Sigma Kappa's Annual Sisterhood Retreat!

On February 11, the sisters of Sigma Kappa left Blacksburg for their annual Sisterhood Retreat! Every year the new and old members of Sigma Kappa go out of town for a weekend to spend time together and do some sisterly bonding!  In past years we’ve been to Charlotte, NC, Asheville, NC and Gatlinburg, TN.  This year we went to Greensboro, NC!

Sisters, old and new, got to spend time at the local outlets and malls for some much needed shopping.  We found that Greensboro has a much better shopping selection than the New River Valley!  After shopping, everyone headed to a nearby movie theater to watch a private showing of “The Vow”.  Afterwards, we ate dinner and played games in the hotel conference room. On Sunday, everyone squeezed in a little more shopping before making the two-and-a-half hour trek back to Blacksburg.  This whole trip was made possible by our fabulous Sisterhood Chair, Shelby Hoefling!  Greensboro was a blast, and everyone is looking forward to our next retreat! 

Sigma Kappa's love retreats almost as much as they love each other!

Alpha Phi says "Sisterhood is..."

Sisterhood is…BIG SIS REVEAL!! On Saturday morning, all of the families woke up bright and early to wrap their cars and hide inside them, waiting for their newest additions. At 10am, the new members were released into a sea of wrapped cars, with only a key in hand and a t-shirt on their backs. They ran around the Oak Lane parking lot trying to find their family’s car a midst horns honking and families screaming. Once the littles were finally united with their bigs (and gbigs/ggbigs), the families spent the entire day together.

Sisterhood is…APHIESTA!! That night was Aphiesta, our favorite date party of the year. It was held at 622 North and all of the families arrived together with their newest littles. We danced the night away and had an amazing time!

Sisterhood is…REGIONAL CONFERENCE!! Rewind to last weekend. Alpha Phi’s Executive Council drove out to Nashville, TN for the Southeast and South Central Regional Conference. They learned a lot about chapter management and are so excited to implement new strategies in every department of the chapter. The highlight for Exec at conference was sitting with Alpha Phi’s International President for lunch and receiving an award for Excellence in Chapter Operations and Programming!

Sister Spotlight : Lindsay Keys

As ADPi’s, we not only pride ourselves on our sisterhood but also our diversity and involvement. We have sisters with interests from Varsity Track and Field to the Make a Wish Club. We have leaders all over campus in student government and in service and sport clubs.  

Because her accomplishments and her attitude towards life, Lindsay Keys truly embodies everything we stand for as a chapter and as individual sisters.

She is dedicated to everything she is a part of and throws her heart into all her activities, whether it be ADPi events, where she holds the position of Recruitment Vice President, or SGA, where she is the Class of 2014 Secretary. She is also active in Student Alumni Associates and Intramural Sports.

“My favorite thing about ADPi is how genuine and close our sisterhood is. I have 179 women to fall back on at all times and I don't think that I could imagine my life without these beautiful women in it. They are my fun, they are my best friends, they are my support system-they really are my everything. That is what I love most about ADPi,” said Lindsay.

Besides being active in our chapter and on Virginia Tech’s campus, Lindsay symbolizes what a true ADPi is through her actions. She is truly a sister to everyone and has the ability to walk into a room and make it brighter and happier place. 

”Lindsay is a girl that is always there for her sisters. Whenever I'm having a bad day, she picks me up and blasts our favorite music while we drive down Main Street. Last semester I had a terrible case of the flu and she brought me Gatorade and sat and talked to me for hours. She is the true definition of a sister and seriously an amazing girl, she will be in my wedding,” said ADPi sister Elise Emanuele.

Lindsay is a prime example of our open motto, “We live for each other,” and we are proud to have her in our chapter!

 Lindsay and ADPi sister Liz before date Party!

Lindsay is double majoring in Apparel, Housing and Resource Management and

Communications. When asked about life after college, Lindsay replied,  “I would love to be a creative director at Marc Jacobs.”

You DDD-on't Want to Miss Big Sis Rev!

The time we all had been waiting, living, crafting, and planning for was finally here… clue week and Big Sis Reveal 2012! Clue week took place on March 6th through March 10th, and Big Sis Rev occurred the friday of the same week.  


Girls from the Beta Tau pledge class slaved over each individual basket for their littles (and twins), which grew in sheer size and content exponentially with each passing day.  Stumbling across massive amounts of gifts ranging from candy, chocolate, baked goods, magazines, spa packages, personalized mugs, letters, pass-down apparel, and stuffed animals became the norm when stepping inside the Tri Delta house. 


