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{{Infobox Fraternity
|Name= Zeta MuChi|GreekSymbol= ZMZX|Image= [[File:Zeta_MuZeta_Chi.jpg|200px]]|Founded= {{start date and years ago|19851993|11|1620}}|College= [httphttps://www.vtmarist.edu/ Virginia TechMarist College]|Location= BlacksburgPoughkeepsie, VANY|Homepage= [httphttps://chaptersmarist.kappakappagammakappa.org/zetamu/ Zeta Mu Chi Homepage]|Media= [httphttps://wiki.kappakappagammakkg.org/index.php?title=Category:Zeta_Mu Zeta_Chi Media related to Zeta Mu Chi Chapter]}}----
'''Marist College, established in 1929 in Poughkeepsie, NY.'''
Marist College was established in 1929 with the first college level courses offered that year. It was granted its charter as a four year college from the state of New York in 1946.
'''Zeta Chi founded November 20, 1993'''
Zeta Chi had 50 charter members and was a local sorority which petitioned KKG for colonization.
'''571 initiates (as of June 2018)'''
==Zeta Chi on Social Media==
In 1929, college-level courses were first offered. In 1946, the State of New York granted the institution an official, four-year charter under the leadership of founding president Brother Paul Ambrose Fontaine, FMS. The Brothers set about to construct several buildings on the grounds of what was then called Marian College.
Chapter members were proud to have worked hard through diligent financial management to clear their debt to the Fraternity by fall 2004.
While the Zeta Chi chapter was small throughout most of this decade (25-31 members), they remained active on campus, promoting a positve impact of Greek life and sorority membership on the other students. They were consistent participants in Greek Week activities, winning the rope pull many times. There were 3 NPC groups on the Marist campus during this decade. In 2009 and 2010, Zeta Chi had their largest new member classes to date and grew their chapter total to 47 members.
The chapter held a Mother-Daughter brunch, Father-Daughter BBQ, Senior Sendoff, Sapphire Ball and celelbrated Founders Day each year. Early in the decade, Founders Day was held in conjunction with Parents weekend, allowing their parents to learn more about KKG. Later in the decade, Founders Day was celebrated with the alumnae association at a local alumnae’s home
In 2010, Zeta Chi was awarded Honorable Mention for Standards at Kappa’s Biennial Convention.
Members were consistent recipient of Foundation Scholarships throughout this decade.
Host of Alpha/Rho Province Meeting, NYU Installation, recognized for our new member program, Sisterhood and Morale Award, RIF event at a local children's center, top 10 fundraising teams for Relay for Life, second place in greek week, first successful off campus initiation event, exceptional growth in the chapter.
'''Campus:''' New Hancock Center for technology built on campus, as well as the underpass which connects the east and west sides of campus. Greek life is expanding rapidly, this past fall during informal recruitment, we gained 14 new members, which is a higher number than we have ever had for informal recruitment. Chapter: The chapter has grown phenomenally. We have 80 members now, where last year at this time we had around 45. Because of this, the chapter is very young. Most of our members are sophomores (more than half) and therefore most of those in leadership positions are very young - which has been great for our chapter!
Marist College has been undergoing many changes on campus with the renovations to the Lowell Thomas Communications Center last spring and now the beginning of a major addition to the Student Center. Marist's student population is growing rapidly with each passing year, and so is the Zeta Chi chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma. This past week we were proud to welcome 26 new members! The Zeta Chi chapter is a group of amazing girls who have all been very involved in making improvements to our chapter in areas including academics, philanthropy, and campus involvement.
==Highlights of 2013==
The recent changes on the Marist College campus the construction of the new Marist academic music building. The construction included the addition of the following departments, offices, and committees: academic affairs, faculty affairs, student affairs, information technology, the Student Government Association, dining services, alumni, and the Board of Trustees.
This semester, Spring 2014, our recruitment was "Kappa and the City!" We to highlighedt all of the great resources that Kappa has to offer internationally. Of course, we demonstrated to the PNMs the bonds of sisterhood and the strength of our sorority. Over the past year standards has created kore groups, passed around the hoots jar, supportive sister and celebrated sisters are announced each week, as well as weekly standards meetings to check in with the sisters. So far this semester we hosted a Kappa Kappaccinos sale in order to raise money for the Special Olympics and the Polar Plunge that we took apart in February.
