|
Alpha Omicron Pi was founded on a promise to serve not only one another, but the community around us as well. This is not a promise we take lightly. One of Alpha Omicron Pi’s founders, Stella George Stern Perry, once said, “We want girls who will not only take a lot of fun and happiness out of college but also put some useful service into it, who will have enough grace to be popular, enough generosity to enjoy life with others and the esteem of others, but enough character to do all this without making the slightest concession of principal or conduct.” Here in AOII, we take the service we do unto our community very seriously, knowing that together, we can leave a lasting impact. Our sisters have held steadfast to this belief, participating in many university and community opportunities to help others. We have raised awareness by donating time and resources to countless projects and organizations, on top of our own philanthropy, the Arthritis Foundation! Some of these service projects include: Peace Corps The promise to serve others stays with AOII sisters long after their collegiate years. Alumna of the Gamma Alpha chapter, Diana Belanger, is spending 27 months in Senegal, Africa as a Health Extension Volunteer with the Peace Corps!
Relay for Life Our sisters created a team and participated in Relay for Life this semester, helping the Relay for Life of George Mason University club raise over $23,230.62!  Chi Omega: Make-A-Wish Week Gamma Alpha loved supporting Wish Week and attending the events held by the Chi Kappa chapter of Chi Omega during their philanthropy week for the Make-A-Wish Foundation! Congratulations to the sisters of Chi Omega for granting a wish!  Phi Kappa Sigma Fashion Show The brothers of Phi Kappa Sigma hosted a Top Model Fashion show for their national philanthropy, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! We had four beautiful sisters participate, with two placing in the top three! Elaina Baker, who placed 2nd in the competition said, “I was excited to be able to do what I love while also benefiting a great fraternity in their efforts to raise awareness for their philanthropy!”   Pi Beta Phi: ArrowSpike Volleyball Tournament Our sisters participated in Pi Beta Phi’s volleyball tournament, ArrowSpike, as well as donating money to their national philanthropy, Read > Lead > Achieve. Homecoming George Mason University’s Homecoming this year was more than a week of full events and school spirit, as our sisters worked hard to collect money and cans! With our partners, the wonderful brothers of Kappa Sigma, our team raised and donated over 1,245 cans and food items! ZTA Think Pink Fashion Show Zeta Tau Alpha hosted their first fashion show, Think Pink Fashion Show, for their international philanthropy, Breast Cancer Education and Awareness! We are so happy to support the sisters in their great philanthropic efforts, and cannot wait to participate in the future! Our sister, Nadgeena Jerome participated in the show and said, “Modeling is a hobby, but I have a passion to help others, and if I give back while having fun, why wouldn't I do it? There is no better feeling than knowing that the time and effort you took out of your day is going towards a good cause.”  Greek Week This year, along with our partners of Kappa Alpha Order and Kappa Sigma, our team won Greek Week 2016. But more importantly, our team collected over 2,000 canned goods to donate and built an incredible shack to raise awareness for Habitat for Humanity! As entire Greek Life, we raised over $27,000! We loved being able to join forces with the Greek community in friendly competitions that went towards a good cause.
These are just a few of the causes our sisters have worked for. We protest for a brighter future, spend our weekends volunteering, and even spend the entire semester fostering puppies. Alpha women are philanthropists and believe that Alpha Love means advocating for a better world.
We will continue to exhibit our commitment to be leaders of change in our communities, and love having the opportunity to do it as a sisterhood.
