Not the End of the Road, Just Another State :)

I have enjoyed traveling this past year and wouldn't trade my experiences and knowledge gained for anything. I had an amazing year and am so very thankful for the opportunity that I had to meet so many wonderful new people and to colonize at K-State. I can't believe the year is already over!

KS/MO Zeta Days

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!

Favorites About Flying:
-Watching the other planes take off and land
-Flying through the clouds
-Seeing the shadow of the plane on the clouds
-Watching the space shuttle fly through the clouds and into space!

Thank you to all of my TLC sisters for being my rock throughout our travels and to National Council/National Officers for giving me this wonderful opportunity and making this experience one that I will never forget! I can't wait to see what's in store for me in the Zeta world :)

Since the completion of my TLC year I have moved back to Ft. Myers and started working at Chico's headquarters. Thankfully, my best friend/roommate helped me get my foot in the door!

Indy 500

My 23rd

Lindsay's 23rd

Ray's Game for Father's Day

Until next time,
C

A Wonderful Wedding Weekend ♥

This past weekend was a great time to head home! The weather was beautiful and I got to see so many friends that I have missed so much.
Right when I flew into Sarasota I drove down to Ft. Myers to see friends and Troy :D It was the last day of Greek Week and I showed up right after it had been announced that ZTA won overall! It was great to see the chapter so happy and to see how close they have grown together over the past month.

After saying many hello's I snatched Troy and we headed back to Bradenton for a friend's wedding. We were invited to the Rehearsal Dinner as out-of-town guests and got to spend time with old friends and Troy got to meet a few of my high school friends! We went on a shopping spree beforehand for the perfect outfit because I didn't think his outfit was dressy enough - I was wrong, but he ended up with a great looking outfit!

After the Rehearsal Dinner we gathered back at my parent's to congratulate my best friend, Lindsay on being accepted to Graduate School at UCF!
We  had some yummy cake for Lindsay and some super duper iced cupcakes for Cait's birthday.

The next day we laid out by the pool, I got sunburnt, and then Troy and I went to the wedding. It was a breathtaking ceremony at our church, Palma Sola Presbyterian, followed by a beautiful reception at IMG - El Conquistador.

I am so glad that I was able to take a break from work to fly down and attend the wedding! It was wonderful to see Rachel and Austin so happy together, just as I know they will always be! Best wishes for your future together :)

I am back in Kansas now, missing the beautiful Florida sunshine! It's so weird to think that I am almost finished traveling! I have had a wonderful time assisting chapters across the U.S. and spending A LOT of time with Beta Upsilon! They will always hold a special place in my heart <3 I am eager to get back to Florida, get a tan, catch up with friends, move in with my roomie and find a job! It will be a bittersweet ending, that's for sure!

Until next time,
C

We'll Frolic and Play the Eskimo Way...

Dancing in a Zeta Wonderland! (And making crowns in the snow)

I wasn't able to see snow fall before the end of the first semester and was very discouraged that I wouldn't see any during my travels!

I was pleasantly surprised when I got to see it fall and play in it! :D






The ladies of Beta Upsilon are welcoming their spring class and these are a few photos from CROWN.

We were lucky that the weather had warmed up a little last week so we had a fun day at the park. There was chalk to write on the sidewalks with, bubbles galore, volleyball, four square, frisbees. We all had a blast and got to know a lot of wonderful new women!

I love that the ladies let me take a million photos of them! Hahah I always ask them to pose, but sometimes the candid ones are just as fabulous!

In order to recognize our philanthropy and share it's history, we all made keychains with pink ribbon and pink beads to hand out to the survivors at the Pink Zone women's basketball game on February 26th.

At the end of the week we gathered for a preference ceremony where the potential new sisters were able to catch a glimpse of what Zeta life is all about. It was a successful week and everyone had a lot of fun!

To sum everything up we had BID DAY! We welcomed a wonderful group of women to the sisterhood by inviting them to The Timeout Corner. It's an indoor arcade and they also have goofy golfing.

Since there were over 100 sisters there, we alternated between goofy golfing/arcading with picture frame decorating with their founder's groups. They all turned out really great!

There always seems to be something fun an exciting to look forward to here at K-State. This past weekend was the Rodeo and one of our very own sisters was a contestant for Miss Rodeo K-State! We gathered a pretty large group of sisters to come and support and we all wore our pink and cheered our loudest :D We caught the attention of the announcer and he gave us a very nice shout out!


I am definitely enjoying my time here in Kansas. It feels like a second home to me and I have become very attached to the sisters here! They are so grateful that I am able to stay with them, which makes my job so easy :)

I do miss home a lot though so I am glad that I am able to go home this weekend for my best friend's wedding! She is marrying the man of her dreams and I am so lucky that I am able to take the time off to attend and bring my own Prince Charming, Troy <3
I am also very excited to see friends and family, I have missed them so much! Keep an eye out for photos from my break!

