15 minute read
Chapter News
West Region
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming
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University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico (UNM) Chapter of Phi Eta Sigma has been very busy during the Fall 2021 semester. The chapter helped beautify the campus by participating in Fall Frenzy, UNM’s annual campus clean-up event. Through Fall Frenzy, hundreds of undergraduate students come together to serve and better the UNM community. Our members enjoyed their time in service to UNM by planting trees and flowers with their fellow Lobos.
Up next for UNM Phi Eta Sigma is our canned food drive for Lobo Food Pantry, UNM’s on-campus food pantry. Lobo Food Pantry is an incredible resource that is available to all UNM students with no questions asked, once a day every day. We will be accepting donations of non-perishable food items for two days, after which all collected items will be given to Lobo Food Pantry.
Finally, UNM Phi Eta Sigma will continue our chapter’s long-held tradition of participating in the University of New Mexico’s oldest tradition, Hanging of the Greens, which dates back to the 1930s. Each year on the first Friday of December, UNM students, staff, and alumni light up campus with over 14,000 luminarias to kick off the holiday season. Chapter members will fold bags, fill them with sand, set them up around campus, and light them, as part of UNM Phi Eta Sigma’s contribution to the beloved annual event.
The chapter is excited for the Spring semester and looks forward to the continuation of our service to UNM and its students.
Chapter News
Midwest Region
Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
We have been creative in holding Zoom and Teams meetings in ’20-’21 and engaging our membership in selfmotivated community service projects. We held our first virtual induction ceremony in April ’21 creating a You Tube Video to share with all inductees. The fall ’21 semester brought more adaptations as we returned to campus following necessary CDC guidelines.
Due to COVID-19 and national office travel restrictions, we had to cancel our fall ’21 leadership conference The MARC and streamline it to a 2-day conference for UWGB members only. As planning took a turn, we elected to postpone the conference scheduled for November 5-7, until spring ‘22. We will not let these changes pull us down. Moving the conference to spring of 2022 will allow our E-board time to
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Our community service project for the 2021-22 academic year is collection of worn out, tattered old American flags which will be disposed of properly at local American Legion and VFW Posts. On October 16, our members participated in our first flag disposal ceremony at the VFW Post 7692 in Freedom, WI. There were over 500 flags collected and disposed of properly. We are planning to partake in another flag disposal ceremony in spring.
We like to have an activity at our chapter meetings. This semester one activity is folding flags for The Pocket Flag Project [https://www.pocketflagproject.
com/wp/about/], repeating a rewarding project we did several years ago. The flag is folded to represent the original thirteen colonies of the United States. Each fold also carries its own meaning. According to the description, some folds symbolize freedom, life, or pay
Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
tribute to mothers, fathers, and those who serve in the Armed Forces. We will be distributing the flags to active duty deployed and deploying soldiers so they know that we care and that we keep them in our hearts and our prayers.
In addition to the above we participated in Make a Difference Day at UWGB. We will be participating in the Green Bay Holiday Parade, a winter/spring fundraiser, making toys for the animals at the Green Bay Humane Society, the Adopt-AHighway Program, and preparing for a spring induction ceremony. All in all, this has been a wonderful semester giving back to our community.
After a year of virtual engagement, the IUPUI chapter focused on making connections to start the year. We helped with Move Crew to assist first-year students in moving into campus housing, and we did lots of tabling during the first week of classes at the first-year residence hall, Honors College open house, and the Student Involvement Expo.
After a year of meeting on Zoom, we were happy to return to meeting in person in the fall! Our monthly meetings have included speakers who talked about topics such as getting involved on campus, staying motivated to prepare for future success, and preparing a winning application for the annual Top 100 Students competition.
We engaged in service by making no-sew blankets for a local homeless shelter, assisting Indy Parks with cleaning up a local park, delivering coffee and donuts to our campus police and a nearby fire station, helping out at a local food pantry, and volunteering at the Indy Half Marathon. We also had many members participate in the national 5K for $10K for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
We were actively involved in the annual IUPUI Regatta on the downtown canal again this year to raise money for student scholarships. This included having 3 teams rowing in the Regatta, competing in the Battleships event at the Natatorium to raise money for our dance marathon, and serving up popcorn at the Honors College tent. We also had a Pumpkins ‘n Snacks social event in October where members showed off their pumpkin painting and carving skills.