==Highlights of Summer 2014==
Zeta Chi'''Chapter s president Lauren Garner and advisor, Kait Smith attended the Kappa Kappa Gamma National Convention Awards:'''in Houston, Texas. Zeta Chi was very excited to receive honorable mentions in Panhellenic and Public Relations.
Also in the month of September, Zeta Chi participated in their first sisterhood event, which was a private shopping trip to Francesca’s Boutique at the Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall. The girls found many cute owl, key, and fleur-de-lis items. During National Hazing Prevention Week, the Zeta Chi chapter along side other clubs at Marist College participated in a walk to raise awareness. All club members drew their hands on a large sign saying “These Hands Do Not Haze,” which is now hung up in the Champagnat (dormitory) breezeway.
Zeta Chi started the spring semester off with a bang! In February we held recruitment and our theme was Garden/Lilly for the first and third night. This year Panhellenic decided to show greek unity by having each sorority select a decade to theme their second night of recruitment. We were excited to represent the 1920s. Simultaneously we were also pleased to have Jo, our Leadership Consultant return to Marist to assist us with recruitment and improving our chapter. Though we did have to change the dates of recruitment and a couple weekly meetings due to the tremendous amount of snow we received, we were happy to welcome 20 new members into our sisterhood. We held a new member celebration in the student center which included taking pictures with huge Kappa Balloons and socializing. To get to know the new members better, we held a sophomore event at which the sophomores and new members decorated cookies and played just dance. We also enjoyed ice skating at the Hudson Valley Civic Center as one of our sisterhood events. As for Philanthropy we raised $100 for the American Heart Association at our bake sale. Three of our sister, Kelly, Colleen and Emily also jumped in the river at the Polar Plunge in Fishkill. This semester the Standards committee started choosing a Kappa Klassy Value of the Week. This value is chosen from a list of qualities that we compiled as a chapter that every kappa should uphold.
We started March off with a sisterhood event which was a private shopping trip at Francesca'''Housing:''' s in the Poughkeepsie Galleria. We also continued to hold events to welcome and integrate our new members into the chapter. These included a Junior ice cream sundae social with the new members, new member picture day (take pictures of new members around campus wearing letters) and big/little week. This year for big little reveal the bigs left socks in their littles room on the last day of big little week. Then at reveal the bigs wore matching socks and lined up with blankets covering them. The littles stood in front of the person with matching socks and the bigs let down their blankets to reveal themselves. At the end of March we were excited to officially welcome them into our sisterhood at initiation.
In May Zeta Chi participated in their semi-annual philanthropy event, Reading is Fundamental. We held a Kappa Kickball event to raise money for RIF. Following the game we headed over to the Children's home of Poughkeepsie where we did crafts, distributed books, did face painting and plaid basketball with the kids. We were sad to bid our seniors farewell at our senior sendoffs. We shared memories, took pictures and celebrated all that our seniors have contributed to Zeta Chi over lunch. We certainly ended the year on a high note receiving the first ever Marist Greek Excellence Award.
'''Philanthropy:Fall 2015'''
We held our first sisterhood event in September at the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, NY. We had a lovely picnic on the grass and gardens outside the historic mansion. It was a great way to catch up with sisters from the summer break and start the semester off strong. Shortly after that Marist held their activities fair and we represented Kappa to potential new members for the spring semester. Also in September we held a video shoot for our recruitment video that we will play during recruitment in the upcoming Spring. At Marist we are located right on the Hudson River, so we filmed down by the riverfront on a beautiful Sunday morning. Our footage will show the potential new members everything Kappa is about. We also participated in Marist’s Campus wide hazing awareness week. Greek council held an Instagram contest with the theme these hand don’t haze. The person with the most creative post and most likes won a gift card to a local restaurant. One of our fellow Kappa’s Kacey O’Brien won the prize.
