2020 THETA CHAPTER PRESENTS
EDITION
FALL 2020 | 20TH RELEASE | KKPSI THETA PUBLISHING
PROLOGUE This year is a year that I would personally consider to be quite a historic one. It is quite obvious if you think about it: the coronavirus pandemic, the death of George Floyd, the ongoing protesting activities that occur as a result of the George Floyd death, the catastrophic detonation in Beirut, and the political crisis that is straining the American society. Of course, there are many other events that impacted us this year, so let us not forget them. Because of the level of significance these events portray in the world we live at the time of this publication, I feel very compelled to dedicate a special edition of the Orange Baton that we are planning to release in the fall term of 2020. That edition is called the 2020 Edition. This edition is done specially to commemorate the events I mentioned above. So therefore, the content that will be included in this special edition will be tailored accordingly. The design of this edition will also be tailored accordingly, as you may have seen. But nevertheless, this edition will still include traditional music-related content just as the Orange Baton has beforehand. Regardless of how this year is going to turn out, there will always be something positive at the other end of the tunnel. And at the end of the day, we will make it through stronger together. It is my sincere hope that you take a moment to enjoy what this special edition has to offer. Best regards, Gordon Truong 2020-2021 Publishing Chair & Western District Webmaster Kappa Kappa Psi | Theta Chapter Oregon State University
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CONTENTS OF
THE ORANGE BATON
Your Theta Chapter Leadership ��������������������������������������������������������������������1 The Orange Baton 2020 Catch Up ����������������������������������������������������������������5 The MC Experience An Experience Like No Other Director Insights ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������8 A conversation with Dr. Erik Leung Articles ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������11 Strive for the Highbush Welcome Back Kathy Smith! ����������������������������������������������������������������������13 Active Member Spotlight ������������������������������������������������������������������������������15 Teresa Valdez Closing Remarks ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������17 Want to Discover More? ������������������������������������������������������������������������������20
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YO U R T H E TA C H A P T E R L E A D E R S H I P
YOUR THETA CHAPTER
LEADERSHIPEL HANNAH WILLIAMS
TERESA VALDEZ
PRESIDENT | MU
VICE PRESIDENT OF MEMBERSHIP | NU
Hannah has been in Kappa Kappa Psi since Spring 2018. She is going into her final year at Oregon State University’s Honors College and is serving as this year’s Chapter President. Previously, Hannah has held the positions of Vice President of Membership in 2019-20 and Chapter Secretary in 2018-19. Hannah’s goals as president have been focused on promoting safety and mental health for our members while continuing to build the bond of the brotherhood.
Teresa is a fourth year majoring in Bioresource Research with minors in Toxicology, Chemistry, and Public Health. They have played bass clarinet in Wind Symphony and tenor saxophone in Marching Band. Teresa joined Kappa Kappa Psi as a sophomore and served as Alumni Secretary for the 2019-2020 school year. They’ve also attended Western District Convention in 2019 and 2020. As Vice President, Teresa is looking forward to welcoming a new class into Theta’s brotherhood.
After graduating in the spring with a H.B.S. in Psychology, Hannah plans to go to grad school to earn her Ph.D. in School Counseling. When she isn’t studying, Hannah works as a student-athlete academic mentor and coordinates weddings. She also enjoys sewing clothes, cross-stitching, socially-distanced picnics, and her cat, Simon.
A fun fact about Teresa is that they are currently in an accelerated masters program for toxicology!
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L E CT E D KEATON EBANKS
ALEX LIECHTY
TREASURER | XI
DIRECTOR OF SERVICE | MU
Keaton Jacob Ebanks is a tenor saxophone player in the OSU athletic band program. Prior to performing with the OSUMB, he was heavily involved as a leader in his high school band program, playing in the school jazz band, marching band, basketball band, sax quartet, and wind ensemble. He also performed in the 2018 Western International Band Clinic’s Thunderbird Honor Band in Seattle. He graduated from North Salem High School in 2019, receiving the John Phillips Sousa band award.