Until next time,
C

Update! :P

Flight Mileage: 13,124
Fast Food Stops: too many.
Recruitments: 4
Colonizations: 1
Snow Sightings: small pile in South Carolina, TONS in Kansas!


Washburn University - Alpha Mu

This was a much smaller campus than I was used to at K-State. The women were just wonderful and very intelligent! We had great conversation about things that I don't usually talk about. It was refreshing to spend time with them and to be able to offer my expertise where they needed it. I assisted with Officer Training and presented new ideas to the chapter for various events that they just ate up!


One of the perks of having this job is that I get all of the breaks that the students get! I was able to go home to Florida for Thanksgiving for a whole week. I had Thanksgiving dinner with my family and then again with Troy's family... it was yummy! 
I was also home for Troy's birthday <3 After my Thanksgiving break I flew back out to K-State to help them get the hang of running chapter meetings by themselves and then I was able to go home for an entire month for the winter holidays! I spent a lot of time with friends and family, which was great because I haven't been able to see them a lot in the past few months. I even got to see family from Indiana!! 


Southwestern University - Lambda
My visit to Lambda was to help out with recruitment and I truly had a blast during my stay there. The president set me up in her room in her apartment, which I thought was the nicest thing ever! She lived in a cute little place with the kitchen and living room downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. It reminded me of my best friend's home in Maryland. I have really wanted to visit one of the chapters in Texas just because the ZTA legacy is so strong there. I am lucky that I got to visit two! Lambda is one of the earliest chapters and it was really cool to see old books and photos of the founders before they were really organized.
One of the photos is of me on one of the Pirate Bikes on campus. There are tons of them and you just ride any of them anywhere and leave them outside for the next person to take wherever they need to go! The other photo is of some of the Lambda ladies on Bid Day!


Texas State - Theta Psi 

I wasn't with this chapter for very long - I was simply there for officer transitions and to offer any assistance that the new officers may have needed. I was able to go to the EC Retreat, which was absolutely a blast! We had the usual discussions and asked all the same questions, but afterward we participated in team building exercises and those are my favorites of all time. We also played Catch Phrase at the end of the night, which could have lasted into the early morning!

Winthrop University - Theta Sigma

This chapter will always hold a special place in my heart. They have been through so much and have persevered through it all and ended up having an amazing recruitment. They are such strong individuals and have such a passion for ZTA that opened my eyes to what sisterhood truly means. It was with this chapter that I heard the news about Carisa and I truly believe that I was with them for a reason. They hardly knew me, but they were right by my side comforting me and offering anything that they could to be sure that I was going to be alright.


Kansas State University - Beta Upsilon

Back to Kansas! Oh how I love the Beta Upsilon ladies! I am so proud of their progress and all the wonderful things that they plan to do on this campus. It is just the beginning of the semester and they are ready to introduce their spring new member class :) I am working with the recruitment chair and new member educator on the basics since they have never done anything like this before! It is amazing how quickly they have caught on and understand the ins and outs of ZTA.


Until next time, 
C

God's Garden Must Be Beautiful, He Only Takes The Best!

If I die young, bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song

The sharp knife of a short life, well
I’ve had just enough time


So put on your best boys
and I'll wear my pearls


RIP Carisa, my sister <3
6-1-90 - 1-28-11

 

My beautiful Carisa, may you rest in peace. I love you so much and miss you every day. I will never forget the laughter we shared or the way you lit up a room with your fun-loving presence. You were freakin awesome and I am so glad that we were not only sisters, but that we were friends.
May your beautiful light shine down on us every day. You may be gone from this world, but you'll never be forgotten. ZLAM

Welcome Home, Beta Upsilon

"My Love will follow you, stay with you,
Zeta You're Never Alone."

Sharon and I with Beta Upsilon's charter,
which was first presented in 1931.










This past weekend has been one that I will remember for the rest of my years. It has been two months since I first arrived in Manhattan, Kansas and went searching for potential new members on K-State's beautiful campus. After three quick weeks, we had a new member class of 150+ amazing young women that were going to change my life forever. I have had the privilege of working with them since their Bid Day teaching them the history of our organization, what it means to be a Zeta Lady and how they can use this opportunity to grow into even more outstanding women than they had already proven to me.

The 69th link of Zeta Tau Alpha's chain of chapters, Beta Upsilon.





Friday and Saturday we initiated over 140 of them and also reactivated their link, the 69th in our long chain of chapters. I am so blessed to have been able to be a part of this once in a lifetime experience! We also held a banquet on Sunday for friends and family to come celebrate this momentous occasion with the National Officers that had helped with the colonization of the Beta Upsilon Chapter.

