We decided to focus our February #MyJourney on a total Alpha Chi Altruism: #MacDowellMonth! Luckily, our local young alumna and Risk Management Co-Advisor, Gabi Shutt, Kappa Rho – UNCC, is so knowledgeable and passionate about the Fine Arts and all that is availble in Tallahassee. The groups broke up and talked about ways they could immerse themselves in activities. Then they celebrated their sisters’ accomplishments as members listed what groups they were involved with at FSU.
Beta Eta Attends AXO Leadership Academy
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| (L to R) Paris Thie, Gaby Panneflek, Molly Reinking and Sarah Henriksen |
Indianapolis bound! Just this past weekend, four of our executive members (Chapter President, VP Standards, VP Risk Management and VP Public Relations) attended the 3 day annual Leadership Academy workshop organized by Alpha Chi Omega headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana. The same four executive board members from almost every AXO chapter across the nation, including their advisors were in attendance; volunteers from headquarters were also present, who served as group facilitators and offered first-hand leadership advice to the newly elected officers.
The program was organized into several different events including: general leadership panels and renowned speakers, large group session meetings divided by officer position and breakout group sessions led by the facilitators. The information relayed in these events enlightened sisters on important topics like effective execution of officer duties, mental health as an individual and chapter, leading as a sister, communication skills and qualities of a great leader in a collegiate and future workplace environment.
According to our VP Public Relations officer, Sarah Henriksen, one of the many remarkable aspects of the trip was getting to discuss her individual chapter and position with officers from other AXO chapters who share the same leadership title. She said she enjoyed everyone comparing their roles in their chapters and lending advice/tips to grow together as an organization nationally, becoming stronger as a whole. Overall, Leadership Academy contributed to our executive members professional development, knowledge on a variety of useful topics and taught them how to give chapter members their own individual experience as “Real. Strong. Women.”
DVA Gala & Family Weekend!
Hello and welcome back!! We hope everyone is having a great week so far, and are so excited to share some of our experiences over the past one with you all. Just last weekend, Florida State celebrated its annual Family Weekend. Here at the 518 we joined in on the events of the weekend, along with throwing some of our own for our sisters and their families!
To kick off Family Weekend, we held our annual Domestic Violence Awareness Gala, benefiting Beta Eta’s philanthropy, with funds going to the Tallahassee Refuge House and the Alpha Chi Omega Foundation. Alpha Chi Omega’s and their families look forward to this event every year, taking part in fundraising leading up to the gala, sisters making themed gift baskets to have bids placed on them at the event, a cocktail hour with live music, a three course dinner, and speakers from the Refuge House. Beta Eta’s Refuge House Liaison, Sara Dramis, spoke at the event, getting to personally meet speakers and hand deliver them the donation raised by our sisters. Being devoted to philanthropy throughout her whole life, Sara was honored to have such a big part in this event, stating “Stories like those we hear at the DVA Gala are what make being apart of Alpha Chi so special. It touches my heart to be involved in our philanthropy and have this position.”
Following the Gala on Friday, a barbecue was held at the 518 for Alpha Chi’s and their families. After enjoying lunch at the house, sisters took their families to tailgate, watch the football game, and adventure around Tallahassee. Game days are always a great time here at Florida State, but are even more special when spent with our loved ones! To conclude the weekend, a brunch was held at Alpha Chi before our families headed out of Tallahassee. Us Alpha Chi’s were so grateful to not only engage in service during this weekend, but to have a great time with our families!
Bid Day 2019!!
It’s a party here at the 518 because the blog is BACK!!! Long time no see! Here at Alpha Chi Omega, it’s been a hectic few weeks. Following summer, our sisters came back to Tallahassee to join in on all the craziness of Polish week, Recruitment week, and of course, back to school. After a long, yet fulfilling two weeks of our sisters’ lives revolving around recruitment, we got to celebrate our amazing new member class with everyone’s favorite event, BID DAY!! Here comes our 2019 Bid Day recap:
This year, our Bid Day theme was ‘Alpha Chi State of Mind’, with the whole day consisting of fun, New York City themed activities. With the 518 decorated to the nines in city decor and the dining room full of city street food, including soft pretzels with beer cheese, apples dipped in caramel, and classic NYC thin-crust pizza, it really created an Alpha Chi state of mind. Not only did the trendy theme make bid day fun to participate in, but the main event, member class 19 running home, was so special and worth the wait. After asking some sisters about their experience with recruitment and bid day, here’s what they had to say:
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| Natalie Alexander & Ally Columbus |
Natalie Alexander (MC ’17) served as a Rho Gamma this year, helping lead a group of potential new members throughout all of recruitment week to help them in their search of finding their home here at FSU. After asking Natalie about ending one of the most rewarding weeks with bid day here at Alpha Chi, she said “I loved the opportunity to serve Panhellenic as a Rho Gamma this past year! It made my week even more special to come back to Alpha Chi with one of my amazing potential new members, Ally Columbus.”