Alex was initiated into the Theta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi as a part of the Mu class in the Spring of 2018. He has served as the Webmaster for Theta for both the 2018-2019 and the 2019-2020 school years. While in the position, he enhanced the functionality of the website for members of the chapter. During his time as an active member, he served in the service committee. In March 2020, he was elected to serve as Director of Service and was re-elected later that Spring.
Keaton is currently pursuing a degree in Digital Communication Arts with a minor in Computer Science. In his free time, he enjoys going camping, watching movies, and hanging out with his dog, Mac.
Currently, Alex is finishing his undergraduate career to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with a minor in Computer Science. He is an alto saxophonist for the Oregon State University Marching Band; while the marching band, he serves as their instrument manager. Once he finishes his degree, Alex hopes to become a public servant for the people of Oregon.
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YOUR THETA CHAPTER
LEADERSHIPEL CAMDEN FREILINGER
ALEX DUFF
Camden became a member of Kappa Kappa Psi this last Spring. He regularly attended active committee meetings during quarantine, those included Social, Service, and Music. His eagerness to help his brothers during the COVID-19 pandemic did not go unnoticed as he was presented with the “Most Willing to Lend a Hand Award.” Camden was also nominated and elected for the position of Parliamentarian that same term. Since then, he has been at work scouring our chapter’s documents to find ways to make life smoother and easier while serving as an advisor on the Executive Council.
Alex joined Theta chapter as an official member in Spring of 2020, about a week after COVID-19 caused the nationwide Pandemic. In that time, he has acted as a member of the Service committee and now the Head of the History Committee. The new online History Committee has made it a goal to have consistent projects to work on in lieu of the standard archival research, including the annual Scrapbook, a guide to the chapter for new members, and research on the 1918-1919 pandemic.
PARLIAMENTARIAN | XI
Outside of KKPsi, Camden is following his passion for the natural world as a third-year Biology major with a focus in Physiology and Behavior. Outside of class, this will be his third year playing the trumpet in the Oregon State Marching Band and Basketball Band will be serving as a section leader for the upcoming school year.
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HISTORIAN | XI
L E CT / A P T ’ D PAIGE SEDGWICK
GORDON TRUONG
Paige became a member of the Theta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi in the Spring of 2019. During her time as an active member, she has held the positions of Parliamentarian, and Brotherhood Chair. Her interest in the position of Parliamentarian came from a desire to learn more about the administrative side of the chapter with the goal of making the inner workings of the chapter more accessible. In her newly appointed role as Brotherhood Chair, her goal is to ensure members of Theta are not losing their sense of brotherhood and community in the new virtual world.
Gordon was initiated into Kappa Kappa Psi in the spring of 2015. As an active member, he has been appointed to a number of positions, including Webmaster, and Publishing Chair. While in service, not only has he worked to produce some of the most well-designed editions of the Orange Baton, he has also spent time rebuilding the chapter’s publishing service through the creation of the Theta Publishing Framework. In Fall 2019, he collaborated with other chapters in the Western District to create a special edition of the Orange Baton, “A Fall of Change” to commemorate KKPsi’s 100th anniversary. Gordon continues to serve the chapter as their most well-respected publisher. Recently, he was appointed by the Western District joint council to serve as the 2020-2021 Western District Webmaster.
BROTHERHOOD
Outside of KKPsi, she is in her third year studying Chemical Engineering and enjoys activities such as sewing.
PUBLISHING | IOTA
As a student, Gordon is finishing his last few terms in his undergrad studying to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Music. In his spare time, he enjoys cycling, photography, and consuming fine espresso beverages.
