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This year for Kappa’s 150th anniversary, Minnie Stuart Van visited a house where a few Kappas live. Many of our members stopped by to see the Van and learn about the history of this sorority. We were so grateful for this special opportunity and the chance to fill closer with our sisters. In addition, ritual presentations were given to the chapter and the newest members that emphasized Kappa's anniversary and its importance. It was very fortunate that our newest pledge class’s bid day happened to land on the 150th anniversary.
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==Highlights of 2021==
Due to COVID, many of our chapter events were held virtually like our Founder’s Day event,
recruitment, and our new member classes initiation. However, we are grateful for Kappa’s
focus on our women's health and safety. Despite the event's cancellation, two of our members
received awards. This year, Sequoia Arvelo was awarded the Spirit Bowl because she has
continuously shown the spirit of Kappa and flourishes in every task delegated to her. She works
hard in her new role as New Member assistant, a difficult task in person, so even more
strenuous online. Despite the changes, Sequoia kept chapter spirits high and managed to keep
the new members excited for this chapter even in an online setting. Alongside Sequoia, Jillian
Carter was awarded the Ruth Heinz Memorial scholarship. This past year Jillian served as our
chapter President and worked endlessly to keep this chapter afloat and organized amidst online
meetings and in person schooling.
For scholarship, our chapter held a cumulative GPA of 3.523 for this past spring term. We are
very proud of our women's achievements this year academically. Valentina Muti served as our
VP Academic Excellence and worked towards creating new ways to keep us on track with
school. With the transition back to in-person learning (with some hybrid classes), this has been
a difficult time for organizing oneself and maintaining a school life balance. For many of our
members, it is their first time experiencing in person learning since quarantine, requiring an
adjustment period. To help, Valentina arranged study hours within the chapter in our library as
well as providing academic planning for our women who needed some assistance.
The Zeta Nu Chapter participated in many philanthropy events in 2021 from the beginning to
the end of the year. Our first events of the year were organized by our Philanthropy Chair,
Lauren Himpelmann. Restaurant fundraisers were organized in San Diego to raise money. The
profits made from the fundraisers were donated to the Monarch School of San Diego in light of
our annual Reading is Key event. In the Fall, our biggest philanthropic event of the year, Kappa
Kares, was held for the first time in person. Even with the new philanthropy, Lauren was able to
put on a great event that raised money for our three philanthropies with the guidance from our
last phil chair, Jasmine Shafie. She has put in lots of extra hours to turn the money raised into
self care kits for the children of Preuss School in San Diego. We are so grateful for her hard
work and look forward to seeing her prosper as our chapter President next year. Because of the
CHAPTER HISTORY REPORT
CMA-10221.09
pandemic, we were unable to hold our beloved Girls’ Academy event last year. However, this
upcoming year, Bri Taylor will be coordinating the GIRLS academy event with Preuss Schoo..
This past fall, we welcomed the lovely Alpha Tau class into Zeta Nu! Our Membership Chairman,
Jasmine Shafie, did a wonderful job of holding virtual recruitment and we were lucky to
welcome (class member number) more lovely girls to our chapter. Following Bid Day, our new
members transitioned into our chapter under the guidance of our New Member Chairman,
Robin Suazo, and our Assistant New Member Chairman, Sequoia Arvelo, who both worked
tirelessly to ensure that our new members had a smooth transition and successful transition.
They both held weekly new member meetings virtually over zoom, helped guide the girls
through new member training, and organized the Sapphire process. Our sapphire process this
year consisted of one active member being paired with one new member every week so that
the new members could get to know the chapter better, as well as start the big/little pairing
process. The new members were then initiated virtually on Nov 21, 2021.
Chapter Philanthropy
What local organization does the chapter support and why?
As a chapter, we support various local organizations through the money we raise from Kappa
Kares and Grabba Grabba Donut. Money raised at Kappa Kares is used to support Kappa's
National philanthropy, the Kappa Foundation, as well as our local organizations, the Boys and
Girls Club of San Diego and Girls’ Academy. We are also working to raise money to hold our
annual GIRLS academy at the Preuss School. We are so excited to be holding the event this
year as we were unable to last year due to the pandemic. GIRLS academy will occur in April of
the next year!
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How did the chapter support Kappa’s philanthropy?
This year we had a change in our national philanthropy! Because Kappa Headquarters
decided to shift from Reading is Key to a mental health philanthropy, our chapter decided on
National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) to support through our phil, Kappa Kares. To
raise money for NEDA, the Zeta Nu chapter sold clothing, held fundraisers at various
restaurants, and accepted donations. Kappa Kares lasted for a week this fall. With some of
the money raised, our chapter made self care kits for the kids at Preuss School. We look
forward to seeing what changes will be made to Kappa Kares next year and hope to be raising
more money each year!
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
How did your chapter include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in your
programming this year? (e.g., adding a DEI officer, philanthropy events, social media
awareness campaign, chapter training, etc.).
The year before this past year, our chapter added the Social Justice Chair position to our
chapter council. This position was fulfilled by the wonderful Janelle Eley who made it a
priority to educate our chapter on current social issues through various presentations
throughout the year and during prep for this fall recruitment. However, Janelle graduated
and the position was then filled by second year Melody Gentilhomme. These presentations
covered topics such as racism, classism, heteronormativity, gender identity, sexual assault.
In addition to the current social issues, education on UCSDs faculty strike was presented to
the chapter. This issue involved ⅓ of the UC faculty that is non-tenured and because of that
receives significantly low pay, and virtually no job security. To make a living, these professors
might have to also teach elsewhere which can also negatively impact the student body.
Operating in a Pandemic
Due to the continued risk of COVID-19 as well as UCSD school policy, our chapter has
continued to hold all weekly meetings, recruitment, and initiation virtually through ZOOM in
order to maintain the safety of our members. Luckily, we were able to hold Bid Day and
Big/Little reveal outdoors in person! These events were of course followed within COVID
guidelines and all participants were required to have a negative COVID test. Last school year,
all sisterhoods and COB were also conducted in a virtual manner. Our lovely House Chair
Julianna Sabile organized a virtual yoga sisterhood with our sports chair Vicky Davis, and
many more virtual activities. This past quarter, we also held both virtual and in person
sisterhoods. We had a virtual tarot card sisterhood, as well as a cycling class sisterhood in
person, both of which were super fun and successful! For our formal, we also followed COVID
guidelines and required all those attending to have a negative COVID test -members of the
chapter and their dates.
