bar and potluck all set up by our lovely Chapter Council Advisor, Kelley Purkey-Vacheron. Within the past few week, we had a Kappa Trainer visit us thanks to the generous contribution of the Kappa Foundation where we learned valuable lessons about sisterhood, time-management, and team work. Through the many sisterhoods, we feel that our chapter has grown closer and closer, and we look forward to all the sisterhoods to come planned by our newly elected VPS, Oriane Ezedine.
The Zeta Nu philanthropic involvement thrived in 2015 with multiple events and activities. We started the year by hosting our annual book drive, Reading is Key, in support of Reading is Fundamental. Our chapter raised over 2000 books and we were lucky enough to distribute them to a local elementary school. Not only were we able to read the books to the kids at the elementary school, but we also played games and made bookmarks too! Following our successful book drive came our annual philanthropy, Kappa Karnival. This event strives to raise money and awareness for the San Diego Youth Services, a center for homeless, at-risk, and abused children, by holding a carnival event where fraternities and sororities set up booths and games for the kids of the youth center as well as students on campus to enjoy. We also utilized Money Wars and asked for donations and sponsorships leading up to the event to be donated to the Youth Center. This ended up being our most successful event and we surpassed our goals by raising over $19,000 compared to $15,000 raised last year, breaking records for philanthropic endeavors at UCSD. The women of our chapter also continued to team up with a fraternity on campus to make pb&j sandwiches for the San Diego Homeless Charter once every quarter as well as participate in the greek wide event of making pj&j sandwhiches for the organization Urban Angels in spring quarter. In Fall, our chapter teamed up with an IFC and MGC fraternity to raise awareness for the “B+ Foundation.” This foundation is all about kids helping kids fight cancer and we could not be more proud to have participated in the fight. Other philanthropies our chapter participated in include Lambda Chi Alpha’s watermelon bust, Sigma Chi’s Derby Days, and Kappa Alpha Theta’s Kat at Bat. We can proudly say that we participated in over 23 philanthropies hosted by other chapters. The Zeta Nu chapter continually loves to participate and support all philanthropic events equally by showing up strong and spreading awareness for the respective philanthropic endeavors.
Along with the many events throughout the year, some special events were held that further strengthened and empowered Kappa Kappa Gamma at UC San Diego. As mentioned, a Kappa trainer visited the chapter in mid-November and spoke to us about unity, leadership, and teamwork that proved to be beneficial and helpful to the entire chapter. The Founder's Day Brunch was a memorable experience where Zeta Nu members were able to meet with alumnae and other current members in a Kappa-filled celebration. Our sister Emily Schmidt was even awarded the Ruth Hein Memorial Scholarship and Sydney Gillen was awarded the Spirit bowl. Leading up to recruitment, we showed our enthusiasm, sisterhood, and school pride as we attended Triton Day, Transfer Triton Day and Meet the Beach, events hosted by UCSD to pass out Go Greek flyers and answer any questions that potential new members have about going Greek. We really focused relaying to the potential new members not just what joining Kappa meant for us, but also what joining the greater Panhellenic community meant.
This past fall, we were proud to receive our new Alpha Mu pledge class with 44 new members. In October and November, we transitioned the ladies through our sapphire program and New Member Programming. The Sapphire Program focused on allowing girls to meet and interact with actives while looking for potential Bigs. The New Member Programming focused on integrating the new members into the chapter and panhellenic community with Sexual Assault presentations, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion presentations, a “walk the line” activity in addition to all of the presentations guided by headquarters. In our endeavors of being an inclusive chapter, we really emphasized to the new members that they did not just join Kappa, but also a greater community. We later had our big little reveal in which Bigs gave their Littles presents and other treats to welcome them into their families. Each member in the new pledge class was presented with a flower by their Big in front of the chapter and guests at our first formal, "Presents", in mid November. New members strengthened their bonds through a new member sleepover that allowed the girls to get to know one another on a deeper, more personal level. The new members are to be initiated early January right after Winter break with a week long process. The week starts with our first event and tradition, Blue Light. This night, Bigs present to their Littles a small gift and a nice poem or small speech about how excited they are for their little to be initiated. Then, throughout the week, actives in the chapter will be meeting up and presenting an inspirational letter to at least two new members in order to show the deeper significance of being in Kappa as well as excited them in becoming initiated members. Then the ending of I-week and beginning of initiation is sparked with the Fireside ceremony leading into another sleepover and then the initiation ceremony. Through this process, the new Alpha Mu pledge class will be officially welcomed with much enthusiasm and excitement.
