The Paw Print University of Houston
Volume 4 | Issue 1
Apr 2019
CONTENTS 03
Pledge & Officer Messages
04
Member Spotlight
05
April Recap
06
Other Events & Meeting Recaps
07
Social Recap
08
Service Hours Update
09
The Summer at a Glance
10
UH Board & District Board
2
Pledge & Officer Messages I pledge to uphold the Objects of Circle K International, to foster compassion and goodwill toward others through service and leadership, to develop my abilities and the abilities of all people, and to dedicate myself to the realization of mankind's potential.”
Hello CKI family!! My name is Sammie and I’m excited to be serving you as 2019-2020 UH CKI President. This is my 4th year in CKI, and although we’ve had many changes, members come and go, one thing that stayed the same is the passion I see in everyone for service. I’m always touched at how many lives we impact through our events. Whether you joined in the past or will join in the future, thank you so much for being part of this wonderful legacy. I love CKI a lot, it’s my second family. As April is a new year, I can’t wait to see what lies ahead of us as I lead the members on this journey. My position may sound daunting, but don’t be afraid to say hi or reach out to me!
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Hey y’all! I’m Gabriel, your newsletter chair for this upcoming year! I look forward to making memories with all of the new and old members this year. Let’s continue this great legacy set from those before us and impact the communities around us in a positive way. Enjoy my first newsletter!
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MEMBER
SPOTLIGHT Alexander Le is one of our two April Members of the Month due to his dedication and hard work he puts into CKI even though he already retired as President and wants to leave us. Earlier in April, he helped coordinate From Academics to Activism: Organizing Change in Your Community along with Voices of UH, an event which 3 guest speakers were invited: Sri Preston Kulkarni, Mike Floyd, and Marcel McClinton (Sri was a past Key Club LTG!). They talked about civic engagement and how we can create a change not only through community service, but also public service. Since his official retirement on April 1st, he is still very active in CKI activities. He goes around taking photos, participating in events and meetings. He also helped train the new board and passed down his knowledge of leadership to ensure the club is running smoothly and is in good hands for the future. He has done so much behind the scenes, and we couldn’t have asked for a better President this past year! For this reason, we nominate Alex as one of our two Members of the Month for the new year!
Cecilia Nguyen-Do
Alexander Le
CKI has been a pretty big part of my undergraduate life. I lived and breathed Circle K for three years. I remember during classes, I would be making meeting presentations or working on award applications or planning the logistics of events. Most of my free time (and some of my not-so-free time) was spent on CKI, and it’ll be strange to not be so focused on this club anymore. I’ve learned so much during my time here, and it’s grown so much during that time. I expect it to grow even more in the future, and while I won’t be a central part of CKI anymore, I’ll definitely be watching and supporting from wherever I am (which may be in kiwanis). CKI means family, and family means no one gets left behind (even if you’ve graduated and moved on). Love y’all to pieces forever and always. Also, I like cheese“
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APRIL RECAP Key To College On Saturday, April 6th, we held our first Key to College where we invited Key Clubs from around the Houston area to our campus to learn more about the college experience while being able to meet other fellow CKI and Key Clubbers. A total of 6 high school Key Clubs attended, including Harmony School of Innovation-Sugarland, Clements, Dulles, Cy-Fair, Cy-Creek, and Nederland. We had 3 workshops, each lead by the new officer board, focusing on applying for college and financial aid, exploring majors and minors, and mental health in conjunction to our new Governor’s Project. After the workshops ended, we had a guest speaker, Hector Morales from Harris County Precinct 2, come in to give a motivational speech about the challenges students will encounter when they transition to college. Next, we had a small service project where everyone can plant seeds in a biodegradable pot in honor of Earth Day in April!
Holding a workshop in Key to College was a very special experience for me as it allowed me to brief high school students of steps they will be taking as they transition from their current school environment to a college setting. In our workshop, we discussed the importance of majors and minors as well as the different ways students can prepare ahead in order to select their fields of study effectively. Aside from workshop topics, many students were very curious about college life, applications, and in general how schooling worked. Having recently graduated from high school, I was able to understand many of the concerns students presented to me as I, in fact, had many of the same ones prior to attending college. Having so many eager high schoolers present in our event made the effort we put into Key to College worthwhile. I can’t wait to work more closely with our Key Club family in the future!“
Thank you to all the Key Clubbers and volunteers from TAMUG that attended! Special thanks to Hector Morales for speaking! Thank you to Hunter Faubion and Jennifer Tuggles for supporting the event! 5
OTHER EVENTS & MEETING recaps We collaborated with the Texas A&M Galveston chapter to help clean up trash near and on the beach! Thank you to their Circle K chapter for inviting us! We look forward to working with them on more future service projects!
