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Chapter Reports
Chapter Reports Fall 2020
Kappa Chi
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Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, New Hampshire
Our Virtual Fall Semester is fully underway for the sisters of Kappa Chi. This semester we chose “Honey, I’m Home” as our recruitment theme! We were all so excited about this recruitment season and ready to take on the virtual world! We are very proud of how well our bee-themed recruitment events went virtually this year! We are happily taking in 11 amazing affiliates and are so thrilled to bring them into our sisterhood. For big/ little reveal, we made TikToks for each new member to show them each of their bigs, and made Zoom breakout rooms to spend some time together with our family trees! We are very eager to see where else our virtual semester will continue to take us!
We have been very active on social media showing how all of our sisters are living in this new time! We have made many posts showing our support for AFSP, Mental Health Awareness, and self-care. As a chapter, we understand how stressful this time can be and take pride in our support for mental health. We created a TikTok, Twitter, and VSCO accounts to add to our social media platform. We are constantly trying to keep up with the trends and stay active on social media as we can’t see each other or our new members in person.
Philanthropy is something each and every sister holds close to our hearts. In this virtual world, we have found many new ways to achieve service and philanthropy. During one of our recruitment events “Crafting for a Cause with Chi,” we spent time making thank you cards for the amazing health care workers at Elliot Hospital in Manchester, New Hampshire! As a chapter, we also participated in a virtual fundraiser and walk for the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund! All funds get sent directly to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Together on our chapter page we raised $1,720! We also had seven sisters and one alumna make their own page for donations which together raised $1,600!
Our fundraisers for the semester are just kicking off! This month we just started a Christmas fundraiser for AFSP! This is an online catalog for family and friends to buy gifts, gift wrap, and fun holiday items! We are sharing our links on Facebook, Instagram, and texting it to friends and family. We are very hopeful to go back to school in the spring.
The sisters of Kappa Chi are very eager for an in-person Convention! We are all looking forward to reuniting as well as finishing off this semester strong. With a strong focus on philanthropy, sister bonds, and academics. We are very thankful to all be happy and healthy at home, but are very much looking forward to being back together on campus!
May the Spirit Never Die! In Kappa, The Sisters of Kappa Chi
Kappa Iota
University of Southern Maine, Portland/Gorham, Maine
Hello! I hope you are all well and remaining healthy during this trying time. Kappa Iota is always keeping you in our thoughts! It was certainly upsetting not getting to see all of you at Convention in the spring, but we are excited and optimistic about this year being different!
Last semester was most certainly a trying one seeing that we, like many, if not all, of you had to go home midway through the semester. We were able to complete the new sister’s Affiliate Education program before we headed home and from there had regular meetings together. The new sisters are Katherine #305, Sariah #306, Amy #307, and Ceri #308! Many of the new sisters took positions within the sorority for the fall and we are all very excited to see what the rest of this semester holds for us!
The beginning of this semester is going quite well There are only two sisters living on campus with eight off campus. With the Affiliate Education program beginning in October and three affiliates within, we are all very excited about this! #300 Carly Poulton will be taking on two littles and #302 Anna Dunbar will be taking on one. All of the sisters are incredibly excited and #298 Lily Leblond has an incredible program set up that we are all looking forward to! This couldn’t have been possible without AAE #303 Amina Irish’s help in organizing incredible rushes and all of the active sisters kept inviting friends and recruiting.
May the Spirit Never Die. In Kappa, Kappa Iota
Kappa Lambda
Husson University, Bangor, Maine
At Husson, our girls have been hard at work to help each other through our new challenges in light of the pandemic.
We have all returned to campus and have been taking classes in person while following the school campus guidelines. It has made our chapter functions and activities a little different but we are just happy to be together again.
We have had a lot of focus on our Affiliate Education program and recruitment as we have had to change a lot of our plans to accommodate our school policies. We have been working on revamping our social media pages as well as learning new ways to accommodate virtual activities.
With the pandemic, a lot of our normal volunteer experiences in the community have been limited so we have been further looking out for new ways to volunteer in our community as well as raise funds for the national philanthropy.
Our chapter meetings have been through the Zoom platform but we have created safe in person sister bonding activities such as picking our own apples at a local apple orchard.