When it comes to the planning that went into bid day and preparing to welcome home our new members, we turned to New Member Educator, Mallory Hartline, and her assistant, Jenna Cutrone. After asking Mallory about bid day, she exclaimed “It was such an honor getting to plan such a special event for all my sisters, and new sisters. It was nothing short of a day to remember!”, with Jenna stating “It was such an awesome day getting to welcome our new member class, especially as new member educator assistant. This day got me even more excited for the time I’ll be spending with our new members this semester to help integrate them into our chapter!”
Every year bid day is the perfect end to recruitment week, and a way for our chapter to show the new members how excited we are to become their sisters. This year, all our sisters here at the 518 were in an Alpha Chi state of mind, and can’t wait for all the memories to come with member class ’19!!!
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| VP NME Mallory Hartline & VP Ritual Paris Thie |
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| Audrey Contis & NME Assistant Jenna Cutrone |
"Let’s talk about it" event !!
This past Tuesday, April 9th, our Beta Eta sister, Jaylene Sosa, hosted her very own event called “Let’s talk about it”! Jaylene, having noticed that many Florida State students were unaware of the variety of resources that FSU offers to students on campus, along with the amount of students on campus struggling with mental health issues and in need of support, decided to take action and help students become aware of the helpful resources they are provided with. This inspired her to create her event “Let’s talk about it”, consisting of tabling on Landis Green from throughout the day.
At Jaylene’s table students were able to both write and read words of encouragement on poster boards, along with providing students with pamphlets from RENEW (Realizing Everyone’s Need for Emotional Wellness), Florida State’s University Counseling Center, about how to properly care for one’s mental health and how to seek out help on campus. Jaylene, being aware of these resources herself, reached out to multiple mental health organizations, including RENEW, the National Alliance on mental illness on campus and in Tallahassee, and the Out of the Darkness, a suicide awareness walk organization, in order to share their resources with students at her event. Wanting to make students more aware of the opportunities that both FSU and the Tallahassee area provide to care for mental health, Jaylene made these resources easier for students to find by handing out pamphlets and spreading information. Along with this, executive members of Out of the Darkness tabled alongside Jaylene, raising awareness about suicide and its prevention, as well as getting students to register for their walk.
During the event itself, one student in particular stuck out to Jaylene, leading her to making a connection with him. This student perused over majority of the pamphlets, taking a few for himself. The student then spoke with Jaylene, telling her what mental health meant to him and how much her efforts at the event touched him. According to Jaylene, “He didn’t seem to believe that people out there actually wanted to sit and support him, and to make sure that had access to the correct resources,” however, that is exactly what Jaylene set out to do. This interaction is what proved to Jaylene that her efforts to help were worthwhile, stating that “that meant a lot to me seeing as my reasoning for doing the event was right in front of me, fulfilling me.”
Not only is a tabling event such as this helpful to those that attend it, but to those that host it. Being aware of and caring for one’s mental health is so important, and is something we should be aware of the resources for. The stigma of not talking about mental health issues should be a thing of the past, an issue Jaylene is working to eliminate. We are so proud of Jaylene for planning this event all on her own, and caring for her fellow students. Thank you to everyone who helped our sister put on such a success!!
The BIG Event
This past weekend many of our sisters participated in the Big Event, the largest service event that Florida State takes part in. The Big Event is a day dedicated to volunteer service, consisting of different organizations being paired with various community service projects around Tallahassee in need of volunteer work, with volunteers coming from FSU, FAMU, and TCC. All volunteers for the Big Event gathered together in the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, experiencing an opening ceremony with speakers and performers before setting off for their respective service projects.
Our Beta Eta sisters were paired with Sowing Seeds Sewing Comfort Ministry, a non-profit organization dedicated to the growth and empowerment of the Tallahassee community by providing life skills. Skills taught by the ministry include sewing, culinary skills, gardening, marketing and budgeting, along with collecting and distributing food to members of the community. With the ministry currently in need of gardening supplies, yard work, and house work, our sisters set out to assist them in doing just that. Alpha Chi’s spent the day helping those that run the ministry by organizing their home and ministry supplies to make the amenities of the facility more accessible and easier for the ministry to use. They did this by doing yard work and organizing supplies around the house, along with making connections with those that make Sowing Seeds Sewing Comfort possible.