We held our first Philanthropy event in October; we hosted a baked sale to benefit breast cancer awareness and partners with another sorority on campus Kappa Lambda Psi. Together we raised over $400 donated to breast cancer research. On October 22nd and 23rd we held our annual RIF Fundraiser. On the 22nd we hosted a pasta dinner and all the proceeds from the dinner were donated to RIF and on the 23rd Zeta Chi went to the Family and Children Center of Poughkeepsie and held a reading carnival for the kids in the after school program there. All of the girls enjoyed reading and doing crafts with the kids, we could tell that it brightened up their day because they brightened up ours. Our last sisterhood event of the semester was a paint party. Zeta Chi met up and recreated a picture of a sunflower on our canvases. It was a great fun and creative event to have and everyone walked home with a new piece of artwork to decorate their dorm with.
To start off November we had our first philanthropy of the month. Caitlyn Flynn, Philanthropy chair organized a workshop with a company called Bright Pink, they help educate women about their bodies and raise awareness for breast cancer and other women’s cancers. We also hosted a blood drive and partnered with another fraternity on campus, Zeta Psi for it. Many sisters donated and helped make sure all the people who donated had a good recovery. We had a few sisterhood event this month. One event that was not hosted by Kappa but many sisters take part in was the Marist College Dance Ensemble, one member of Kappa, Samantha Soprano is the president of the dance ensemble and she put on a great show with the talents of dancers from the entire school. Many other Kappas’ who are not in the Dance Ensemble went to the show to show their support. Another one of our sisterhood events we had in November was a mani pedi spa night. It was a great night to watch movies, paint our nails and hang with our sisters. As a senior sisterhood event we held a zumba class for all the seniors to participate in, it was a fun and healthy way for the seniors to get some of their last moments with their sisters.
Once we came back from Thanksgiving break, the end of the semester didn’t seem too far away but we had plenty events planned before the end. We hosted a hot chocolate sale on campus to raise money for a gift to buy for the giving tree here at Marist. One of our last sisterhood events as yoga and it was a great way to distress right before finals started. On the December 7th, we held our annual Sapphire Ball at Villa Borghese in Wappingers Falls. Each sister received a fun Kappa superlative and enjoyed dancing the night away. All of the sisters looked beautiful for the event. To end the semester we held our Kappa Kash Raffle and Holiday party. Kappa Kash is a point system we have and every event a sister attends they will get points and those points get transferred into raffle tickets that they can use at the party to get Kappa themed gifts. Almost all the sisters walked away with a gift and we did secret Santa between the sisterhood. Everyone had a great time exchanging gifts and hanging out right before finals. The year was finished off with the election of a new Chapter Council.
On campus Marist is just completing their new science building, which will be the home to the new science gradate programs and home to the biology department. Marist also began construction for a new dorming facility, which will house juniors and seniors. The hall will have four single dorms to a suite and also have a gym and new dining hall in the building too. The president of Marist College also announced his retirement at the end of the spring semester for this year in 2016. He has done a great job building up Marist College to what it is now and Kappa is sad to see him leave.
Our chapter is becoming relatively small due to the large amount of seniors gradating and the burden of not having fall recruitment due to our school’s policies. But we have prevailed and have become so close as a whole. We always support one another and try to attend other club events to support sisters who are in those clubs. Our chapter does not have a house but we always have fun meeting at other places on campus or other sisters suites on campus.
What organization(s) has your chapter historically/traditionally raised money for, or donated hours to, in your community?
Our chapter chose these organizations because we would like to focus heavily on two organizations versus more so that we can give more to each because if we spread ourselves too thin its difficult to give a lot to each organization. These two organizations represent Kappa Kappa Gamma to the highest and we appreciate everything they do, which is why we donate to them.
Zeta Chi has raised money for The Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation, The Grace Smith House, American Cancer Society, Reading is Fundamental, and Autism Speaks. We donated hours to The Children's Home of Poughkeepsie and The Poughkeepsie Youth Mission Outreach as well as volunteering our time at different events on campus.
We chose these organizations to support because we love helping our surrounding Poughkeepsie community, our campus community, and the organizations that are fundamental to Kappa Kappa Gamma's philanthropy. In addition, we choose to support those organizations that other Greek and non-Greek groups support on campus, such as the American Cancer Society and Autism Speaks in order to foster a sense of community at Marist.
