Alex Bretz, Natalie Alexander, and Kayla Scott's Spring Break Service Trips

This past Spring Break while many of us relaxed, traveled, and spent time with sisters, Alex Bretz, Natalie Alexander, and Kayla Scott chose to spend their spring breaks giving back to those less fortunate on service trips!  Alex traveled to Cusco, Peru and Natalie and Kayla traveled to El Salvador.

Alex is a member of Medlife at FSU and throughout the year was able to raise $1,000 to go on her trip to Cusco, Peru.  This funded primary medical services as there are many in Cusco who lack access to quality health care.  For three days, she got the chance to help run the mobile clinics and shadow physicians.  In addition, Medlife also has a Healthy Homes project and Alex was able to help out with this by installing new stoves and refurbishing rooms in a community of need.  On the last day of her trip, Alex even got to visit Machu Picchu!


















Natalie and Kayla traveled to El Salvador on a mission trip where they were able to share their faith and make a difference in the community.  They worked with an organization called Filters of Hope to install water filters around the community.  Around 98% of the water is contaminated so these filters will really make a positive difference in these peoples lives!  During this time they were also able to share their faith with many locals!  On the last day of the trip, they even got to hike a volcano!











We are so proud of Alex, Natalie and Kayla for spending their spring breaks helping those less fortunate and are so glad they had successful and safe trips!

Alpha Chi Omega Exceeds Goal at Dance Marathon 2018

Each year many of our sisters participate in Dance Marathon at FSU, an event where dancers stand for 20 hours to raise money for Children's Miracle Network hospitals as well as the FSU College of Medicine.  There are fundraising events year round and this year FSU aimed to raise $2 million for the kids, something we had never done before.  Not only did the FSU community meet this goal, we exceeded it by raising a total of $2,152,382.19!



In addition to FSU exceeding it's largest ever fundraising goal, we also exceeded our fundraising goal as a chapter!  Our goal was to raise $50,000 and we ended up raising $50,484.54!

This year, FSU decided that it was "#Up2Us to create more miracles for the kids" and they did just that by exceeding their fundraising goal!  Special shoutout to our Dance Marathon delegate, Ale Gonzales and assistant delegate Kailie Rush for all you have done for our chapter!

A big thank you to all sisters who participated and all donors!  None of this would have been possible without you!

A Successful Pizza Pie with Alpha Chi 2018!

Last night we hosted our annual event "Pizza Pie with Alpha Chi" benefiting the local Refuge House as well as the Alpha Chi Omega Foundation.  We had such a blast spending time with our sisters and the FSU community!



We are so excited to have raised awareness about this issue to the FSU community as well as over $6,000 for the victims of domestic violence!  A special thank you to our VP Philanthropy Lia Alveraz for planning the event and all of the sisters who helped make it run smoothly!

Courtney Simoncelli: Entrepreneurship Student and SmartSnax Founder

Courtney Simoncelli is a junior in the new Jim Moran School of Entrepreneurship here at Florida State who has a passion for healthy eating.  She recently launched her own business called Smartsnax, which is a healthy snack box subscription service filled with a variety of yummy snacks every month free of gluten, soy dairy and GMO's!

Courtney loves that in the Entrepreneurship program, students don't just get to learn about how to effectively start and run a company, they get the hands-on experience of starting their own company as well!

While many of us try our hardest to adapt to a healthy lifestyle, Courtney also has a personal connection to healthy eating.  Due to her stage IV endometriosis, she is required to eat a very restricted non-inflammatory diet.  This is where her inspiration for SmartSnax comes from.  In her search to find delicious foods that fit her diet, she found many foods that she wanted to share with everyone, and thus SmartSnax was born!

Eating healthy in college can be hard, but SmartSnax is the perfect solution!  The snacks in each box are super tasty, easy to eat on the go, and affordable for anyone of a college budget!  For parents, this is a great way to make sure your college kid has a variety of healthy snacks every month!

To order SmartSnax, visit https://www.smartsnaxboxes.com and enter the code "TALLAHASSEE" at checkout to receive free shipping anywhere in the Tallahassee area.  SmartSnax also ships anywhere in the U.S.

Way to go Courtney, we can't wait to see your business grow!

AXO takes FTKolor!

Last week many of our sisters participated in FTKolor, an exciting fundraising event in preparation for the 40-hour long Dance Marathon in March.  For a donation, participants were given white t-shirts that they were able to decorate with over 1,000 pounds of glow in the dark paint!  If you've ever heard of the color run, it is sort of like that but without the run!         


It was a great night full of fun, friends, food and great music!  We love seeing so much passion and enthusiasm for such a great cause and can't wait for 20 hours of nonstop dancing at the marathon!  Way to go girls, FTK!

   



    

Alumna Sara Zeng - Miss Florida

Sara Zeng, a recent alumna from the Beta Eta chapter, will take the stage tomorrow night to compete in the Miss America pageant as Miss Florida. The pageant will be aired on ABC at 9 pm Eastern Time on Sunday, September 10th.