One of our volunteers, and our Community Service Chair said the work they didat the Big Event was “A great experience because we not only were able to volunteer, but also had the chance to connect with those that run the ministry about the work they do for it.” We are so thankful to have sisters dedicated to helping others, and are so proud of their participation in the Big Event 2019!!
Line Dance 2019!!
Hello & happy Sunday!
This past Thursday, March 28th, was Florida State’s annual Line Dance: Showcase of the Arts event, in which all 17 sororities competed. Leading up to the actual event, Line Dance related events were hosted all over town, consisting of Share-It-Nights at different restaurants, fraternity cook-outs, and even a Carnival on College Ave!
Alpha Chi’s Line Dance team began practicing about two to three times per week shortly after returning from winter break. Our team worked tirelessly to choreograph their dance routine and worked even harder to perfect it the week of the actual event, taking part in practice twice a day at 7 AM and 9 PM. These early mornings and late nights for our sisters showed their dedication to this cause, the chapter, and each other, being led by co-captains, Morgan Dake and Jess Stephens.
Morgan was not only one of Alpha Chi’s Line Dance captains, but was a captain for her high school dance team as well, making this year on the Line Dance team an even more nostalgic experience for her. According to Morgan, being a captain was “…at times overwhelming and stressful, but thankfully I had Jess who was the real rock of the team!!” Thank you Jess and Morgan for all your hard work in bringing our sisters together by doing something you all love.
Along with captains Morgan and Jess, sister and team member, Emily Gordon, helped to choreograph the team’s routine as well. When explaining her experience on the 2019 team, Emily said “We practiced a lot of long and early hours, but it was such a good bonding experience to go through with my sisters!” Emily went on to talk about how even more rewarding this experience was, considering it was for philanthropy, causing the funds raised from different events for Line Dance to go towards helping others. When discussing what the actual performance at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center was like, Emily stated that the entire team was extremely positive and uplifting before going on stage to perform, “giving us energy to go out and do our best.”
We are so grateful to have participated in Line Dance 2019 and for all the hard work and long hours our dedicated team members have put in over the past few months. To our team and everyone helped us along the way, THANK YOU!!! Until next year ↠
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| Jess Stephens, Emily Gordon, & Morgan Dake |
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| Alpha Chi’s Line Dance team ’19!! |
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| Emily Gordon & Tati Djordjevic |
Sisterhood at Chapter
MyJourney* Beta Eta Style!
A great time to learn from sisters and have “real talk” time!
Thanks to all the facilitators for their preparation work.
This weekend Beta Eta enjoyed so much sisterhood time: The Big Event, MyJourney, MC18 sleepover, senior brunch: Lucky sisters!
Seniors – “Measuring Experiences”: Cellina Danvers, facilitator
Juniors – “Yes I Have an Opinion”: Tegan Campbell and Rachael Williams
Sophomores – “Goals: School, Sisterhood, FSU, Personal”: Jordan Blitzer & Cameron Rotbart
Freshmen – “What You Want in Your Friends”: Victoria Cone & Ayva Oberman
MyJourney: What is it?
As Alpha Chi Omega’s four-year membership program, MyJourney connects our core values of wisdom, devotion and achievement to the life experiences collegiate members face during each academic year of their college career. This program is peer- facilitated; sisters from the chapter facilitate discussions and conversations on everything from negotiation to leadership, philanthropy to relationships, finances and more.
The curriculum is intentionally divided into freshman, sophomore, junior and senior programs, recognizing that freshman women face different life issues than senior women. MyJourney also includes “Dedication,” Alpha Chi Omega’s new member education program, which teaches all new members the history, traditions and expectations of Alpha Chi Omega membership.
-jsbh-
AXO is FTK!!!
Hello!! I hope everyone is doing well, and welcome back!
This past weekend, 44 of our amazing sisters participated in Florida State’s annual event, Dance Marathon. Not only did our sisters participate as first-time and repeat dancers, but as morale captains and Dance Marathon delegates. We are extremely proud to say that as a whole, our chapter raised over $39,300, including both generous donations from before and during the marathon. Throughout both 20 hour shifts, our sisters engaged in multiple activities, including learning a line dance, hitting the gong for every $100 they raised during the marathon, silent disco, getting to spend time dancing with their sisters, and listening to stories from the miracle families every hour. These activities and stories helped to increase dancers’ passion for this cause and keep their moral high. Speaking of morale, our sister, Jill Kirkpatrick, was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be a morale captain this year for DM, allowing her to work with a team of almost 100 fellow captains to plan and prepare activities to keep dancers’ energy high during DM. The captains did this by creating themes for dancers to dress up for and creating the line dance, along with many other activities. Jill said her main job was to “…make sure everyone was having the best time possible, especially during the late hours of the night…keeping a positive energy going through the civic center.” To sum up her experience, Jill stated “I had the opportunity to meet so many amazing people through being an internal member for DM this year and would do it again in a heartbeat!” We are so proud of you, Jill!!