Although we are persevering through a lot of changes we are very optimistic about this semester.
May The Spirit Never Die, Kappa Lambda
Kappa Omicron
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, Massachusetts
We hope everyone is doing well during this pandemic.
Kappa Omicron has been increasing our volunteer hours as well as raising money with different fundraisers during this tough time.
Since Covid started, we have taken the opportunity to raise our volunteer hours! During the summer, we have been doing a virtual help-line called 7cups along with other virtual volunteering. We plan to continue this throughout the semester to obtain volunteer hours in a safe way. We are sad that we do not get to go to our annual breast cancer awareness walk but we plan to do it virtually if the organization decides to do so.
During the summer, we worked with Yankee Candle to do a fundraiser. We are proud to say we raised around $300 and will work with them again in the near future for the holidays! For Halloween, we are planning on making boo bags which will be filled with candy and other treats. This is also a great sister bonding opportunity where we can go shopping for materials as well as make the bags together.
We are so excited to bring in new sisters this semester and continue with our virtual volunteering and fundraisers. Although different, this semester will go great and we will all get to know each other better!
In Kappa, Kappa Omicron
Kappa Sigma
Our fall 2020 semester has been a bit of a crazy one so far. There have been challenges with COVID-19 that has changed our path. But as sisters, we are conjuring up all our grit and gratitude to continue to have a successful year, despite uncertain times.
The sisters have gotten together over Zoom and inperson (under proper safety guidelines) to continue to stay engaged in each other and our philanthropy. Recently, we did our annual apple picking for Gather Fest with our Alumnae and Kappa brothers.
We are also continuing to do sister dates for those who want to participate. We have been attending our weekly meetings via Zoom, but as of recently, we have started to do bi-weekly meetings in-person if we can,
with a Zoom option as well.
We are all making our best attempts to stay healthy and happy. Our school has us getting tested weekly, so we constantly know whether we’re in good health. Some of our sisters are attending school via Zoom from home, while the majority of our active are back on campus.
Luckily our sisters have been fortunate enough to keep growing and cherishing the bonds that we have with one another, and while this year may look different at least we have each other at the end of the day.
May the Spirit Never Die! In Kappa, Kappa Sigma
KappaUpsilon
University of Massachusetts at Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts
Last spring, we welcomed 9 new sisters to our chapter! They are already contributing so much to our chapter through bringing new ideas and opinions, to holding various positions within the chapter already. We are all very proud and excited to see them grow as sisters in the future semesters!
Currently, we have had a very successful semester with 8 new affiliates from our baseball themed rush! They have all been bonding together and with their big sisters. We had many alumnae come to our pinning ceremony which was very exciting. Everyone was very happy about the large turnout because it gave us a chance to catch up while welcoming the affiliate class on their journey to becoming sisters.
We have also been working very hard on philanthropies this semester! Our philanthropy chair, Mikaela Murphy, has been working very hard and setting up many different volunteer opportunities. It allows us to give back to the community, as well as work towards our national philanthropy, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. We have participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer's, Fresh Check Day which is a mental health centered event on our campus, and the Out of Darkness walk. We also have many more planned for the rest of the fall semester, including St. Jude Up Till Dawn, Uncork the Cure, Step Out Walk for Diabetes, and many more.
Along with volunteering our time, our fundraising chair, Erin Young, has been working with Mikaela in order to raise money for AFSP! We have already done a fundraiser with our local Chipotle and we have more planned that include Krispy Kreme and Yankee Candle.
Over the next few months we look forward to teaching our new affiliate class why this sorority is so special and becoming closer with them all. The whole chapter is very excited to share the Kappa spirit with them and help them to become the best sisters possible!
May the Spirit Never Die, The Sisters of Kappa Upsilon
Kappa Alpha Gamma
State University of New York at New Paltz, New Paltz, New York
Kappa Alpha Gamma has had a fantastic beginning of the Fall semester! This semester, we have hosted many fun and exciting jungle-themed recruitment events. Some of these events included Zen at the Zoo (yoga), Creatures and Characters, Kappa Tales, a Virtual potluck, Kahoot with Kappa, and more! We were very pleased with the turnout of our virtual recruitment and can’t wait to get to know our new affiliates!