==Highlights of 2017==
During Spring Recruitment! We welcomed 30 new members to our chapter! This was one of our biggest new member class, the Alpha Upsilon’s. To unite our growing chapter, we had many sisterhood events, including Galentine's Day, an ice cream social, apple picking, the Walkway Over the Hudson hike, paint our sisters, cookie baking, as well as supporting our sisters in the Marist College Dance Ensemble spring and fall showcase. We also participated in Philanthropy events, such as the Polar Plunge, Relay for Life, Up Till Dawn to support St. Jude’s, and bi-weekly reading buddies at the Poughkeepsie Children’s home. Our annual RIF events included a taco dinner and a RIF carnival. The chapter also donated the loose change jar money to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. We ended the semester with our annual Sapphire Ball!
We chose these organizations to support because we want to help our local community. We love to help the surrounding city of Poughkeepsie, our campus community, and organizations that are fundamental to Kappa Kappa Gamma. We also decided to participate in St. Jude’s Up Til Dawn to support our fellow sister who belong to this club.
==Highlights of 2018==Zeta Chi started off the year with Spring Recruitment! We welcomed 35 new members to the chapter! This has been one of the biggest new member classes, the Alpha Phis. We had many sisterhood events that united the chapter as a whole, including a sisterhood hike, apple picking, movie night, flower pot decorating, an ice cream social and a holiday party. We also supported our sisters that were in the Marist College Dance Ensemble shows in the spring and fall. The chapter has participated in many philanthropy events, such as the Polar Plunge, St. Jude's Up Till Dawn, and bi-‐weekly reading buddies at the Poughkeepsie Children's Home. We also held our annual RIF events which included a movie night, a newlywed game and the RIF Carinval. The chapter also donated money from the loose change jars to the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation. Zeta Chi also celebrated 25 years with a special Founder'Chapter Convention Awards:'''s Day event. We ended the year by celebrating our chapter with the annual Sapphire Ball!
==Highlights of 2011-2019==
==Highlights of 2021==
[[File:Zeta Chi 2021.jpg|thumb|Zeta Chi hosts an online chapter event 2021.]]
It is our mission this year to continually bring a loving and caring environment to not only the sisters of our chapter, but to all we interact with. This is something that we pride ourselves on and hope to continue to do as a sorority, getting better and better each year. In order for us to do this in the virtual environment, before being back in person, we created many opportunities for the chapter to stay in contact and have fun. Some of the ways we did this was by hosting Netflix parties, meditation workshops, themed Kahoot parties, and virtual hangouts. As we slowly began to meet in person, our sisterhood events followed, such as pumpkin picking at our local farm, socially distanced big-little reveal, our annual picnic at the Vanderbilt Mansion and Sapphire Ball. We also made sure to offer both in-person and virtual events as the transition started, making sure that none of our members felt pressured to go outside of their comfort zone in terms of Covid-19, although all guidelines were properly met. We hope, as we move forward into the new year, that we are able to continue to strengthen the bonds between us and cherish the time that we have together as a chapter.
This year, we have been able to fully implement the DEI committee and chair as a permanent role! This has been a great experience for the chapter and has allowed us to connect more with other organizations as the school. Through this new role, we have worked hand-in-hand with the African Student Association of Marist, Marist Multicultural Affairs, as well as Marist Asian Alliance, among other groups that have hosted DEI events. As the committee grows, we plan to bring as much awareness to our sisters as possible, highlighting the areas for improvement and education among us.
As a part of making our sisters more aware, the DEI committee consistently brought social issues to light during meetings and gave out many resources to get involved. The chapter also celebrated many important holidays and cultural events, such as Black History Month. Aside from social justice awareness, the committee also made the chapter away of absentee ballot eligibility and voter registration for their specific states and how important it is not vote in smaller elections, not just the presidential election. In order to not only help the members of our chapter become more involved and aware, but the entire Marist community, the committee submitted ample resources to be posted to our Instagram page, which reaches over 1,300 followers. In addition, our Instagram was used to promote various causes and important events and spread our message of acceptance of all people, regardless of their race, gender, or sexual orientation. We also promoted DEI education for our Zeta Chi Chapter through Minerva and through Marist’s Professors.