Thank You to SoundCheck

Today's post is all about thanking the wonderful SoundCheck, USC's only all male a cappella singing group on campus, for coming to perform for us at our chapter meeting last week. I know we all loved it and can't wait for you all to come back! Check out some of their performance in the short clip below. Thank you again to the talented boys of SoundCheck! 

Collegiate Leadership Conference

This past weekend, four of our officers were lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend Delta Delta Delta's National Collegiate Leadership Conference, or CLC in Dallas, Texas! Representatives were there from every single Tri Delta chapter nationwide, and even Canada. Four officers attended from every chapter including our Collegiate Chapter President, Kaitlin Laxer; Vice President of Chapter Development, Delaney Horel; New Member Educator, Courtney Mauldin; and myself (Ashley Claussen), Vice President of Public Relations. The conference was conveniently planned right near our executive office which is located in Arlington, Texas. During our time in Dallas, we each went to various education sessions, sometimes split up based on our positions and sometimes together as a whole. 

I know one of all of our favorite moments of the trip was on Saturday at our luncheon. This event celebrated Tridelta's commitment to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the amazing accomplishments and strides towards defeating childhood cancer the hospital itself has made. We are proud to say we were recognized during this event as the fourth highest contributor of philanthropic funds to St. Jude this year out of every Tridelta chapter! 

Additionally, this year alone, Delta Delta Delta as a whole raised 4.2 million dollars, all for St. Jude. We also learned that out of all the money that each and every Panhellenic organization in the nation donates to their philanthropy, Delta Delta Delta alone makes up for a phenomenal 25% of it. This means that a quarter of Panhellenic funds everywhere are coming directly from us to St. Jude Children's Research hospital. Personally, that moment was one of my proudest as a Tridelta. 

We are so thankful for the opportunity we were given to attend this event to learn so much more about our sisters, executive office, and what it really means to be a part of Delta Delta Delta. We loved our fantastic vacation to Dallas and can't wait to share all everything we learned with our sisters back home!

Stars and Crescents Formal 2013

Friday night, our chapter hosted the annual Stars and Crescents Formal, one of our favorite functions of the semester! This year, the event was held at the local Columbia Museum of Art. Tri Deltas danced the night away with all of their sisters and dates, and I know we all felt especially lucky to have the seniors there as it was their final Stars and Crescents Formal. The band was incredible and thank you again to the beautiful Stephanie Brown, our social chair, for planning another event that never disappoints. Delta Love! 

Deltas at the Bowl

Some of our sisters were lucky enough to make a trip to New Orleans for this year's Super Bowl! Mostly jealous she got to witness Beyonce's life changing performance, I asked freshman Sydnee Lasky about her amazing experience with her newfound sisters. 

"For the first time since 2001, the Baltimore Ravens made it to the Superbowl. Being a Ravens fan for my whole life, there was no way I wouldn’t be there to support my team! Luckily, I had three Tri Delta sisters, Nancy, Rixey and Sheridan, who also couldn’t imagine missing the big day, so we jumped in the car and made the journey to New Orleans. Walking down Bourbon Street, you would have sworn it was Baltimore. Waves of purple flooded the streets. When the big day finally came around, it really felt like a Ravens nation. Side by side with my sisters and hundreds of other ravens fans, we watched the game confident that winning the game would be inevitable. After watching Beyoncé’s fierce dance during the halftime show, we were ready for the second half to come to watch the ravens bring home a victory. As the power went out, people went into a panic. Would the ravens lose momentum? And as the power came back on, the San Francisco 49ers were ready to make there come back. As expected, the Ravens continued to play as though nothing happened, and after a long and exciting game, they finally did bring home a win. Being at this game made me proud to be from Maryland, and I was thankful to get to share this experience with my sisters."

Thank you to Sydnee for telling us about your exciting trip and representing our chapter of Tri Delta in such a positive light at one of the country's largest events. Stay tuned for an upcoming post about our incredible Stars and Crescents formal last night!

