FSU Alpha Chi Omega

This April, Florida State University hosted the first annual Park Ave Pop-up. The event had live music, food trucks, and wonderful women owed businesses!

One of the long standing traditions at the Beta Eta Chapter of Alpha Chi Omega is the mystagogue program. Members are provided opportunities to grow, lead, connect and serve and have opportunities to make connections with many sisters through the chapters mystagogue program. Starting on Bid day New member are given a bid day buddy – An, “Alpha” who meets them and welcomes them to the chapter house. Following the bid day festivities members are pulled together for a welcome meeting and chapter overview. The evening of bid day, new members and their parents/guardians receive a welcome email that addresses common questions. 

Following Bid day for the following six weeks, members are paired with a mystatgouge (“Chi”, “Omega”, Guardian”, “big” etc) strategically based on shared interests, majors, hometowns,etc. Prior to receiving a new member pairing the older sisters attended weekly trainings and signed a mystagogue contract. Each of the Mystagogue reveals comes with a fun activity and AXΩ “Swag” item. This week the MC ’23 received their Chi by looking for their pair ie:Salt found Pepper, Ying Found Yang, Barbie found Ken… The ladies also received a custom AXΩ Tervis Tumbler with AXΩ laptop sticker inside. Following the fun night, the education committee works to ensure that new members and older sisters are  engaging with each other through planned events throughout the week!

Bid day 2023 was one for the books! Thankful for our bid day chair, Kendall and VP NME, Emma, the NME committee and morale for all they did to plan and implement the plan! Memories were made! Welcome home MC ’23

Spring brought a new season for intramural sports for the chapter. Sister Karsyn, led the efforts of organizing 27 sisters who participated in four sports this semester and had a blast while doing so!!! We are already looking to get back on the court, field, lane, etc this fall…

The ladies of Alpha Chi Omega’s intramural flag football game, got back together this spring for a day of Flag “powder puff” football in Doak Campbell supporting the Ronald McDonald house (Alpha Delta Pi’s national philanthropy) The team had practices leading up to the event – being coached by Brandon W, who worked with FSU Football Team as an equipment manager during the 2023 season and the team invited Josh, a member of best buddies, to served as the teams assistant coach for the day. (The team even got the coaches shirts – have to make them official right?) Needless to say both Brandon and Josh had a blast – as did the ladies of Alpha Chi!

Leading up to the event the chapter collected pop tabs, nearly 8,000 of them!!! Why pop tabs? It’s the sweetest way (in our opinion) to support the Ronald McDonald House Charities – The chapter learned that Ronald McDonald House typically receives between $0.40 to $0.50 per pound of pop tabs. This program brings in an average of $6,000 each year to the local RM House. It takes approximately 1,128 pop tabs to equal one pound. [Member Lauren G – heard this and collected 1547 (yup she counted)]

We learned from talking to the folks from Ronald McDonald House that the Pop Tab program is important because it provides extra revenue that can help make up for the donations that families cannot make. To house one family at Ronald McDonald House Charities© is between $100-$140 per night. On average the local house asks for a $10 per night room contribution from our families, but no family is turned away based on the inability to pay. With this news – the team collected EIGHT THOUSAND pop tabs and was the #1 fundraiser for the event!!! Congratulations team way to make an impact!

We have written about Best Buddies on the blog before, Best Buddies is an international non-profit organization that focuses on forming friendships with people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as providing opportunities for leadership and jobs. Here at FSU, the organization fosters a positive environment based first and foremost on inclusion. Each month, our members participate in fun and exciting events, such as our Field Day, Talent Show, Holiday party and much more! Additionally, we host a Gala in the fall and a Friendship Walk in the spring. This is a fantastic organization to join if you are looking to meet awesome people and create life-long friendships. We are blessed as chapter to have members involved at various levels. Member Carly S, serves as Chapter President, Karsyn F, as Greek Relations Coordinator and member Megan G serves as Alpha Chi Omega’s delegate. We have sisters who are involved as buddies, event coordinators and general members!!!

This spring, Best Buddies held their annual friendship walk. The event was held at the campus intramural fields. The day had a walk, games, food and of course FUN!

Every fraternity and sorority believes in making a difference in the world, and members of the FSU Greek Community never stop giving back. Greek organizations at FSU host their own community service and philanthropic activities as well as participate in Dance Marathon, Relay or Life, and other major campus service events, devoting countless hours and millions of dollars to causes greater than themselves. We feel so blessed to have the privilege and ability to give back not just to our altruism but to be able to support greek and campus philanthropies alike. Below are some snapshots from spring 2023! You can learn more about Dance Marathon here, Best Buddies here, and Relay for Life here.

April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). As part of our chapters’ commitment we worked to support national awareness campaigns, facilitated educational opportunities, and hosted events in support of this cause!  Each week during #SAAM we had a specific focus to ensure a holistic approach to Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Throughout the month we tabled at market Wednesday on campus, learn more here

WEEK OF APRIL 3-9: RAISING AWARENESS START WITH THE HISTORY OF SAAM

Did you know that Sexual Assault Awareness Month has been recognized nationally since the early 2000s? For us to serve as the best advocates for a future free from violence, we have to understand our current realities and the past that led us to this point.

To help educate the chapter members about SAAM, Alpha Chi Omega created a 30-minute program, The History of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we facilitated this during the chapter to educate members on the history of Sexual Assault Awareness  Month and the prevalence of sexual violence in the United State

WEEK OF APRIL 10-16: SUPPORTING SURVIVORS SUPPORTING SURVIVORS

Often, people want to help survivors but might not know where to start. Whether someone in your life has disclosed a sexual assault to you or you just want to be prepared, take the time this month to learn about survivor response. We shared the above and below graphics to learn how to “TALK” about sexual violence. For those reading, we also want to share other resources available to help you navigate as you support the survivors in your life and in your community, as well. (we shared these on social and our internal forum, but we want everyone to have) You can utilize the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800-656-HOPE, online.rainn.org and rainn.org/es), which will connect you with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.

The chapter also posted affirmative graphics to show our support for  survivors and show your community that you are committed to speaking up about sexual violence.

WEEK OF APRIL 17-23: ACTION AND ADVOCACY

BYSTANDER INTERVENTION

There are many ways to take action to eradicate sexual violence, and it all starts with prevention. The only person responsible for committing sexual assault is the perpetrator, but all of us can look out for each other’s safety. The chapter worked to facilitate a conversation about bystander intervention using Alpha Chi Omega’s Challenging Bystander Behavior Program with Purpose. (see the participant worksheets we utilized below)

LEARN FROM RAINN

Alpha Chi Omega nationally is proud to be RAINN’s first national sorority partner. RAINN is the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800-656 HOPE,  online.rainn.org  , and rainn.org/es) and is a national leader in survivor support and advocacy. For those reading: Here are some ways you can get involved with RAINN and better support survivors in your community. Check out RAINN’s SAAM theme this year: Let’s Heal Together.

We also posted the above poster that Alpha Chi Omega HQ shared with us. The poster was created in partnership with Pi Kappa Phi, Sigma Nu and Zeta Tau Alpha to create the Harm Reduction Alliance educational poster for members on the importance of consent. Our hope in posting in our kitchenette was that the poster would “START A CONVERSATION ON CONSENT” – so our members can Take action by talking about consent during SAAM! We recognize that asking for consent may feel uncomfortable, however, we know it is a critical part of the conversation before initiating or participating in sexual activity with a partner.

WEEK OF APRIL 24-30: REFLECTION AND REMEMBRANCE