2,350
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→Highlight 2016
higher and 12 girls earn scholarship pearls with a GPA of 3.85 or higher. We wear our letters every Monday, proudly representing
Kappa Kappa Gamma as a sorority of leaders, scholars, and good friends.
==Highlights of 2017==
The College of William and Mary is a tight-knit community of about 6,000 undergraduates. We are located in the city of Williamsburg, which is a small, but picturesque little village that is home to Colonial Williamsburg. Among its prime attractions are the Capitol Building and the historic Governor's Palace. Because of our well-established reputation as a challenging place of study, with rigorous academic expectations, we are known as a "public ivy." We have an 11:1 student-to-faculty ratio that allows students to get the individual attention desired to graduate with an excellent education and deep understanding of the subject matter within our majors.
The College of William & Mary again received outstanding accolades by the U.S. News & World Report 2017 ranking it sixth among public universities in the nation. Overall, William & Mary ranks 32nd. Additionally, the U.S. News & World Report ranked William & Mary as the top public university for alumni giving back. In December 2016, Kiplinger ranked William & Mary 4th as a top value college for instate students and 6th for out of state students. Work on the renovation of Tyler Hall and construction of the science center’s 3rd phase continued through and was completed in 2016. In a long term plan to modernize the campus Millington Hall and smaller houses “the lodges” were removed to make room for the fourth phase of the science center, an arts quad, and an integrated wellness center.
Our campus is home to over 400 campus clubs and organizations, each of which enjoys a high level of participation. The College of William and Mary is known for being the first college ever to have an organization that referred to itself as a "fraternity." This honor fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, was founded here in 1776. Acceptance to this fraternity is an extremely prestigious honor and privilege. Since 1776, Greek life has been a great way to get involved and meet new people. Our campus houses 16 fraternities and 10 sororities, with approximately 30.68% of student body involved in Greek life. Other social opportunities include a cappella groups, club sports, intramural sports teams, theatre and performance groups, and Alma Mater Productions (AMP), which is responsible for bringing comedy acts, singers, speakers, and new movies to campus for students to enjoy on the weekends. In fact, William and Mary is listed as the 4th highest a cappella involved school, nationwide.
The women of Gamma Kappa are involved in nearly every aspect of college life at William and Mary. Our sisters are known for their widespread range of activities and dedication to their interests. We had sisters studying in Spain, South Korea, London, Russia, Argentina, just to name a few countries. Gamma Kappa sisters are heavily involved in the Student Alumni Council, Tribe Ambassadors, the Bone Marrow Drive, the Tour Guide program, the Orientation Aide program, and various business development clubs. Sisters are also involved in different cultural groups, ROTC, Student Assembly, the college’s Muscarelle Art Museum, and The Undergraduate Honor Council. Various sisters are on Varsity athletic teams such as golf, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, swimming, gymnastics, cheerleading and track. Many Gamma Kappa members stay healthy and active through club and intramural teams, including sailing, field hockey, soccer, equestrian, and three campus dance groups, just to name a few.
Other members work for the campus Recreation Center as Group Fitness Instructors, Personal Trainers, and Rock Wall Instructors. Several members of our chapter continue to be involved in philanthropic organizations outside of Kappa, including Buddy Art - a weekly art group for differentially abled children and adults and Camp Kesem - a free, week-long summer camp to support children whose parents have or have had cancer. Finally, many others are in charge of various local and international Branch Out trips, such as Students for Belize Education, Kenya Sustainability Village Project, and AIDSTanzania. Gamma Kappas take pride in the meaningful involvements of other sisters and support each other’s organizations in any way possible.
We had another successful season of recruitment. We had nearly 300 women visit our house during open house rounds. Our returns for both sisterhood and preference night rounds were at record highs (increased by over 10% from previous years), our returns for philanthropy and open house rounds were at 100%. As part of our values-based recruitment, the sisters of Gamma Kappa settled on the three following values that we would search for in newest members: compassion, drive, and confidence. On our mermaid themed bid day we welcomed 30 new members, including 7 legacies, 19 freshmen, 9 sophomores, 1 junior and 1 senior.
Over the course of the 2017 year, our education committee has worked especially hard to organize various programs and events. We’ve honored our seniors by hosting a celebration banquet during formal meeting and through our “Senior Spotlight” presentations, where five seniors presented to the chapter on a topic of their choice, usually their majors or past internship experiences. The committee has also had different speakers talk to the chapter including Gamma Kappa alum Cindy Jarboe (who gave sisters great tips about success) and Roxie Patton, who is the Associate Director of the Center for Student Diversity at William and Mary. We have also had several sisters who are trained in gender and sexual violence conduct a presentation and workshop targeted toward women in the greek community.
Gamma Kappa remains committed to service and has again had great success with Kappature the Flag and Kappaccino. Kappature the flag is our signature philanthropy event where we host a capture the flag tournament for the William & Mary community. People sign up in teams of 6-10 and a Kappa sister acts as their coach. We also hosted a raffle to bring in additional funds. Over 200 people attended the event and we sold around 150 raffle tickets. The event was held on April 9, 2017. This year we raised $2,249.20 for the American Diabetes Association. Kappaccino, where we turn our house into a coffee house with live music, hot drinks, and baked goods, raised money this year for our local chapter of Head Start Community Action Agency, the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation, and the Sapphire Scholarship. For Reading is Fundamental, we partner with our local Head Start chapter and help them run 2 booths during their annual carnival. Local alumni help out at the book distribution booth, and sisters run a backpack decorating station at the event so that the children have their own bag in which they can take home their brand new book. It is held on April 21 at the Head Start Community Action Agency near us, and about 13 sisters participate and 150 children are served. Additionally, every other Friday a group of sisters does “Book Buddies” at Head Start, where we get to spend about a half hour reading with preschoolers. There are also 2 more Head Start locations in our area, and local alumni do Book Buddies at those two locations twice a month during the school year as well.
For the past four years, Gamma Kappa has been involved in with an organization called Fear 2 Freedom, which was spearheaded by another Kappa sister, Rosemary Trible. We hosted an event where members of the campus community came together to make care packages for survivors of sexual assault. The packages were delivered to local hospitals, so that survivors would receive comforting items after being admitted to the hospital. Additionally, this year we have started doing monthly cooking shifts with an on-campus soup kitchen, which delivers nutritious meals to families in need across Williamsburg. Sisters have really enjoyed that new opportunity to participate in philanthropy in our community. Finally, this year at one of our fall date parties, we conducted a toy drive for children at a local hospital. We donated around 500$ worth of toys to the Inova Fairfax
Children’s Hospital.
In the spring of 2017, we had 11 sisters with 4.0 grade point averages and 60 on dean’s list.
==Highlights of 2020s:==