I personally familiarized myself with the excitement when I found out who my little was that previous Sunday night.  The entire process of giving baskets and leaving clues was exhilarating, and the anticipation leading up to Big Sis Rev was immeasurable.  When Friday rolled around and I finally revealed myself to my little, the feeling of anxiety and expectation dissolved into joy as she was greeted with open arms.  We are all so excited to continue participating in sisterhood activities and bonding with our new littles!

Our beautiful Beta Phis eagerly awaiting their bigs

Thank Goodness I'm A Kap-Kap-Kappa Kappa Gamma

Kappa welcomed 52 wonderful new women into our chapter this Bid Day 2012. After much hard work and preparation, all of our effort paid off and Kappa could not be more excited about getting to know all of the new girls!

Our recruitment chair, Rosie Jandrasits, put her heart and soul into the entire recruitment process and we could not be more proud to call her our sister. Thank you for everything, Rosie!

These past three weeks with the new girls have been full of fun activities already! From zumba classes, to Kappa Kappa Game night at the house, to weekly sister lunches, we have been able to bond with this group of women who will become the future of our chapter.

You're in for an amazing ride ladies, get ready! This is such a great time to be part of the Virginia Tech Panhellenic Community. Kappa Kappa Gamma wants to congratulate all of our beautiful new members and all of the women who accepted bids to the wonderful chapters on our campus - Welcome!

Meet Louise!

Delta Gamma proudly added 51 new extraordinary members this spring, adding assets from countless backgrounds to our already extremely diverse chapter. Although recruitment was exhausting, our chapter could not be prouder of the members that have been added and have been enjoying the endless trips to dining halls and the movies to get to know the new members.

Along with social activities, Delta Gamma was quick to incorporate our philanthropic efforts in ushering the new members in to the chapter. Beyond preparing for Delta Gamma’s yearly philanthropy, Anchorsplash, and learning about Service for Sight our new members had an opportunity to meet a distinguished member of our chapter – Louise.

Louise lives in Christiansburg and has worked with Delta Gamma for years now as pledge class after pledge class treats her to lunches, walks with her in the afternoons and assists her in her day-to-day tasks that although may seem simple, are especially difficult for Louise because she is blind. The new members recently met with Louise as a group and Louise was anything but shy as she serenaded the group with song and reminded them that although she may lecture, it comes from a place of love. This meeting with Louise is one of many that Delta Gamma has planned for the new members to have a better philanthropic understanding of our chapter.

With Anchorsplash only weeks away, we continue to work hard for another successful year for Service for Sight, consisting of memories within our chapter and an impact that will last for generations to come.  

OMG Baby Hooties!

Sigma Lambda is thrilled to welcome 52 new baby hooties to our chapter! After a long recruitment process we couldn’t be happier with the new additions to our chapter. We are so lucky to have these amazing new women to help our chapter grow.

Bid day was such a fun- filled day here at the Chi- Omega house. We had tons of food, games, and pictures being taken around the house. That day made the whole recruitment process worth it!

Since bid day we have been doing sisterhood events non-stop! Our sisterhood chair, Jill Zaricor, is on the top of her game. We have been doing zumba, D2 dinners, movie nights, and even have been tye- dying here at the house. Since the weather has been so good to us, we are planning on going hiking, and having a few cookouts here at the house. The sisters and new girls have truly made connections that will only begin to grow stronger. This is a great time to be a member of the Greek Community, and Chi Omega would like to congratulate all of the new members to their chapters.

None of this would have been possible without the hard work of our lovely recruitment chair Darlene Deacon. She worked 24/7 on making sure that recruitment ran smoothly for our chapter and we could not thank her enough.  It is all thanks to Darlene’s positive attitude that we have the beautiful babies that we do. 

Our pretty new girls with our awesome recruitment
chair, Darlene Deacon, on bid day 2012! 

Baby hooties with big smiles on bid day! 

Sisterhood Spotlight: Kelly Miles

After a long and exhausting year of planning, recruitment went off without a hitch. The days were long and planning was endless but at the end of each day, it was all completely worth it. If it weren’t for Kelly Miles, our Membership Vice President, recruitment and all that goes with it wouldn’t have been as spectacular as it was. Kelly devoted endless hours to planning, meetings, set-up, practice, workshops, etc. She put the sorority before many of her own wants and needs to make sure that Gamma Phi Beta’s first formal recruitment was a memorable one, and that it truly was. Kelly, and her team, truly demonstrated each and every one our four core values of love, labor, learning, and loyalty. All of their efforts have helped our chapter to grow in numbers and become stronger and stronger each day. They solved problems and helped each and every one of our members make sure they felt comfortable and excited for the events to come. You did a fantastic job Kelly and we couldn’t be more proud of you. We, as a chapter, thank you for your hard work and determination. A special shout out also goes to the entire recruitment team who helped Kelly pull off such a spectacular week for our chapter. 

