Our chapter’s fall 2012 semester began
with excitement and reunion when we welcomed back all of our sisters who were
abroad during spring 2012! Rachel Miller, Rachel O’Dell, and Kayleigh Schultz
were in Barcelona; Katie Franke, Dana Berber, Jacquelyn Lichitan, and Amy
Vitale were in Australia; Molly Bumbera and Erin McGrain spent their semester
in Rome; Erica Davis returned from London; Nicole Kozlowski was in Sevilla; and
Naomi Tesfai came back from South Africa.
Every year we have an impressive amount of girls spend their semesters
all over the world and though their experiences are never regretted, it is always beyond thrilling to have them return to us at home on College Avenue. As a reunited chapter, we eagerly jumped back
into our lives as loyal Terps and dedicated AOII sisters for an incredibly
successful fall semester.
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| Senior Molly Bumbera about to be pied at our philanthropy event. |
Philanthropy is a crucial component of Alpha Omicron Pi. This semester, all three of our main
philanthropy events were able to occur- finally! (Last semester, fate dealt an
unfortunate hand and schedule conflicts/weather got the best of us). We owe a big “thanks” to our philanthropy
chair, Amy Young, who did a fantastic job in coordinating it all for an
outstanding turnout. In October, we
hosted our Strikeout Arthritis kickball competition on Fraternity Row, cosponsored
by several other fraternities and sororities. The day was perfect with beautiful
weather, music, and food.
In November, we hosted our "AOPie in the Face" event in front of our chapter house
where brave sisters volunteered themselves to be ‘pied’ for the cause! And later that month, our spring ’12 pledge
class hosted our bi-annual Spaghetti Dinner at our chapter house. Members from all over the community came out
to enjoy all-you-can-eat spaghetti and added to our philanthropy contribution of over eight hundred dollars this semester! Thanks to help from the entire chapter and
community, we were able to give back to the Juvenile
Arthritis Foundation in an enormous way. Our new philanthropy chair Ashley Nonemaker is already strategizing how we can top this in the spring.
Another major
highlight from fall 2012 was Homecoming Week in October. This year, we were paired up with the
brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon and together we had one of our most successful
Homecoming Week’s in recent history. At the
highly-anticipated skit competition, “AOEP” took home second place in backdrop and placed second in overall skit! We all were overwhelmingly proud of our skit
chairs, painters, and everyone who participated to make it as successful as it
was. We also went on to place second in the
Olympics portion of the competition!
The week was full of energy, unity, excitement, and hard work paying
off.
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| "AOEP" at the Olympics competition, where we came in second place |
As
these past few months have drawn to a close and winter break is upon us, it is
rewarding to reflect on another incredible semester as an AOII sister at the
University of Maryland. Whether it was
winning first place in the banner competition in Sigma Chi’s Derby Day’s,
co-sponsoring the newly-colonized sorority Alpha Xi Delta’s first philanthropy
event, supporting Miles and Smiles for Michaella in memory of our sister Kayla
Libby, hosting three successful open houses, watching the talents of our own
Kayla Taitz on E’s Opening Act, enjoying the beautiful
renovations our house has received thus far, ranking third highest GPA out of all
fourteen UMD sorority chapters, or simply grabbing dinner together on Route 1,
our sisterhood continues to grow in every sense of the word. As individuals and as a unit, we are blessed to be where we are today. We are grateful to have each other and look
forward to an exciting rest of the year, and to welcoming a new pledge class
in a couple short months! Best of luck
to all our sisters who will be attending service trips or studying abroad this
break, and those who will be studying abroad for the spring 2013 semester.
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