Sara was a new member in Fall 2013 and graduated from Florida State last spring semester. She has a passion for playing the piano, which also doubles as her talent for the competition. Outside of Alpha Chi Omega, Sara was highly involved within FSU's College of Music.

Beta Eta is sending you all of our love from Tallahassee, Florida this week! Alpha Chi Omega could not be more proud of how you represent our sisterhood.

Sara's graduation from FSU

Sara after winning the preliminary swimsuit competition at Miss America

Bid Day 2017!

We are so excited to have welcomed home 91 beautiful new members into our chapter this past Sunday! Florida State University hosts one of the largest recruitments in the nation with over 2,000 total women participating. 

After a long recruitment week, all of our hard work paid off to see 91 new smiling faces accept their bids to Alpha Chi. Some of our favorite memories have been created at this house and we look forward to sharing our sisterhood with you all!

To our 8 Rho Gammas, we are so happy to have you back. Welcome home, again!

A huge thank you to Sean DaSilva for capturing all of the excitement on bid day! Photos can be found here: https://goo.gl/photos/eVYtTBokqnZ4Yhzz9 

Sister Spotlight

Ashley Muliak, a transfer student from Birmingham-Southern College, began her journey at Florida State in Fall of 2016. Besides studying Finance and being a sister of Alpha Chi Omega, Ashley owns and operates her very own photography company—Gray Style Productions.

Ashley with her goldendoodle puppy Millie

Ashley began seriously pursuing photography after a shoulder injury ended her college softball career at BSC. Ashley noted this injury as a "blessing in disguise" because she was finally able to focus her time and energy into developing her photography company.

Gray Style Productions specializes in senior photoshoots, portraits, and music group photography. Her favorite types of photography sessions? Test shoots for modeling agencies. Not only does she get to photograph her clients; Ashley gets to come up with the style, location, and overall concept of the shoot. She loves being able to get creative with her work and capture her clients' personalities in the process.

Alina Echemendia, and Alpha Chi Omega sister, even had the opportunity to work with Ashley for a portrait photoshoot (Credit: graystyleproductions.org).

We continue to be amazed by Ashley's passion for photography & her pure talent within the industry. As for her company's future, Ashley is looking at possibly expanding her business to include wedding photography. We are extremely excited to see where her hard work takes her!

#AXOalumnae: Where are they now #WhyAlphaChiWednesday #WomanCrushWednesday #axoyoungalums

These sisters fulfilled their expectations:  Abigail is in FSU medical school, Lisa is headed to Ross Vet School,
Kelly is in UF medical school!

Cassy (AXO legacy) just received her Dr. Aud. at USA and Katherine flies for American Airlines (see below)

Dr. Sarah Cooper Smith and Dr. Katie Morgan graduates of FSU medical school!

Congratulations Seniors!

Our seniors are busy finishing up their last college finals this week. In just a few short days, they will be walking across the stage to receive their college diplomas. The Beta Eta chapter has 61 graduating seniors and we could not be any more proud of them! These women have left their mark on our campus, our chapter, and definitely our hearts. 

While it's never easy saying goodbye, we are extremely excited for our graduates to take on their futures outside of Florida State's campus. Always stay true to yourselves and keep seeking new heights! The house with the little red doors will always be your home. 

We love you endlessly, Class of 2017!

"May our future be as happy as we were here" -Unknown

More Than Spring "Break"

While many sisters spent their spring break relaxing at home or traveling to beaches near and far, a few sisters spent their week-long break volunteering out of the country.

Sisters, Mackenzie Hall and Carly Roman (also big and little), traveled together to Ecuador to participate in MEDLIFE's medical mission trip. While in Ecuador, they helped rural communities receive critical access to health care. They also helped build a staircase that allowed the community in Riobamba, Ecuador to receive important resources, such as electricity. Despite long days of work, they were still able to explore Ecuador and see mountains, volcanoes, and waterfalls nearby. Carly stated that "the area was absolutely beautiful and so was the experience". Several other colleges across the United States, including USC and Ohio State, also participated in this particular mission trip.

Shannon Nichols, a Communications Science & Disorders major, flew to Guatemala to spend her spring break working with hearing-impaired locals in the area. Alongside fellow classmates and professors within her major, she helped perform 200 hearing tests, allocated 55 hearing aids, and even assisted in constructing a home for a single-mother in Panajachel, Guatemala. Shannon felt that this trip gave her a whole new perspective on the world and reaffirmed her passion for her major. She said that this trip "made me realize that my future profession will truly make a difference in people's quality of life".

These three women are just a few of the many sisters in our chapter that have an undying passion to help others. We are all extremely proud of your selflessness and the life-changing impacts you have made on people all across the world. We hope that one day, we will all be able to make as big of an impact on the world as you three have!