Drafting the Best Since 1898

For the sisters of Zeta Tau Alpha, most would exclaim that it is the best time of the year! And no, we are not talking about the holiday season, we mean that Formal Recruitment 2012 has recently come to an end and every sorority has welcomed their new pledge class of 2012!  ZTA has been extremely busy with recruitment and now partaking in endless activities to welcome and get to know the wonderful new women!

On bid day this year, the new girls approached the ZTA house to find the “Team” of ZTA’s anxiously awaiting the girls we just “drafted” with this years Bid Day theme of “ZTA Drafting the Best Since 1898”.  Celebrating the newest members of the chapter everyone enjoyed fun games, great food and endless pictures celebrating the day to kick off this exciting spring season!

After spending some time at the house, ZTA traveled to the Manor to have a few more celebrations with the new pledge class! The newest girls received their “crown sisters” for the week to show them around ZTA, have dinners, movie nights, and meet their newest sisters!

Throughout the past few weeks since recruitment, the new girls have been attending weekly meetings and ZTA has been busy with pizza parties, ice cream socials, movie nights at the house, and overall enjoying this exciting time getting to know the new beautiful ZTA’s! This past Friday night, the newest pledge class had their new girl sleepover at the house! Frosty Parrot (a local frozen yogurt shop) delivered delicious frozen yogurt for the girls as they enjoyed getting to know one another! They played games, did rejuvenating face-masks, and relaxed in the Chapter room for a movie before spending the night together!

Within the next few weeks ZTA has so much to look forward to. We have been busy practicing for the much-anticipated Delta Gamma Anchorsplash talent show coming up, girls will be getting new big and little sisters, and our very first date party of 2012 is in two weeks!

Happy Spring to everyone from the sisters of ZTA and be sure to check back soon for more exciting updates!

New Members and Philanthropy at Sigma Kappa!

Welcome back to Blacksburg everyone! The women of Sigma Kappa hope you had a relaxing break and have successfully kicked off your semester!

Now that we are back, Sigma Kappa is so excited to welcome our Spring 2012 pledge class. Bid Day was a huge  “Free People” celebration and so much fun thanks to our Vice President of New Member Education, Talene Pomfret.  Getting to see so many new, extraordinary women come into our house made this day one of the most memorable for many of our sisters.  We also want to give a HUGE thank you to Kelley Sparks, our Vice President of Membership, for all of her hard work and dedication throughout the recruitment process! 

New Members of Sigma Kappa!!!

Now that we are a few weeks into the semester, Sigma Kappa has already started visiting the local nursing home, Warm Hearth Village.  Every week a group of sisters goes and plays bingo with the residents in the afternoon.  Going to see the residents makes us happy because we know how much it means to them to see younger people who can talk to them about different subjects than what they may be used to.  We go to Warm Hearth to support one of our philanthropies, which is Gerontology.  The study of aging is important to us because we all have grandparents or elderly people in our lives. We want to make sure that their quality of life is just as great as ours!

The Sigma Kappa Foundation Supports our philanthropies: Alzheimer's Disease Research, Gerontology, Inherit the Earth, and the Maine Sea Coast Mission.

I Want My Pi Beta Phi!

On bid day (which is basically like Christmas, only better), the Virginia Zeta chapter of Pi Beta Phi had 52 "baby angels", as we call them, come home to the Pi Phi house in Oak Lane! Our great room was booming with excitement as we peeked out the house windows to see the girls walking, or running to the house - I'm sure they could hear our screams before getting to the door and coming inside before they were introduced to the chapter, where they were then rushed by sisters and given big hugs and arrow signs with their names on them saying "Pi Phi <3 (insert name here)".

As each new angel came into the great room, the Pi Phi house got even more vibrant! Our MTV inspired t-shirts read "I Want My Pi Beta Phi: Pickn' the hits since 1867". Pi Phi sisters had orange shirts, and pink Pi Phi hats, and then each new girl got their lime green shirts and neon blue hats! It definitely looked old school MTV with all the neon!

Pi Phi seniors on their last bid day ever! 

We are now beginning our third week of buddies, which we call "Phi Friends" (first is "Pi Pals" then "Beta Buddies"). We are gearing up for our clue week and big sis reveal next week! It has been an amazing experience for everyone getting to know our newest pledge class of angels!

