Nacho Night 2012

Read all about our new philanthropy event, Nacho Night!

October is domestic violence awareness month and as VP Philanthropy I wanted to make sure we bring awareness to our community. Every spring we have our annual spring softball tournament, Diamond Days, and I thought it would be fun and educational to incorporate another fundraiser in the fall to raise additional money for Womenspace and the Alpha Chi Omega Foundation.

Our very first food fundraiser philanthropy took place this past Wednesday at the Alpha Kappa Chapter House. Nacho Night turned out to be a success! Our guests paid for admission and got to come into our house, while we served delicious nachos complete with all of the fixings: queso, cheddar cheese, ground beef, chili, beans, sour cream, salsa, jalapenos, and more.

We had a random drawing by placing purple (domestic violence prevention’s official color) tape under random food trays for our guests. If a guest found a purple piece of tape on the bottom they received their choice of candy or a cookie basket. In our living room, we had a DJ playing some great music that guests could groove to. There was also a projection screen showing a slideshow of domestic violence awareness statistics and facts to educate the community that came about our philanthropy and domestic violence awareness. All Alpha Chi Omegas were involved with serving food, drinks, or helping with checking people in.

We raised over $3,000 dollars at Nacho Night! We even got feedback from guests that we should have this philanthropy event every term! Here at the Alpha Kappa chapter, we are committed to bringing awareness about domestic violence to this community and demonstrating that Alpha Chi Omega is nacho average sorority!

Thank you, Cristina, for working so hard to expand our philanthropy! You have been the most amazing VP Philanthropy we could have asked for.

LITB,

Chrissy Hardesty

PC 12

We recruited the most amazing new plegdge class this Fall. Read all about their new member period from our VP New Member Education, Morgan White:

Through the process of fall recruitment, Alpha Chi Omega was lucky enough to give out 59 bids to 59 beautiful girls. We had a fun time celebrating on bid day with our new additions, playing along with the theme of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and serving breakfast for dinner. We had a fun time having a dance party on our lawn, with music so loud, that one could hear it from four blocks away! We then all piled into our cars to make our rounds to the other sororities and fraternities on campus, then to Autzen Stadium for our famous photo opp.

Over the past couple of weeks, Morgan White, our Vice President of New Member Education, has been able to get to know these girls better and guide them into their new chapter of college at Alpha Chi Omega. All of them have been so eager to learn about the history and traditions of our sorority and meet all of our lifetime members. We also just had our Big/Little reveal, so now the new members have someone close to guide them through our initiation. Everyone cannot wait to initiate all of our new members and officially make them sister of Alpha Chi Omega.

Thank you, Morgan, for all of your work to develop our new members. You embody what it means to be an Alpha Chi, and we are proud to have you as the role model for all of our new members!

LITB,
Chrissy Hardesty

Alpha Chi at Work: Natalie Herndon

Read all about Natalie and Cristina's work with PRSSA!

Cristina Pellizzon and I are members of PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America) on campus and for the past few weeks have been working on a Halloween fundraising event. On Tuesday the 30th we had the Halloween event in the EMU open to all students. Both Cristina and I were on the planning committee and worked to put the event together to raise money for PRSSA. The event consisted of Halloween themed games and prizes with a costume contest at the end. We worked in a group with other PRSSA members and used our planning skills to put the event together. Between working together, organization, and communication we used our Alpha Chi Omega skills for this event for our entire school. This is expected to be an annual event & hopefully we will be working on the planning committee next year!

Great job Natalie and Cristina for being ambitious women in the work force!

LITB,

Chrissy Hardesty

Recruitment 2012

Read all about our successful recruitment from your very own VP Recruitment, Evan Goldsmith!

Hello! My name is Evan Goldsmith and I am the VP Recruitment for the Alpha Kappa Chapter of Alpha Chi Omega. When I ran for my position one year ago, I wanted to do it because I felt that it would be a contribution to the future of Alpha Kappa and Alpha Chi Omega nationally. I would be educating and preparing my chapter for Fall Formal Recruitment, and because of my efforts and the efforts of my sisters we would have an amazing new pledge class. This was so appealing to me because these new Alpha Chi Omega women would be the fruition of my hard work and because of that I would have made a small, yet important, impact to Alpha Chi Omega’s future. These new women would not only be my sisters for one short year (wow I’m a senior?!?!) or my potential grand-little, these new women would be the future leaders of our organization, the future spokeswomen for our national philanthropy, Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention, and eventually the 70 year old women receiving 50-year pins as tribute to their years as Alpha Chi Omegas. For these reasons I wanted to be VP Recruitment, but now that my job is done and I must soon transition the next spirited (and lucky) individual into office, there were a few unexpected things I gained from my position that I had no idea I would be walking away with. And I am so thankful for all of them.