Last semester we gained 12 beautiful new sisters. They are already helping and contributing to our chapter so positively, despite having the semester cut short in the spring due to COVID-19. Since the Spring 2020 semester was cut short on campus, Kappa Alpha Gamma has taken advantage of using our virtual platform. We have had multiple online fundraisers, such as a fill my board for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, NAACP, and more. We have also coordinated with our Alumnae Association for a Zoom event to help prevent voter suppression and help others register to vote.
So far this semester, we have had two fun sisterhood events! We have all gone on Zoom and played different online games, such as Psych and Photo Roulette. This was a great way for all of us to stay in touch with one another while still respecting safety regulations. Although COVID-19 has impacted how we approach sisterhoods, we have had one sisterhood outside on a large field with all of us at least six feet apart from one another. This allowed us to see each other in person, while still maintaining a safe and healthy distance and following the rules and regulations.
We have two sisters who will be graduating and student teaching after this semester, Grace Bolin and Tina Swagert. We will miss both of them greatly, but are hopeful we will be able to see them soon after and know that they will be successful in their future endeavors!
We are very excited to see what the rest of the semester has in store for our chapter!
In Kappa, Kappa Alpha Gamma
Kappa Alpha Iota
This semester the Kappa Alpha Iota chapter is working through the difficulties of trying to continue to run the chapter with the restrictions and difficulties brought upon by Covid-19 pandemic. We are still having sisterhoods, but we are holding them over Zoom. We believe that even if we are separated from our sisters, we can still spend quality time together.
This semester we are going forward with recruitment. Last semester we gained nine wonderful sisters—Bri, Savannah, Ally, Abbey, Livv, Emma, Navannah, Whitney, and Alex. Our theme was “Let the Adventure Begin with Kappa Delta Phi National Affiliated Sorority.” We received five new affiliates during our fall recruitment, Makena, Grace, Alexis, Kaitlin, and Nicole. It was a very good turn out considering the conditions and we cannot wait to welcome them with open arms as new sisters.
We are still finding ways to be active members in our community. Before the semester even began, we sold T-shirts over social media to help fund and promote Covid-19 research. In our efforts, we raised $518. We recently had sisters and affiliates volunteer at a drivein concert in the next city over. We also joined forces with the Kappa Delta Phi Alpha Iota chapter to sell philanthropy shirts to raise money for Homes for our Troops and AFSP.
We are incredibly grateful that we are at a university that is still on campus and is doing everything in their power to keep us here. They have implemented many new procedures, including free testing for symptomatic and asymptomatic persons, mandatory masks on campus, and temperature checks on campus. We cannot wait for a hint of normality to return to campus, but we are handling this transition amazingly as a chapter.
In Kappa, Kappa Alpha Iota
Kappa Alpha Nu
University at Albany, Albany, New York
The sisters of Kappa Alpha Nu have been expressing our devotion to the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention as well as to recognize and unite our members, past and new, for their outstanding excellence. We have fundraised over $1200 so far for the fall semester through bingo boards and selling AFSP bracelets to sport our philanthropy. During our annual Kappa Week, we held three programs centering on positive thinking techniques, how COVID-19 has drastically affected mental health and resources offered safely, and a trivia night on facts on healthy responses to mental illness.
We are also focusing on how to combat mental illness before it worsens or even occurs. For example, we scheduled a program on National Depression Screening Day to advocate for our campus to implement and encourage all of their students, staff, and faculty to get screened for their mental health. Additionally, we have partnered with our campus’s Advocacy Center Ambassador Program to cohost a program focused on consent to curb sexual violence as many victims often face mental illness afterwards. Moreover, we are co-hosting a program with them to honor Daisy Coleman, a sexual assault survivor and advocate who just recently took her life as nationally we are impacted by this.
Kappa Alpha Nu has also focused on how to encourage our alumnae and current members to bond remotely and to support all of the accomplishments we achieve. We are currently creating an alumnae accreditation which will broadcast our Alumni’s of Distinction at the end of each semester that have demonstrated their commitment even after they graduate. Moreover, we are creating a Kappa Alpha NUsletter that will highlight our current members' achievements that demonstrate our values of leadership, generosity, charity, and integrity. Both the alumni accreditation and member newsletter are to recognize our sisters as well as provide an incentive for our sisters to keep achieving and innovating. Our goal for this semester is to hold one another accountable for creating a systematic improvement in our commitment to our philanthropy and overall our community.
