C O V I D - 1 9 U P D AT E
The Resiliency of South Dakota Alpha By South Dakota Alpha KELLI SUSEMIHL, Past Chapter President
From left, Vice President Recruitment KARA SEARS, Director Membership Selection CARLY VAVRA, Chapter President KELLI SUSEMIHL and Director Recruitment Events KARA HARMS during Fall 2020 recruitment.
As our lives screeched to a halt in March 2020, I assumed, as did many of my sisters, the COVID-19 pandemic would be over by summer. As Halloween passed and we entered November, we continued to see that our world is anything but back to normal. However, as the 2020 Chapter President of South Dakota Alpha, I was continuously amazed by the resiliency and adaptability of our chapter during the crisis that affected every member of our organization in some way. What I admire most about my chapter, and about Pi Beta Phi as a whole, is our members’ ability to take difficult situations and shape them into opportunities to uplift our communities and our sisters. This ability was evident in the first few weeks of our fall semester, when I was the first person in our facility to test positive for COVID-19. Our chapter members sprang into action, invoking a whole-house quarantine to ensure we were not the cause of an outbreak on campus. I was showered with kind messages, notes, candy and food, as I prepared for my own quarantine and dealt with the logistics of an appropriate pandemic response. During this time, we 6
did what South Dakota Alpha does best: made each other laugh. Within hours of being in our own rooms, members had come up with ideas to stay connected with one another through a TikTok chain, scheduled Zoom chats to catch up and enjoyed the sun distanced and masked on the lawn. Members took it upon themselves to make each other feel loved, supported and connected during this time — a reminder of why I joined the chapter. South Dakota Alpha’s creative solutions and dedication to a premier membership experience did not stop at making a wholehouse quarantine enjoyable. When Pi Phi announced in-person events with nonchapter members were suspended through the end of the fall semester, our Executive Council took it in stride, creating the idea for a caramel apple fundraiser to replace our beloved Haunted House philanthropy event. Our chapter also held in-person recruitment this year, an experience we know was unique and we felt fortunate to have. Thanks to the innovation of our recruitment team in