Girls' Night Out

This week, the women of Delta Delta Delta were extended an invitation to attend the University of South Carolina’s very own “Girls’ Night Out” event! This campus-wide anticipated event is led by the wonderful Marian Jordan, founder of Redeemed Girls Ministries and author of “Sex and the City Uncovered”, “The List”, “The Girlfriends Guidebook”, and many more highly praised books. Marian is a dynamic speaker who focuses on how to deal with the dilemmas that every girl in today’s society faces.

At the event, Marian focused on the importance of “hope”. Often times as college students, our plans don’t go exactly as planned. In her book, “The List”, Marian says, “Whenever hope is misplaced, disappointment soon follows.” She encouraged us to remain hopeful, even when things don’t happen as we had once expected them to. Check out the picture below of some of our sisters who met Marian after the event!

The event was packed! We are proud to say our chapter had over seventy-five of our sisters in attendance and each of us was left feeling inspired from the experience. Girls’ Night Out was a great opportunity to step away from the hectic days of college life and bond with our sisters.

We owe a big thank you to one of our incredible sisters, Lauren Stitzlein, for putting on Girls’ Night Out! Thank you also to all of our sisters who helped out at the event, and to Elizabeth Safrit for coming out to the event and writing this post! Until next time, Delta Love!

Fall New Member Retreat

Hi everyone! When we held our annual Fall New Member Retreat, The Delta Diaries had not yet even been created. This is a really fond tradition of ours here in the Alpha Lambda chapter so I felt as though it still needed to be shared with all our dear alumnae, families, and every valued Delta Diaries reader. The New Member Retreat is planned by our New Member Educator and her assistant, at the time the charming duo of Ellen Fox and Camille Fishback, respectively. (Ellen, who is currently in London studying abroad is being missed like crazy! Stay tuned for a future post about her adventures overseas.) It is held for our entire brand new pledge class shortly after recruitment and is such a valued experience for Trideltas nationally. This year, the retreat was offsite, held in a mountain cabin big enough to house our entire new pledge class that is over one hundred beautiful new members.

They spent the weekend bonding with their newfound sisters and experiencing Tridelta traditions that have been passed down from chapter to chapter for years. 

I am especially excited for this post today as we are proud to share with everyone our first Delta Diaries video! The video was produced by our very own Lauren Stitzlein, who has contributed so much to this chapter over her years in Delta Delta Delta. Thank you to her for creating this amazing video so our memories from pledge retreat can be relived and cherished.  Delta love and all of mine. Here's the link, Enjoy!

Developing Deltas Workshop

Thank you to the beautiful Delaney Horel for leading our first ever "Developing Deltas" workshop this Sunday. As our Vice President of Chapter Development, our chapter looks to her as an embodiment of our values. Let's see what she has to say about it!

"The workshop was focused on the power of goal setting. We opened up the session by talking about our Purpose and the ways in which Tri Delta exists to develop a stronger and more womanly character for her members while also broadening their moral and intellectual life. Our sisters then did a reflection activity about their future retirement dinner. We all shared how we wanted the people in our life to remember us after we accomplished everything we wanted in our lives. This led in to talking about why we set goals and how we set effective goals using the SMART method: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely goals. Perhaps the most effective time was spent talking about our chapter and areas we wanted to see us improve. We closed up the session by writing one personal goal and one chapter goal on Post-It notes that we then displayed on poster boards that have been hung up in the house as a reminder of our words!"

Thanks again Delaney, we are lucky to have resources like this provided to us and can't wait for the next Developing Deltas workshop!

Greek Impact- January

The Alpha Lambda chapter of Tri Delta is always excited to participate in Greek Village-wide events! This week we were looking forward to joining in at the first Greek Impact of the semester; a student-led Christian community for Greek students at the University of South Carolina. A different sorority or fraternity hosts the meeting each month; this month, Delta Zeta opened its doors to us.

This week, the theme was “Duck Dynasty”. We had so much fun getting decked out in our camo-gear and learning how to create a legacy for ourselves.

The Alpha Lambda chapter of Tri Delta is also proud to offer bible study each week in our house. This weekly meeting strengthens our bonds as sisters and helps us stayed focused on what matters the most! 

Thanks to our valued sister Elizabeth Safrit for attending Greek Impact this week, taking some photos, and writing this post! Delta Love!