In the past year, our chapter had decided to keep the list of goals from the previous year that included accountability, consistency with following bylaws and transparency between chapter council and the rest of the chapter. We strived to achieve all goals in 2015 by being proactive members, showing up promptly and strong to most events which proved successful at Kappa Karnival and through campus involvement. Bylaws were up kept through presentations in the beginning of the year from the Vice President of Standards, Vice President of Academics, Risk, and Publicity where the chapter was reminded and notified of bylaws, rules, and other standards to which we keep our chapter accountable to. Transparency was also managed through different surveys to allow every individual's voice to be heard by chapter council and feedback to see what needed to be strengthened or improved. Transparency was also promoted through open forums where women were able to openly speak about their feelings or ask questions, as well as silent forums where women were asked to write opinions on a note card. We recently held an open forum about recruitment to get valuable feedback and suggestions from the chapter. This year, we are striving even more to uphold these goals as well as additional goals that we had set up and agreed upon as a whole chapter.
Finally, the 2015 year ended as Kappa won the ISS football championship amongst all the sororities. This is the first time in our history and we are thrilled for more sports opportunities in the future. This seems to point Kappa towards more awards this year such as Sports Banner. A tremendous pinnacle in 2014 was when Kappa Kappa Gamma received the Chapter of the Year award at the annual Greek Awards Convention on campus. Our successful philanthropy also resulted in the Philanthropy of the Year award. Our former CCA, Kristen Fogle, also received the Community Advisor of the Year award. Lastly, our Philanthropy Chairperson, Priscilla Phan, won the Outstanding Chapter Leader Award. We strive to achieve the same goals this year as seen in our great success through the football championship, our record breaking Kappa Karnival, and our amazing educational programming. Thus, we hope to be just as successful, if not more, this upcoming year and look forward to what 2016 has in store for the Zeta Nu chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma.
Located in scenic La Jolla just minutes away from the beach, the University of California, San Diego is known as one of the top public research institutions in the nation since its founding in 1960. With over 25,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students, UCSD is ranked the 8th best public university in the country and 37th best overall among the nation's top 50 universities. The Zeta Nu chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma is one of the eleven Panhellenic sororities at UCSD. With over 120 active members, we are also one of the largest sororities on campus. The members of the Zeta Nu chapter pride themselves in maintaining good relationships with not only the other chapter in the Panhellenic council but with other school affiliated organizations as well. We always strive to support and represent within our chapter, Panhellenic, and within the campus as a whole. Recent changes include the addition of Alpha Phi, a sorority that will be joining the UCSD Greek community in the winter. We look forward to welcoming this sorority and the many attributes they will bring to this campus.
Chapter Philanthropy:
What organization(s) has your chapter historically/traditionally raised money for, or donated hours to, in your community?
Our chapter continually supports and donates to the San Diego Youth Services and Kappa Foundation. We host Kappa Karnival in order to donate to this center that helps homeless and at risk youths in the San Diego area. We also pair up with a local elementary school for our Reading is Key event in which we donate books and interact with the children by reading, playing, and crafting with them. We also participate in the Homeless Charter with other fraternities and sororities to make sandwiches for the homeless in our community. This upcoming Spring, we are proud to announce that we will be hosting GIRLS Academy.
Why did your chapter choose this organization(s) to support?
We chose these organizations because they are directly related to the community that we are a part of in San Diego. Most importantly, it gives our chapter the opportunity to interact with the children of the center and make a bigger impact than just writing a check. It allows us to create lasting relationships with the centers and foundations as well as with the victims that are a part of it. By having and fostering this relationship, it motivates our chapter to work harder to get the best possible outcome. It is such a privilege and an incredible opportunity to meet those we help. Also, there is an added bonus of being able to spread youth literacy amongst the San Diego Youth Services children as well. We also give them a book in their goody bags when they attend Kappa Karnival and we are planning to set up a tutoring program where women in the chapter visit the SDYS once a month to read to the children. We will continue to work with these organizations and look forward to what 2016 will bring.
==Highlights of 2020s:==