cmu kappa alpha theta newsletter fall 2013

Kappa Alpha Theta Newsletter

Issue 2: Fall 2013

1

This November, our sisters

hosted over 100 people from the

Carnegie Mellon community at our

house to enjoy performances by local

talent. The event featured performances

by several of our own sisters as well,

including Jackie Ross, Erin Persson, and

Becky Greubel! Local vendors donated

coffee and baked goods, which were

served at the event. We also had our

In This Issue:

CASA Coffeehouse: Hear about all the talented people who came out to perform for a good cause.

pg. 1

GreekFest: Learn all about how Thetas took charge at the first annual GreekFest!

pg. 2

Think Theta: CMU’s chapter of Theta had a phenomenal recruitment this year. Get all the inside details.

pg. 3

Sisterhood: Get caught up with all the fun events the sisters did this past semester to relax!

pg. 5

Zumba for CASA: Check out how the most fun philanthropy of the semester turned out.

pg. 6

2

sisters make baked goods that were

sold at the event! This event was a

great success! We were able to

make a value contribution to CASA

and Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation,

and we all had a great afternoon

hanging out and watching the

performances.

CASA Coffeehouse By Jaclyn Ross

2 Gamma Theta Chapter- Carnegie Mellon University

Kappa Alpha Theta Newsletter Issue 2: Fall 2013

1

This past year, there were

three Thetas on the Greek Week

committee: myself, Sammy Sanstrom,

and Annette Ritchie. The committee

started meeting weekly during the

last spring semester, when it was still

considered Greek Week. I was the

head of Field Day, Sammy was part of

the All Greek Barbeque, and Annette

was part of Bail Out group. By the

time it was summer, each individual

event and day for Greek Week was

planned, booked, and organized.

The last few things left on our agenda

were buying the materials needed.

Everything changed when we came

back from summer vacation. Our first

meeting of the fall semester was

starting new, we the committee used

it as a brainstorming session for a

2

new, non-competitive, less time-

consuming Greek activity. After

three weeks of brainstorming and

budgeting, we arrived at GreekFest.

We decided that the Greek

community already had enough

competition and that it would be a

nice change to just have an all-Greek

event without any competitive

aspect. We wanted the community to

come together and enjoy themselves

as one whole community and not a

divided community. With the event

change, our roles on the committee

changed as well. I became the head

of Entertainment, meaning that I was

in charge of ideas, pricing, and other

things like that. In the end, we

decided on henna tattoos and an

obstacle course. Sammy’s group

3

stayed the same, since we still had a

barbeque at GreekFest. Sammy took

charge of the grilling herself, and

grilled for the entire event. Annette’s

role changed completely; initially,

she was a member of the Bail Out

team, but was changed to the World

Record Team. I, as well as the other

heads of the GreekFest committee

wer very impressed when Annette

stepped up as the leader of her

group. Annette organized tug-of-war

and thumb war, record breaking

activities, as well as set up possible

sponsorships and ideas for next

year’s GreekFest. Overall, I think we

enjoyed working as a part of the

GreekFest committee and bringing a

new tradition to our Greek

community.

12

The sisters of CMU’s Kappa Alpha Theta get ready for the third day of recruitment!

GreekFest By Sarah Narburgh



Think Theta: FMR Vivian Chang

1

Recruitment is one of the most

stressful experiences yet it is

tremendously rewarding and fulfilling.

The mood of the women in the sorority

is like a big roller coaster ride during

recruitment. On the first night everyone

is super excited and then come

preference night, complete exhaustion

falls over. But then bid night comes. All

of a sudden, like magic, every one has

regained their energy and goes

absolutely insane screaming to

welcome all the new members into the

Theta family. And that itself – bid night, (continued)

2

makes recruitment all worth it!

The Gamma Theta chapter

this year had an incredibly

successful recruitment. We had an

overall retention rate of 90%!

Although a lot of aspects go into

determining a great recruitment, a

main contributor to our success was

our careful planning and

implementation of our themed

parties.



Below: We welcome home our

24 beautiful new sisters! Couldn’t have asked for a

more perfect pledge class!

3

Here’s a little breakdown

of each parties’ description. The

first night of FMR the theme was

“lemonade stand.” The

decorations included cute

triangle flag cutouts, streamers,

and mason jars filled with fresh

lemon and limes. The second

night of FMR the theme was

“vintage tea party.” We had

baby’s breath flowers, assorted

stacked teacups, and cake

stands as decorations. The

highlight of the second night

was our assorted candy bar,

which included malted milk

balls, chocolate covered

pretzels, chocolate covered

nuts, and much more! The most

memorable night of FMR was the

3rd night with the theme being

“shabby chic.” The colors were

cream and gold with red

accents. There were beautiful

cream, gold, and burlap

patterned table runners, white

and gold china, gold painted

mason jars filled with red

flowers, and giant KAT letters

covered in red paper flowers.

We served fancy grilled

cheeses and had lemon pudding

and chocolate mousse as

dessert. Third party was

definitely a stunner! Lastly on

4

preference night, the theme was

the Great Gatsby, so we had

decorative pearls, feathers, and

satin covered high tops. The

color combinations were gold

and black with burgundy

accents. We had an extravagant

chocolate fountain, savory

crepes, and a sweet crepe bar.

All of the PNMs were thoroughly

impressed!

The amount of hard work,

effort, and heart the whole house

put into this recruitment is

indescribable and amazing. From

the amazingly themed parties,

delicious food, to bid night it was

truly such an enjoyable

experience and successful FMR.



Sisterhood By Gabriela Pascuzzi

5

This semester's sisterhood

events brought us together with all

our sisters' favorite thing... food! We

had a delicious fall food and game

night: sisters snacked on caramel

apples, brie and pie while we played

a Big/Little version of the

"Newlyweds" and saw how close

Big/Little pairs really are. We had a

wonderful Theta Thanksgiving on

Theta Thursday so that we could

celebrate the holiday with our

sisters. We also participated in a

Secret Santa holiday card exchange.

The highlight of the semester

though, was our new tradition of

Cupcake Wars! Every year, family

lines get together to compete to

create the best cupcakes. This year's

theme was Superheroes. Families'

cupcakes were judged on taste,

presentation, and creativity.

The Turtle and Whale family

teamed up to create the winning

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

cupcakes: they had cake pops,

espresso cupcakes, and even

interpreted the TMNT's favorite food,

pizza, into a cupcake! The Dino

family took a close second with their

Hulk cupcakes, complete with a

6

Brooklyn bridge display and giant

Hulk. The fish family took third place

with their chocolate Catwoman

cupcakes. Families also got points

for making extra cupcakes so that

we could use them at CASA

Coffeehouse the next day to promote

the CASA Superhero Run. Amid all

the craziness of school, it's nice to

take a break for some laidback

sisterhood events and remind

ourselves of the reason we all love

Theta so much...sisterhood.

Kappa Alpha Theta Newsletter

Issue 2: Fall 2013

This September, the ladies of Kappa Alpha

Theta Gamma Theta chapter hosted one of our favorite

philanthropy events! Zumba for CASA featured two

local Zumba instructors from Zumba Fitness. The

instructors taught an hour and a half Zumba class to all

who attended the event. Our very talented sister,

Caitlin Jones, also made an appearance as a guest

instructor! The event was a blast, and the proceeds

were donated to CASA and Kappa Alpha Theta

Foundation.

Kappa Alpha Theta 1077 Morewood Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Zumba for CASA By Jaclyn Ross

cmu kappa alpha theta newsletter fall 2013

Documents

greek community

allgreek event

greek week committee

event change

greek barbeque

individual event

entire event

greekfest committee