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T H E O R A N G E B AT O N 2020 C AT C H U P
THE ORANGE BATON
2020 C AT C H U THE MC EXPERIENCE PARKER SEDGWICK | XI
The Membership Candidate process is an important part of a KKPsi chapter; it is used to thoroughly vet aspiring members via education, degrees, and several other tasks in which Membership Candidates (“MCs”) must complete in order to become an active member of a chapter. At the time of this writing, I am going through this process. I am in a unique position of having a close friend of mine, Samuel Larson, also going through this process at a different chapter. He is currently an MC in the Alpha Mu Class at the Gamma Chapter. After discussing our experiences as MC’s, I wish to do a more formal comparison of the process for each chapter. One major difference in our respective experiences as Membership Candidates comes from how we came to begin our journeys to membership. While I joined by signing an interest sheet, Sam was nominated by a friend who was already a member within his chapter, as he was unable to fill out any paperwork in time to start the process of joining the chapter. Also, both of us joined our chapters through non-athletic band membership with both of our chapters being primarily composed of students from our school’s marching bands. From this point through the first degree, our experiences were virtually identical, with the only major difference being that first degree for Theta occurs at the end of fall term, whereas Gamma does their first degree at the beginning of winter term. Our experiences once again began to look different once we reached the beginning of the education process. For Theta, our education is done as a weekly activity composed of all membership candidates and bigs whereas Gamma has a bi-weekly education process requiring MC’s to attend one of the two. In doing so, this helps to ensure no MC’s run into the issue of time conflicts. Furthermore, Gamma
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UP organizes a pattern of weekly get-togethers, ranging from lunch meetings between MC’s and their bigs to group get-togethers. The goal was to better integrate MCs into the fraternity. This pattern of differences continues in the lead-up to second degree. The main expectation of MC’s in our chapter is the completion of weekly tasks, which range from simple things such as attending a chapter or committee meeting to more complex tasks like contacting a District or National Officer. The Gamma chapter continues their Membership Candidate process through a series of interviews and an event known as ‘Rotato’. This event takes place on a weekend and it involves MC’s visiting the house of a designated member of each family, being served food, and conversing with the member with the goal of helping the MC’s get to know their brothers better. As we are both still in the process of becoming full members, this is as much as we have to compare thus far. I find it extremely interesting to see our chapters’ different takes on the MC process, especially since they have the same end goal. I also find this comparison to be important, as both of our respective chapters can get new ideas on how to better integrate MC’s into the chapter and ensure that both of our chapters continue to grow in both numbers and unity.
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AN EXPERIENCE LIKE NO OTHER KAYLEE SIMONSON | XI
When people talk about fraternities or sororities, oftentimes the image of rabid 20 year-olds dancing at a house party and doing more than their bodies could handle is typically what comes to mind (at least, that’s what the high school senior version of me thought). As a freshman in my first term at OSU, I found that my perceptions on life and anything that I thought to be the absolute truth was bound to be challenged in some way, whether it was a student in class, a casual meet up with a friend, or even a co-ed service fraternity. I quickly learned that in order to be successful at making friends (or just to get through college with slight ease), I had to be open to all kinds of opinions and ideas, even if they directly opposed my own. One of those ideas included joining the music and service fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi. To be frank, joining any fraternity or sorority of general kind of scared me; it honestly had no appeal to me at all for the longest time. The introverted side of me was not particularly intrigued about being involved with many (if any) of the social events on campus and the fact that I would potentially be committing myself to doing stuff with people I may never even connect with was just more of a reason for me not to join anything. Granted, I have known several people that have found their lifelong friends through these types of organizations. So, I forced myself to be open in at least learning more about the campus sororities because friends are always good to have, right? It wasn’t until I discovered KKPsi where I truly believe I found my friends and people. I also didn’t have to make myself like it. KKPsi is a co-ed music and service fraternity that recognizes, practices, and advocates for leadership, brotherhood, service, and musicianship, while providing a foundation for building up the universal language of music and its beholders. As someone who was not particularly fond of fraternities or sororities, it was pretty shocking, even for me, to want to join an organization that combined both. I think the reason why I stuck with KKPsi and truly enjoy it was not only because of the commonality of the music and service that we share, but the lasting impacts of our brotherhood has made one of the biggest differences in accepting my life-changing decision.