The VA Zeta chapter can't wait for our new girls to be sisters soon and learn what it means to be a Pi Phi! So many of our new girls have already signed up for our Relay for Life teams and so much more!

Spring '12 angels throwing up the arrow! --->

The First and Finest Just Got FINER!

After formal recruitment, we had 50 extraordinary women come home to Alpha Delta Pi.

Our New Pledge Class on Bid Day

This year’s Bid Day was the best yet! In the beginning, only seniors were allowed upstairs so that the majority of the chapter would be surprised when the new girls were announced! We introduced our new members to the chapter one by one and welcomed them with ADPi cheers and LOTS of hugs! We enjoyed getting to know each other over snacks before splitting up for dinner and the celebration in Burrus.

Alphas Samantha and Kate on Bid Day

We call our new girls “Alphas” as Alpha Delta Pi’s letters stand for our degrees of membership. As a new member, from bid day to initiation, we are “Alphas”, symbolizing the beginning of our journey as ADPi’s. After initiation until we graduate, we are “Deltas”, symbolizing the change in ourselves as we grow not only as sisters, but as students and women as well. After graduation, we are “Pi’s”, symbolizing how our sisterhood goes on forever. 

We adore our new Alphas, and have welcomed them into ADPi with everything from sleepovers at the house to movie nights and superbowl parties. We can’t wait for the sisterhood events that our very enthusiastic sisterhood chair, Ellis Anne, has planned for later in the semester!

Alphas at the Sleepover

This past Saturday, the Alphas were paired with their Big Diamond Sisters. It was a wonderful day for all as Deltas became Bigs and Grandbigs and Alphas became Littles. The Alphas even got their first set of letters… which they’re been rocking ever since!

ADPi's after Big/Little Reveal 

We are looking forward to an awesome semester with our new sisters and cannot wait for everyone’s philanthropies to start up. We're also incredibly excited to participate in Relay for Life, Big Event, and our spring philanthropy event, Preppy Olympics! 

Welcome Home to Alpha Chi Omega!

On January 22, 2012 the sisters of Alpha Chi Omega welcomed home 51 new members and we couldn't be more excited! Bid day was so exciting as we anxiously waited for all the new members to come running through our doors. Since then we have had so much fun getting to know everyone and having various sisterhood activities. 

(New members on Bid Day "throwing it up")

This past Wednesday, we had a sisterhood event at 310 Rosemont thanks to Kelsey Martin. We had a styling and jewelry party! It was so much fun to try on all the clothes and jewelry and then take fabulous pictures. Later that night sisters and new members participated in a self-defense class put on by another campus organization. It was so much fun getting to fight with the instructors in those big suits, and since our philanthropy supports victims of domestic violence, we thought it would be great to help raise awareness. 


This past weekend our new member educators, Christine Mihelcic and Kelsey Scherzer, along with our new members and many sisters of Alpha Chi, traveled to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to spend a weekend bonding and having fun while getting to know each other even better. The girls stayed in a huge cabin up in the mountains and went snow tubing! They also had fun wandering around downtown Gatlinburg that has tons of fun stuff to do.

(Girls hanging out on the porch in Gatlinburg, TN)

Every February, Alpha Chi Omega women celebrate the fine arts and their fine-arts heritage. Alpha Chi Omega was originally founded as a musical fraternity. This month we celebrate this fun fact by going to concerts on campus and going to see plays and other fine arts activities. It’s also a great way for us to show our support for other organizations on campus and to support sisters who are involved in the arts here at Virginia Tech.

Welcome to the Ivy League

On January 22, Alpha Phi welcomed 51 new members into the ivy league! We are so lucky to have such great girls to start of this semester with a bang. Since Bid Day, we have had a bunch of fun sisterhood activities to welcome the girls into the Eta Omicron chapter. We held a Zumba class at the house, enjoyed a D2 dinner, and even took a trip to Adventure World to go roller-skating.

This weekend Meredith Morris and Jess Bezilla, our Director of New Member Education department, hosted a new girl sleepover at the house for Spring 12 to bond even further. This is definitely every Alpha Phi’s favorite memory as a new member. The girls spent time getting to know each other by enjoying late night snacks, performing funny skits, watching House Bunny, and engaging in other bonding activities.

This past Friday, February 3, Alpha Phi celebrated National Wear Red Day in attempts to raise awareness about Cardiac Care initiatives on campus. We all took part in wearing red and Jennifer Park, Director of Philanthropy, hosted a Heart Healthy Dinner at the house that night for all the sisters. National Wear Red Day was only the start of our events for Cardiac Care awareness month. Keep an eye out for more Cardiac Care initiatives on campus throughout the month of February!