Changes
→Presentation and Establishment:
==History of the University==
==Presentation and ColonizationEstablishment:==After presenting to colonize establish in 2012 and being selected to join the Pack in fall 2016, Kappa Kappa Gamma had been waiting many years to come to NC State. In 2015, S.E. Spencer (North Carolina) was selected as the Chapter Consultant and began making visits to NC State along with Lisa Thomson and others from Fraternity Headquarters. Throughout the 2015-2016 school year, Kappa representatives began to learn about NC State’s campus and Fraternity and Sorority Life culture. In the spring of 2016 Kappa Kappa Gamma was presented with the opportunity to rent a chapter facility from NC State. The property at 3501 Avent Ferry Road was approved to be the first home of Kappa at NC State.
Starting in late September of 2016 Leadership Consultants and Kappa Headquarters staff began the process for colonizing establishing the Eta Chi chapter. S.E. led a team of four Leadership Consultants, Hannah Bingham (Oklahoma State), Claire Kozel (Santa Clara), Maddy Poletis (Missouri), and Lindsay Webb (South Carolina) in a marketing blitz across NC State’s campus. After the consultant team distributed hundreds of lollipops, flyers, buttons, and bookmarks over nearly a week of tabling, more Headquarters staff and countless local Kappa alumnae descended on the Talley Student Center at NC State to interview potential charter members for Eta Chi. Nearly 200 fantastic women interviewed to be the first Kappas at NC State. On October 1, 2016, invitations to the final party and Bid Day were extended.
Bid Day arrived on October 2nd. The day began with the Formal Pledging Service, which was conducted by the Colonization Chairman, Suzanne Mahoney, and assisted by several women from the Delta Beta chapter of Duke University and the Epsilon Gamma chapter of UNC-Chapel Hill. Following the service, the colonizing charter class of 127 women were escorted through the house to receive their bid day bags and Kappa t-shirts. It was a fun filled day of face painting, photo snapping, and great socialization with established sisters and new friends. It was truly an unforgettable experience and set the stage for the beginning of a great first year.
On October 15th the colonizing charter class gathered for our first New Member Retreat. The day consisted of ice breaker activities, pumpkin painting, and hilarious team building games in the backyard. It was a great day for meeting new girls within our charter class and having a fun time goofing off together.
In mid-October, the Eta Chi chapter participated in Southern SMASH on NC State’s campus. Southern SMASH is a non-profit event created by fellow Kappa, McCall Dempsey, to raise eating disorder awareness and promote positive body image by physically destroying weight scales. During the event, students were encouraged to visit booths hosted by the Counseling Center, an eating disorder treatment center, and several other hosts, that promoted diversity and healthy eating. After visiting these booths, students were able to write positive messages on cards for them to keep to promote self-love; as well as “tombstones” to write a message to the scale before they smashed them. Students then took sledgehammers and smashed the scales along with their tombstones. All sororities were invited to participate in the event, but Eta Chi had the most participants and volunteers by far and were able to spend time talking to McCall and showing support for their fellow Kappa. McCall also hosted a talk later that day to share her experience battling and defeating her eating disorder, which many members of Eta Chi attended as well. The event allowed Eta Chi to remind themselves of their own self-worth, as well as share body positivity and raise eating disorder awareness on our campus.