All of our participants loved the experience they had at the marathon, Sara Dramis called it a humbling experience, being thankful that “Dance Marathon made standing for 20 hours feel like two” and that she was able to be surrounded be others passionate about the health and wellness other others, like Alpha Chi’s miracle child, Sage. Joanna Savino stated that “Being a first year dancer at Dance Marathon was eye opening. Listening to miracle families tell their stories was truly inspirational and something I will never forget.” We are so proud of our dancers for pushing through the marathon, and doing so passionately! Not only are we grateful for our dancers, but for our DM delegate, Abby Bolger.
Abby has worked all year long towards Dance Marathon, helping to coordinate with dancers and make arrangements for the marathon itself. Abby said that she wanted to be the delegate for Beta Eta because of how moved she was by the miracle families stories at the marathon last year. She also stated that “This entire experience has made me so proud of the entire chapter for coming together and raising money for the families that spend long days and nights in the hospital while their children are fighting for their lives. I spent a total of 40 hours standing for these families [this past marathon] and have never felt so inspired,” expressing her gratitude for this chapter, her position, and this cause. We are incredibly proud to have had so many sisters not only participate in Dance Marathon this year, but to give it their all and work so tirelessly for this cause. Thank you to everyone who dedicated their time and generously raised funds for Dance Marathon, we can’t thank you enough for making all this possible!
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| Abby Bolger, Dance Marathon Delegate ’18-’19 |
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| Garnet Shift!!! |
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| Taylor Anderson & Kate Allen |
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| Joanna Savino & Emily Gordon |
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| Hannah Zimmerly and Sara Dramis |
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| Jill Kirkpatrick & Savannah Sotomayor |
Pizza Pie with Alpha Chi ’19 !!
Hello & welcome back!!
This week has been quite the eventful one for Alpha Chi, and it’s not over just yet! With this week being Healthy Relationships Week, our sisters have been working to bring awareness to domestic violence even more than usual. This past Sunday some of our sisters made valentine’s for Meals on Wheels recipients, including veterans and individuals with disabilities or suffering from illness, while on Monday our sisters delivered cookies to other members of Greek life here at Florida State, all in honor of Healthy Relationships Week. However, the main event took place on Tuesday, February 12th, when the Beta Eta chapter of Alpha Chi Omega held their annual Pizza Pie with Alpha Chi event.
Pizza Pie with Alpha Chi is an event our sisters look forward to every year, making it even more special considering that it falls on Healthy Relationships Week. These hands don’t hurt, but instead, they serve pizza!! The proceeds from Pizza Pie go towards both the Tallahassee Refuge House and the Alpha Chi Omega Foundation, with both organizations helping to bring awareness to domestic violence and help those in need. This year our sisters raised a whopping total of $4,904 to help benefit these organizations. Not only did our sisters advertise Pizza Pie on different social media platforms during the weeks leading up to the event, but they sold over 500 tickets during the pre-sale before the actual event alone. Along with this, different organizations within Greek life at Florida State purchased over 300 tickets as a whole, helping to show their support for other members of the Greek community. Along with the money that our sisters worked to raise, we sold many tickets at the event itself, along with receiving multiple, generous donations, which we are so grateful for.
The planning and hard work that went into this event just goes to show how powerful dedication to a worthy cause can be! The success that came from Pizza Pie went beyond our expectations, personally bringing me so much joy to see the difference we are able to make, right in front of my eyes. A big shout-out goes out to our new VP of Philanthropy, Jessi Bonadurer, her philanthropy committee, the 70+ sisters that volunteered at Pizza Pie, our VP of PR & Marketing, Julianna Vargas, and our T-shirt Chair, Sabrina Loiacono, for collaborating to design such amazing shirts and advertisements for the event, and everyone else who helped to make Pizza Pie possible. Thank you all so much for helping us to bring awareness to domestic violence while celebrating Healthy Relationships Week.
All the love from the 518 !!!
*SMH*
FSU Alpha Chi Omega 