We held our 5th General Meeting which was sponsored by Course Hero! We created DIY Craft Kits for our in meeting service project. Then we had our final meeting for the semester where we decorated biodegradable pots to plant seeds!
Our new Governor’s project is called the BeYoutiful Project, which focuses on Mental Health. UH held From Academics to Activism: Organizing Change in your Community, in which many Circle K members attended. There were three guest speakers: Sri Preston Kulkarni, Mike Floyd, and Marcel McClinton. They all shared their experiences in helping the community. Members wrote letters to state representatives and submitted petitions to the University of Houston Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) to increase funds in mental health support for students. We also collaborated in an event with Refugee Advancement through Humanitarian Aid (RAHA) called Mental Health Kits. Dr. Andrew Bingman from CAPS spoke about mental health and students created kits relating to mental health that was donated to high school students! 6
CKI SOCIAL EVENTS Banquet & Campus Leader Awards! Some of our members and officers went to the Campus Leader Awards ceremony! Circle K was given the Outstanding Student Organization Award for all the service we have done for the community! Thank you to the University of Houston Center for Student Involvement for the award! Big thank you to all of the members and officers that came to events!
We hosted our end of year banquet to celebrate a year full of incredible service! This time, it was Harry Potter themed and members participated in minigames. In the end, the Slytherin team won! Afterwards we presented superlatives to members and had a farewell video to our former president and vice president Alexander Le and Cecilia Nguyen-Do. Thank you to all the officers and members for an incredible year! Let’s keep up the good work! 7
SERVICE HOURS update
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May No events due to finals
June 6/13-6/14 — Cougar Carnival (Freshman Orientation 3)* 6/20-6/21 — Cougar Carnival (Freshman Orientation 4)* 6/24-6/25 — Cougar Carnival (Freshman Orientation 5)* 6/27-6/28 — Cougar Carnival (Freshman Orientation 6)* TBA — Officer Photoshoot
July 7/18-7/19 — Cougar Carnival (Freshman Orientation 7)* 7/25-7/26 — Cougar Carnival (Freshman Orientation 8)*
August 8/1-8/2 — Cougar Carnival (Freshman Orientation 9)* 8/9-8/11 — WOW Officer Training
*These events are subject to change. 9
UH CIRCLE K
Advisors & Officer Board Harry Watson
Dr. Paige Evans ADVISOR
ADVISOR
Email: pevans@uh.edu
Mr. Watson has been a Kiwanis member of the Houston Club for 2.5 years as well as served many CKI positions throughout his younger years.
College of NSM Clinical Professor and Science Master Teacher for teachHouston
Sammie Chen
Fatimah Abidogun
PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT
Major: Civil Engineering Email: schen46@uh.edu
Major: BioTechnology Email: onlyzahrah13@gmail.com
Glenda Cheng
David Nguyen
SECRETARY
TREASURER
Major: Chemical Engineering Email: gwcheng@uh.edu
Major: Honors Marketing Email: davidnguyeng@gmail.com
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Vincent Tangavelou EDITOR Major: Honors Biomedical Science Email: vntangavelou@uh.edu
UH CIRCLE K
Committee Chairs
Joy Williams
Alyssa Tran
Gabriel Laxa
FUNDRAISER CHAIR
FELLOWSHIP CHAIR
NEWSLETTER CHAIR
Major: Biology
Major: Honors Accounting
Major: Computer Science
Email: attran26@uh.edu
Email: jglaxa@uh.edu
Email: jewilliams10@uh.edu
Isabel Hurtado
Erica Agbadiba
SERVICE CHAIR
SERVICE CHAIR
Major: Organizational/ Corporate Communications
Major: Biochemistry Email: ecagbadiba@uh.edu
Email: Ihurtado@uh.edu
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TEXAS-OKLAHOMA
District Leadership
Joseph Pham
Steve Le
GOVERNOR
DISTRICT SECRETARY
College: University of Oklahoma Email: governor@txokcki.org
College: University of Texas at Arlington Email: secretary@txokcki.org
Jose Leyva SE TEXAS LTG College: University of Houston Email: southeasttexasltg@txokcki.org
Taylor Maddox
Mariane Sanchez
DISTRICT TREASURER
DISTRICT EDITOR
College: University of Texas at Tyler Email: treasurer@txokcki.org
College: University of Texas at Arlington Email: editor@txokcki.org
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Thank You to our members for making this past month filled with love, laughter, and service.
Live to Serve, Love to Serve
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