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D I R E CT O R I N S I G H T S
A CONVERSATION WITH DR. ERIK LEUNG DANIEL SULLIVAN | LAMBDA
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In the 2019-2020 school year, the OSU band program welcomed Dr. Erik Leung as the new Director of Bands (DOB). Prior to accepting the position at OSU, Dr. Leung served as the DOB at Fresno Pacific University. When asked why he chose to pursue his current position, Dr. Leung says he was drawn to both the location and size of OSU. “The prospect of living in Oregon is having access to the ocean and to a bigger school, a PAC-12 school,” Dr. Leung says. Additionally, Dr. Leung says “one of the things that really kinda cemented whether I came to OSU or not was the fact that they’ve had this huge history of quality band programs throughout the years; but on top of that, I was really excited to be the first person of color to be in the position of DOB.” Dr. Leung also emphasized the importance of having representation: “I think it’s really important ... to have people in leadership positions that are Asian or Black or Latino or Latinx or ... LGBTQ or women...” Now that he has almost finished his second year in the position, Dr. Leung reflects on one of the enjoyable aspects of his job. “I love the students … in my capacity I get to see so many students. I get to see the wind ensemble students, but I also get to see the campus band students, and the marching band students. …[s]o for me, the students are just amazing. They’re friendly, … kind, ... hardworking, and they genuinely inspire me everyday to be better.” Looking forward, Dr. Leung has a clear vision for what he would like to see from the OSU band program in the next few years. “[I]t’s been interesting with the whole black lives matter movement and this push towards more equitable spaces and having more access for people of color and women and people in the LGBTQ community. It’s really helped to refocus my thinking … and planning for what I feel like OSU bands should look like in the next 10, 20, 30 years.” Dr. Leung says that he along with the other OSU band faculty discussed the need to include “at least one piece by a woman composer, person of color composer [or] LGBTQ composer” on each concert program. Additionally, Dr. Leung would like to continue “educating them [band students] through experiences.” He mentions experiences such as traveling, touring, and inviting great teachers and guest conductors onto campus.
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A RT I C L E S
STRIVE FOR THE HIGHBUSH JOSHUA MILHOAN | NU
Vaccinium corymbosum, or as most people know it, the Northern Highbush Blueberry, is one of the few edible fruit bearing species of perennial plants native to North America. Native Americans have cultivated this plant as a significant source of food for generations, long before European settlers arrived in America. Today, this plant is responsible for producing hundreds of millions of pounds of delicious berries every year for people to enjoy throughout the world. As such, it is a plant that has great value to the agricultural community for its potential as a plentiful food source, and to consumers for its delicious fruit and ornamental shrubbery. It also has immense value to myself, as it happens to be a plant that I have a personal interest in given my background in food science and botanical molecular biology. I love a good plant, especially one that makes food. It’s pretty simple. I think we can all agree that blueberries are pretty cool, regardless of your scientific or agricultural background.