0 Comments
 Throughout the week of April 3rd to April 10th, the Greek community of George Mason University came together to participate in our annual “Greek Week”. Greek Week is a fun week where the sororities and fraternities at GMU are put into teams to compete all week though various events to raise awareness and money for Habitat for Humanity. This year, our sisters at Gamma Alpha were paired with Kappa Sigma and Kappa Alpha Order fraternities. Together, we collected over 2,000 canned goods to donate, built an incredible shack, competed in swimming activities and trivia games. As an entire Greek community, we raised over 27,000!  At the end of the week every team performs a Greek Sing that goes with the Greek Week theme. This year the theme was decades, and our team was the 2010's. With the help of the gentlemen in Kappa Sigma and Kappa Alpha Order, our team won the Greek Sing competition and Greek Week overall. Our performance was a satirical take on Saturday night live, and we learned that there is "no time like the present"! It was incredibly rewarding to see that the hours spent practicing for our performance and building the shack paid off. We made history by placing first overall for the performance, as well as Greek Week.  It was a very hectic week for the Greek community; however, the memories made and bonding with the team was invaluable and rewarding. Coming together with all of the other organizations here at Mason reminded us of how much good could be done when we collaborate and work together as Greek life!   One of our main values in Alpha Omicron Pi is service. We live by the idea that we cannot better ourselves until we serve the community around us. AOII has an image of sisters lending a helping hand improving our communities with grace, and love. One of our founders, Stella George Stern Perry, said, “We wanted a society that should continue our companionship through life, and extend the like joys to others, usefully, unselfishly and without pettiness. We wanted to enshrine, sublimate and perpetuate our love and our unity through service worthy of these blessings, deserving to persist. We wanted a fraternity that should carry on the delightful fellowships and cooperations of college days into the workaday years, magnanimously, both in school and afterwards.” One of the way the Gamma Alpha chapter has been doing this is through an event called Alpha Acts of Kindness. For every Wednesday in February, the sisters have been spreading Alpha Love to the George Mason Community through random acts of kindness. First event: The first event, “Donut you Know AOII Loves GMU a Hole Lot?” was a fun kick off to the month-long service event! We handed out donut holes to the GMU community in hopes to give them something sweet for their day!  Second event: In our second event, “Kisses from AOII” was a Valentine’s Day themed kiosk where our sisters handed out Hershey’s Kisses to spread Valentines and Alpha Love!  Third event: On a cold day, our sisters passed out hot chocolate for “Warm Hands, Warm Hearts” to spread some warmth and love to our peers.  Fourth event: During our last event, our sisters handed out scantrons and motivational quotes during “Excel During Exams”. We know that the month of February is stressful with midterms and projects, so our sister passed out these to help our peers shine during this tense time.   As a sisterhood, we realize that it is so important to give back to the communities that have given so much to us. Alpha Love is many things to us: sisterhood, charity, loyalty, and family. We wished to share what Alpha Love meant to us to our peers in a simple way to spread some joy through these random acts of kindness. Earlier this month, Gamma Alpha’s very own President and Vice President of Membership and Recruitment headed down to Brentwood, Tennessee for the weekend to represent Gamma Alpha at the annual Leadership Conference. The Leadership Academy itself is a conference put on annually by Alpha Omicron Pi Fraternity. It consists of 2 full days of visiting our international headquarters and seminars focusing on learning about the culture, principles, and values of our organization all the while improving our leadership styles to most effectively lead the amazing women we call sisters.  Nicolette Davicino describes her experience as “an overwhelmingly positive one...from day 1, it was a whirlwind of interactive, engaging seminars for both the Gamma Alpha VPMR and myself as Chapter President. We were fortunate enough to hear some incredible speakers, from an established leadership coaching company that specializes in working with Greek life. I learned so much about myself, and about the organization that I am so honored to serve. I am so excited to share some of the new resources and information about our sisterhood with our chapter.” VPMR, Lizzy Spooner also describes her experience as a positive one. She stated that her experiences were invaluable as she “learned so much about the history and values of AOII and how to create meaningful connections with people in almost any situation. It was awesome to be able to share these experiences with sisters and advisers. We even got the chance to hang out with AOII's international president!”  Both Nicolette and Lizzy say that they have learned invaluable lessons there; as they learned about their individual leadership skills and other skills that are important as leaders of Alpha Omicron Pi. The sisters of Gamma Alpha are thrilled to have our president and VPMR back and cannot wait to see what is in store for our chapter moving forward!  |
RSS Feed