Finally, we were thrilled to have five national scholarship winners with award amounts ranging from $1000 to $7000. Congratulations to Anna Martin, Unnati Nayak, Kaitlyn Powell, Faith Prochaska, and Nicole Scheive. We always like to see our officers rewarded for their hard work and dedication!
Purdue University
Despite the challenges that Covid-19 brought during the 2020-21 school year, Purdue University’s joint chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta and Phi Eta Sigma worked hard to have a great year, including a record-setting spring induction class of 954 new members! Our officer group met in person every other week to plan events and programs. With the help of Zoom, we offered speakers on resume writing, stress relief at finals and holiday time, and scholarships—both local and national. We also were able to be creative with our service projects and purchased gifts for two children whose names were on the Season of Sharing Tree that our campus sponsored during the holidays. Later in the spring, we were able to have an all-member in person meeting where we took old t-shirts and made braided dog toys, cat hammocks for a local shelter, and bags for the campus food pantry. Our chapter president, Jenna Swihart, thought it would be nice to end our year with a project aimed to show appreciation to all of the staff giving Covid vaccines to students and staff on campus, so we purchased lots of snacks, water, candy, and granola bars and filled 150 Thank you bags. We took them to the workers and surprised them with this act of appreciation, and they were very touched!
The fall 2021 semester has started with a bang! Our new officer group of nineteen have been very busy with an all member meeting on the topic of resume writing, a decorated golf cart in our Homecoming Parade (we won the contest for the best cart!), and distributing “caught studying” bags of candy during the first round of exams. The officers also volunteered at our local Hunger Hike and a program called Winterization, a campus sponsored event that helps the elderly get their yards ready for the winter. At our next all-member meeting, we are filling shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, and then we will have a fun study break/service project during the week before finals.
Chapter News
Central Region
Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma South Dakota, Texas
University of Texas - Austin
It’s no surprise that the pandemic has continued to impact many universities, including The University of Texas at Austin, in 2021. Although our chapter programming remained primarily virtual, members connected through regular chapter meetings, social and service events, GroupMe, and strong social media campaigns. In the spring, officers created a Linktree on our social media pages, increased frequency of Instagram posts, and encouraged involvement through memberof-the-month recognition and “officer spotlight” social media posts. Other spring events included a trivia night, banquet, comedy performance, Valentine’s movie night, “rant” hour, paper airplane-making video for hospitalized children, hygiene kit-making, blood drive donations, and virtual service opportunities benefitting seniors or those with disabilities. In late spring, officers introduced a few in-person, outdoor events such as profit shares, and raised over $200 from fundraising and merchandise sales for the semester. Over the summer, our chapter hosted eight virtual info sessions, which 244 new students attended.
In the fall, we tabled at Longhorn Welcome and Party on the Plaza, two campus-wide new student events highlighting student organizations. Our chapter offered a t-shirt giveaway for the participant who guessed the closest number of honor society pins filling a large jar. In addition to two members winning national scholarships, we hosted a scholarship info session and workshop to encourage more students to apply.
Fall service events have included Zooniverse projects, food pantry and housing assistance, Inside Books Project, the Phi Eta Sigma 5K for $10K, tutoring, clothing and blanket drives, and blood donations. Socials have included a pumpkin patch, slime-making, virtual escape room, game night, movie night, and coloring event. We also hosted two profit shares to raise money for our chapter.
We’ve seen small but consistent attendance at our chapter activities, and we are excited to see membership involvement increase as we resume meeting in-person!
Chapter News
Southeast Region
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee
Augusta University
The Office of First and Second Year Experiences at Augusta University is pleased to announce the induction of 54 students into the Phi Eta Sigma National Freshman Honor Society.
The Augusta University chapter was established in 2017. However, we took a two year hiatus due the Pandemic. This fall, we retroactively celebrated our students’ academic achievement during their first year of college, encouraging them to maintain academic excellence throughout their college career.
During the induction, we discussed the Society’s three core values, explained the meaning behind our official crest, and finally conferred the membership of Phi Eta Sigma, with the Key and Certificate. Families and friends of the inductees joined in the fun, making this event even more meaningful!
As an added value to membership, students were invited to participate in our first ever Phi Eta Sigma book club this spring. We will be reading the Defining Decade, by Dr. Meg Jay and discussing our next steps after college! The book club is one way for students to keep in touch and develop leadership skills, too. This was advertised to students on the back of the Program.