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What does this have to do with KKPsi? That’s simple too. The blueberry, or “Star fruit” as Native Americans often referred to it, is a fruit that embodies the imagery of KKPsi. A brilliant blue exterior encompassing delicate white flesh, sways on the branches. Each berry with their blossom ends pointed high to the sky, flashing glimpses of the unique five-pointed star emblazoned on the bottom of each fruit, sitting tucked among their ornamental foliage. A true illustration of the symbols we as brothers hold dear to our hearts on our mission in serving music and the bands however we can. An official fruit for the fraternity, if there ever was to be one, should be selected with no difficulty, as the blueberry is the clear choice. More important, however, is what this berry means to me. Yes, this is a berry that I have some vested academic interest in, and yes, it is a fruit that happens to share imagery with KKPsi, but it is also more than that. This is a fruit that when I look at it, I can see the memories and experiences I have gained from my time with KKPsi, and with my fellow brothers. I think of all
the fun times, and stressful times, and confusing times, and social times, and of course, the musical times. I think of all of these different experiences we have had together as a group, and I think of them as being packed nice and tight in these little blueberries of brotherhood. Every time I see a blueberry, I can’t help but think of KKPsi and all of the brothers that made each minute worth it. One day I won’t get to take part in something like KKPsi, or the OSU bands. Certainly not in the same way as now, at least, and though my time at OSU isn’t over, I have realized that stuff happens and it happens fast; however, it’s the thought of knowing that maybe even though one day I will have to move on and actually live my life, it will happen with a berry bush by my side that reminds of the people and the experiences that make life worth living.
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W E LC O M E B AC K K AT H Y S M I T H !
WELCOME BACK
K AT H Y S M I T H
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!
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ACT I V E M E M B E R S P O T L I G H T
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T E R E S A VA L D E Z
ACTIVE MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
T E R E SA VA L D E Z B Y PA I G E S E D G W I C K | N U Teresa Valdez is one of Theta’s fearless leaders. Initiated in the Nu Class in March 2019, Teresa spent their first active year as a member serving as the Alumni Relations Officer, and now serves as our Vice President of Membership. They are majoring in Bioresource Research with options in Toxicology and Genomics/Bioinformatics and minors in Chemistry, Toxicology, and Public Health. Teresa is a dedicated musician, playing in both the Oregon State University Marching Band and Wind Symphony. When asked, Teresa said they joined KKPsi to stay more connected to the music department given that their major is definitely not music related, and because it’s a great way to meet people who play other instruments. A notable memory from KKPsi was attending WDC 2019 in Tempe, AZ. It was Teresa’s first event as an active brother and it solidified the importance of brotherhood. When talking about the hymn they said “I specifically remember singing the hymn with everyone to close WDC and just how powerful that hymn is when there are so many brothers singing it.” We can all agree, it will be an amazing moment when we are all able to sign the hymn together again. Teresa has always been and continues to be a shining example of an amazing brother in the chapter.
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C LO S I N G R E M A R KS
C LO S I N G R E M A R KS . . .
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ANONYMOUS When people talk about fraternities or sororities, oftentimes the image of rabid 20 year-olds dancing at a house party and doing more than their bodies could handle is typically what comes to mind (at least, that’s what the high school senior version of me thought). As a freshman in my first term at OSU, I found that my perceptions on life and anything that I thought to be the absolute truth was bound to be challenged in some way, whether it was a student in class, a casual meet up with a friend, or even a co-ed service fraternity. I quickly learned that in order to be successful at making friends (or just to get through college with slight ease), I had to be open to all kinds of opinions and ideas, even if they directly opposed my own. One of those ideas included joining the music and service fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi. To be frank, joining any fraternity or sorority of general kind of scared me; it honestly had no appeal to me at all for the longest time. The introverted side of me was not particularly intrigued about being involved with many (if any) of the social events on campus and the fact that I would potentially be committing myself to doing stuff with people I may never even connect with was just more of a reason for me not to join anything. Granted, I have known several people that have found their lifelong friends through these types of organizations. So, I forced myself to be open in at least learning more about the campus sororities because friends are always good to have, right? It wasn’t until I discovered KKPsi where I truly believe I found my friends and people. I also didn’t have to make myself like it.
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END. If you are interested in writing for the Orange Baton, please get in touch with Gordon @ kkpsithetapublishing@gmail.com.
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W A N T T O D I S C OV E R M O R E ?
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KAPPA KAPPA PSI - THETA CHAPTER 200 Community Hall 1650 SW Pioneer Place Corvallis, OR 97331 E: osukkpsi@gmail.com kkpsitheta.org
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