May the spirit never die, Kappa Alpha Nu
KappaAlpha
Utica College, Utica, New York Xi
Kappa Alpha Xi has had an interesting year. Over the last year we were able to hold our annual prize board event, where we asked local businesses to donate any items of their choice and we raffled off the prizes! We raised over $400 for AFSP from our Prize Board event. Due to COVID-19 sadly we aren’t able to do our annual Pizza Taste Off event, but instead we have come up with the idea of hosting a virtual run/walk. The first of the participants were able to win a prize bag when they signed up and were also able to donate any amount that they choose too. The walk took place on October 3rd, and the sisters were so excited to take part. This event was a lot of fun to host as well and we loved being able to involve the community in our fundraising.
We have also participated in leaderships trainings offered by the college. We have collaborated with other
organizations on campus and helped put together a suicide walk. That weekend the sisters also participated in a virtual out of darkness walk and walked four miles! With Utica College’s Inter-Greek Council, we put on a candy guessing game, and raised money for the underfunded school districts in the area to provide winter wear for the students.
Besides all the trainings and fundraising that we have put on and attended, we have also tried hard to stay connected in these almost fully virtual moments of our lives. We have done the best to bond in our virtual meetings and have even had some themed zoom hangouts!
In Kappa, The Sisters of Kappa Alpha Xi Chapter
Kappa Alpha Omicron Colony
The Kappa Alpha Omicron Colony at SUNY Oswego has grown leaps and bounds over the last year! This spring was bittersweet, as we said goodbye to three amazing seniors as they graduated, and welcomed five new sisters into our colony. Our Affiliate Educator did a wonderful job of welcoming our Gamma class, despite challenges brought on by our school closing just a few weeks into the program.
During our time at home we were able to stay productive, and our philanthropy chair organized fundraisers for Campaign Zero and the Lebanon Red Cross. Since the Fall semester began, we have fundraised for Johns Hopkins Medical Clinic by selling face masks. We have also been actively working to raise money for AFSP, currently by selling goodie bags so kindly given to us by a representative from the organization. After raising over $2000 for AFSP last year, we are eager to see if we can raise even more than that in the months to come!
Something that has become important to us is finding new ways to stay in touch and support each other. Through Zoom meetings, texting buddies, and COVID-19 friendly gift exchanges, we have worked really hard to ensure our sisterhood remains strong and we can continue to bond in a time when normal bonding is not possible. In the future, with the two year anniversary of our colonization fast approaching this November, we hope to be able to maintain the strong bond we have worked so hard to build.
Our love for Kappa grows stronger every day, and we are so thankful to be on this amazing journey!
Kappa Alpha Pi
Union College, Schenectady, New York Colony
The Kappa Alpha Pi Colony is excited to announce that we welcomed our Alpha Class through virtual recruitment in the Spring. We held some fun recruitment events, such as ice cream and ice breakers, trivia night and sister speed dating; we added three new sisters to our sisterhood of eighteen. This was a small but important addition to our sorority and actually worked well in the online format because the new members were more easily able to meet all of the current sisters.
More recently, we held fall recruitment and are thrilled to share that thirteen women accepted their bids, doubling the size of our sisterhood, and have begun their Affiliate Education.
Apart from welcoming our new sisters, our colony has tried to stay active despite the current situation. In the spring, we had a virtual game night with a fraternity on Union’s campus, Kappa Alpha. So far this term, we have featured an Instagram series on mental health during National Suicide Prevention Week, and also held an online fundraiser for AFSP. Additionally, we participated in a national viewing of Love, Mom and Dad for National Hazing Prevention Week.
Currently, we are in the process of planning some community service projects, such as writing letters to deployed soldiers through Soldier’s Angels, helping with Reclaim the Vote by posting on Instagram and sending emails, as well as possibly some in person volunteering at our local humane society. We are also thinking of holding a virtual walk, virtual talent show, or restaurant fundraiser to raise money for Kappa’s philanthropy.
Overall, our colony is making the best of the current situation and we are extremely excited to be welcoming our new sisters, but we are also looking forward to when we can all gather together in person!