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Over the past year, the Florida State University Chapter of Phi Eta Sigma placed an emphasis on community involvement and the outreach and recruitment of new members to join our chapter. This academic school year, we have hosted four different Leadership Councils (LC) to promote member involvement including Service, Outreach, Recruitment, and our new Health and Wellness LC. We enjoyed planning and hosting events such as our “Fall into Fall” event to recruit new members with donuts, coffee, and a photo booth, our weekend Adopt-a-Road cleanups, Phi Eta Sigma information sessions, our Health and Wellness walk/run social at the Mike Long Track, as well as helping to clean up Doak Campbell Stadium with “Garnet and Gold Goes Green”. Some of our chapter’s favorite memories so far this year were when our Executive Board and LC’s walked in FSU’s annual homecoming parade, as well as when our chapter got recognized as the top fundraiser for the Phi Eta Sigma Running for Reading Virtual 5k! We look forward to another amazing semester of getting involved within our community and spreading the word about the FSU Chapter of Phi Eta Sigma.
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama chapter of Phi Eta Sigma has been working hard to create a community for its members after a year of virtual learning. To celebrate their chapter’s 90th birthday, they held an ice cream social at Rita’s Italian Ice & Frozen Custard. This event allowed members to network while enjoying a sweet treat! To promote literacy on their campus and in the community, they held a book drive and delivered the donations to local schools in Tuscaloosa. As students are approaching the end of the semester and final exams, they held a bonfire and pizza social on the quad to serve as a study break for their members. The University of Alabama chapter is excited to welcome Phi Eta Sigma members from all across the nation to Birmingham, Alabama for the 2022 Centennial Convention!
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Chapter News
East Region
Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia
Catholic University of America- Washington DC
The Catholic University of America chapter of Phi Eta Sigma sprinted into action this semester! One month into the semester, we held our annual induction ceremony in person.
Our chapter staff diligently encouraged 136 qualifying candidates to accept their membership. On October 1st, we inducted 124 candidates into Phi Eta Sigma, at one of the highest acceptance percentages Catholic University has seen.
We also invited families in person, which was especially touching in light of the virtual ceremony last year. We sent a Zoom link to those who couldn’t join on campus; however, many chose to come in person. As families and friends offered a wonderful show of support, the night concluded with a lovely reception.
Promptly after induction, our staff set to work on our fall service activity. To support the national Phi Eta Sigma fundraiser, our Catholic University chapter decided not only to advertise for the national 5K, but also to host our own campus 5K! At least 14 people signed up for the national 5K, raising $475. On October 17th, 20-30 people participated in our in-person 5K: some walked, others ran, and many volunteered to help. Given the crisp Sunday morning, people were happy to run or walk our on-campus course. All the newly inducted officers enjoyed preparing for and running the event, and some former officers came to help. One former officer ran and won the race! As additional incentive, we raffled off Catholic University swag to students who supported the 5K, and we plan to use Phi Eta Sigma swag at future events.
Hosting this 5K helped the new officers engage in Phi Eta Sigma activities immediately after induction and encouraged member participation. We’re grateful for our strong start and anticipate spring events, including a service activity and formal member dinner.
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NJ RI
Chapter News
Northeast Region
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont.
The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg looked to overcome obstacles created by the continuing pandemic this past year. In the spring, we worked within the restrictions and were still able to hold a couple of events throughout the semester. In February, we sponsored outdoor snow tubing, in which many students participated and enjoyed. That month we also made Valentine’s Day cards for a local senior citizens home - even though we couldn’t deliver them in person, the residents enjoyed receiving them. We also held a virtual induction ceremony for our new members, with a webinar that inductees and their families could attend from all over the world . New members were still individually recognized during this ceremony utilizing pictures in a slide show.
We looked to return to normal activities in the fall and, with restrictions eased a bit on campus, were able to hold many of our annual events. In September, we were able to hold our annual creak cleanup, with a great turn-out of students eager to help make a difference on campus. In October, we were able to hold one of our campus’ favorite events, Oktoberfest. This year Oktoberfest included kegged rootbeer, German food, pumpkin painting, hammerschlagen, giant jenga, make-your-own ice cream, and ax throwing, with other clubs on campus collaborating to make it a wonderful event. In November, we were able to return to sponsoring our annual Veterans Day Luncheon, a tradition for veterans and their families to enjoy a free lunch on our campus. We also held a sock drive to donate to the VA hospital in Pittsburgh, PA to show our gratitude for those who served our country. The University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg chapter is looking forward to continuing its active participation in the spring!
Written by: Keith Koenig, Chapter Historian
Submitted by: Leigh Hoffman, Chapter Advisor