Having gone through this exhausting but equally exciting process I have developed such a close-knit bond with my sisters. I am confident that I truly know each and every one of my sisters as well as their interests and needs. I am so unbelievably proud to be associated with these women, and throughout these past few weeks I have been impressed every single day by them. They inspire me and fuel me to be a better person than I was the day before, and for that I am so grateful to each and every one of my sisters. I also did not expect to learn from my sisters as much as I did. The knowledge I gained from them is something that I will be able to use in the real world after I graduate. I learned how to delegate and manage a committee, I learned how to be more patient, and I learned many ways to better communicate with others who are different than I. These are important life skills that I believe will benefit me in the future. Running for this position I wanted to make an impact on Alpha Chi Omega, but walking away from this position I now know that Alpha Chi Omega has made a bigger impact on me, and I am so excited to see what I learn from the new pledge class in the next year.

 

Thank you, Evan, for being such a fantastic leader for Alpha Kappa and running an amazing recruitment!

 

LITB,

 

Chrissy Hardesty

We Always Wear Our Letters

Alpha Chi Abroad: Alex Bilbruck

Read all about Alex Bilbruck's summer study abroad in France!

This past summer I studied abroad in France. I was so excited that I had this amazing opportunity to be able to study there over the summer. My friends can tell you how much I love Paris and the country of France. I was lucky enough to have been to France multiple times before I embarked on my study abroad adventure. I am currently an International Studies major with a Business minor at the University of Oregon. Within my major it requires me to have a third year proficiency in a language and French was a language that I have been learning since high school so I wanted to continue to improve and hopefully one day be fluent in the language.

            I lived in a small town called Angers; it is about an hour and half outside of Paris. It was an intensive French language program so I spent most of my days speaking French. It was good because I was able to improve on my speaking and writing skills, which was very helpful. Also, I had the opportunity to go on multiple excursions with my program including chateaux’s, Normandy, and St Malo/St. Michel. St Michel literally looked Hogwarts. Lol Studying abroad was something I always wanted to do before applying to colleges, and it was a great chance to improve on a language that I love, and a country I find so beautiful. I stayed with a host family during my time abroad and it was great to immerse my self in their culture and way of life. It was an unforgettable experience and these memories I will have for the rest of my life. I was able to make new friends that I have become close with outside of fraternity/sorority life as well as friends in other chapters. I traveled around with them on our days off and went all around France and I will always share these memories with them. Now, that I am back in the states I still hangout with my close friends from abroad. Who would have thought I would end up meaning such great people and a new group of friends to always hangout with. I absolutely love my time in France, and I cannot say that I regret a single moment.

 

What an amazing experience for Alex! We are lucky to have someone as passionate and outgoing as Alex representing Alpha Chi in France. Thanks for sharing, Alex!

 

LITB,

 

Chrissy

Reflecting on the Past and Looking to the Future

Welcome back to school Alpha Chi! Now that recruitment is finished, midterms are ending, and the leaves are changing, it's time to bring back the blog!

I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on how much our chapter grew last year and how bright our future looks. Last year, we had some amazing accomplishments. We won Chapter of the Year, first place in Miss Greek, second place in Greek Week, first place in Pumpkin Smash, and third place in Derby Days. Thanks to Cristina Pellizzon, we tripled the size of Diamond Days and just hosted our very first Nacho Night, making this year the most successful yet in terms of philanthropy. We said goodbye to some loyal seniors, and we've welcomed a diverse and excited new pledge class. We have had more women involved in something outside of Alpha Chi than ever before, and we have Alpha Chis in leadership positions all over campus and in the community. We clocked hundreds of hours of community service, and we've made a positive name for ourselves on campus and throughout Eugene. We've all grown as individuals this past year, but what I think we often fail to recognize is that we've all been growing together. We're never alone in our endeavors. We've supported each other through challenges. We've stayed strong through the hardships. When one of us succeeds, it's a success for all of us. But most importantly, we've grown as a sisterhood, and we've grown as a chapter. We have reinvented ourselves this past year as a united front, as a force to be reckoned with. Our bond is stronger than ever, and our symphony is ringing true throughout our house.

I want us all to be able to recognize what a special thing Alpha Chi Omega is. Alpha Chi means something different to all of us, but at the end of the day we are sisters, and we are in this crazy thing called life together. We deserved that big Chapter of the Year award because we showed the entire Greek community what it means to be a sorority woman and what it means to be a part of a sisterhood. We have an unbelievable foundation to build off of this year. I hope that we can take everything that we learned and accomplished last year and leave a permanent impact on our chapter that will continue to grow and develop when we're long gone.

I am proud to call you all sisters, and I am looking forward to seeing where we can all go together this year.

LITB,

Chrissy