I am so proud of each and every one of the Beta Upsilon ladies and look forward to working with them in the future. They have each opened my eyes and taught me so many lessons that I could not have learned elsewhere.

Thank you, Beta Upsilon!
You will always hold a special place in my heart <3

Until next time,
C

"Sisterhood is not a destination, but a journey."

Flight Mileage: 6,007
Fast Food Stops: 50+
Recruitments: 2
Colonizations: 1

Georgia Southern - Zeta Xi

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect first visit. I learned so much from the Zeta ladies at GSU and they really set the bar high for the rest of my visits! They were so fun and welcoming and treated me as though I were royalty \^^^/ I only spent one week with Zeta Xi during recruitment, but I will never forget the memories we made, the friends I gathered and the laughter we shared!

East Carolina - Iota Rho

I was very nervous to visit ECU because one TLC from my chapter (who is amazing beyond belief) had visited the year before and one of the transfer members of my chapter came from Iota Rho so I had some big shoes to fill! I met the president at the airport and easily picked her out of the crowd with her beautiful Zeta smile and turquoise tee. We stuffed my suitcases into the car and chatted the entire way to the house like we were bff's. Little did I know at the time, we were practically the same person and she is someone that I continue to keep in touch with! When we got to the house, which is beautiful beyond belief (I am biased because I am obsessed with the Carolinas), I got a tour and met a lot of the other sisters.
During our recruitment workshop I got to get to know the chapter and learned a lot about them, but I also learned a lot about my own chapter, Kappa Tau, back home at FGCU and all of the things they had done for me. I have become content with the person that I am and pleased that I have had the opportunities, through Zeta, to grow as an individual and to further my leadership abilities into the world. I really felt like I was in the right place and that my presence at ECU had a purpose. That purpose was to help these women prepare for a new member class whose lives would be forever changed by the endless possibilities that Zeta Tau Alpha has to offer.
I spent two weeks at Iota Rho and another TLC, Brittany, met me there after one week. This made it almost impossible to leave! I had formed such strong bonds with the members and the advisors and Brittany was a familiar face that I didn't want to leave; however, my next stop was colonization at Kansas State University and I was very excited to be able to take part in the project.

K-State - Beta Upsilon

Eight out of eighteen TLC's were flown to K-State from across the United States to gather women that were interested in Zeta Tau Alpha - "The new sorority on campus." We met at McAlister's to discuss what the next two weeks would entail and listened intently to Kat explain the different events with straws, bowls and drinks (for those visual learners... me :D) We were a little shaky on the details at the end of our pow wow, but very confident in the fact that the eight of us were going to start a new chapter at K-State and it was going to be successful.
We planned for two weeks of PR where we walked around on campus and talked to the students about our recruitment events coming up and asked for help finding those women that were interested. The first week focused on the ZTA experience and was Zeta has to offer it's members and the second week was focused around Zeta's philanthropy, breast cancer awareness and education, and all of our efforts to raise funds for the cause both locally and nationally. There were many more women that showed interest than we had planned, which was very exciting because we felt a sense of accomplishment even before we got our new members!
Infoviews and recruitment followed the two weeks of PR and they were very fun! The week flew by and we introduced our entire new member class on September 16, 2010. Only one month has passed by and they are loving ZTA and getting to know one another and everything that ZTA has to offer them. We had the New Member Retreat today, which was a challenge ropes course, and we all had a blast! We are currently working on the Homecoming project with our partners FarmHouse and Kappa Sigma and we are planning for Initiation and Reactivation in another month.

In the midst of all this Zeta-ness I did get to go home to Florida for one week and visit with friends and family! My parents and Troy met me at the airport (Troy brought me the most gorgeous bouquet of red roses!) and we met my brother and his girlfriend at Outback for dinner. Troy and I went to Ft Myers the next day and hung out with friends and some of my Zeta sisters. We went to Sarasota one night and ate dinner at Troy's dad's restaurant and watched the sunset on the beach. We spent the next day in Bradenton in the backyard with my family and Lindsay just hanging out by the pool, playing cornhole and cooking out. We made s'mores at the Ben Franklin (dad's outside stove lol)! The following day was the Founder's Day Celebration for Kappa Tau in Ft Myers and I was lucky enough to have my break fall over that weekend and I was able to attend and see my chapter sisters and all of the new members!! It was an amazing week and I had so much fun <3

Although I am so far away from my friends and family in Florida, I know that I am doing great things for Zeta Tau Alpha here in Kansas and wouldn't trade my time here with the new members of Beta Upsilon for anything.

Until next time,
C