Texas Eta (Pi Beta Phi at Texas A&M) Angel News

Finally, we will end our world tour with PC ’09 member and Junior Engineering major Katie Wright (pictured above on the far left). Katie studied abroad this past semester in Wales, England! While there, Katie stayed in an apartment with a mix of students who were studying abroad as well as local students too, allowing her to get an inside look on the city. Katie spent the weekends travelling to different places throughout Europe and even saw the Queen at Westminster Abbey (celeb status!). We miss you Katie and can’t wait to hear more about your adventures once you are back in the United States!

We wish safe travels back to all of our lovely Pi Phis who studied abroad all across the WORLD this semester! We miss you all and are looking forward to seeing more pictures and hearing about all that you did while you were away! PPL&ours!

Up next is PC ’09 member and Junior Ashlyn Thompson! Ashlyn has been studying abroad through a program called Semester at Sea, which is essentially a 3 1/2 month voyage on a ship circumnavigating the world and stopping along the way in different places like South America, Africa, and Asia. Ashlyn chose to take this trip to grow as an individual and broaden her horizons in addition to getting to visit a lot of cool places that she may never have made it to otherwise. While at sea, they obviously live on the ship which has been renovated to be like a floating campus complete with classrooms. She says that she “has loved all of our ports of call for different reasons but if pressed to choose a favorite I’d have to say Africa (Ghana and South Africa) and China (Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai).” We miss you Ashlyn and can’t wait for you to port back in home sweet home College Station! Sending you lots of Pi Phi LOVE!

Next, we move to Italy with PC ’09 member Christine Benson! Christine is a Junior Education major who studied abroad this semester in Castilgion Fiorentino, Italy, which is about an hour from Florence. Because Christine had finished all her classes during the first half of the semester, she spent her time in Italy teaching English to Italian middle schoolers using the lesson plans she created in her classes along with a few other Texas A&M students. While there she stayed in a dorm at Santa Chiara, which actually used to be a monastery. Christine has travelled to a different place nearly every weekend, but her favorite was definitely Cinque Terre, describing it as “absolutely gorgeous!” What an incredible view! We miss you Christine and can’t wait to hear more about your adventures!

The next few posts are a feature on our girls that studied abroad this semester!

We are going to start off with PC ’09 member Lauren Costin (pictured above on the left). Lauren is a Junior Visualization major who studied abroad this semester in Bonn, GERMANY! While she was there she took art and graphic design classes and lived with a host family and another A&M student, Jessica (pictured above on the right). On the weekends and breaks from school, she traveled throughout Europe and visited cities everywhere from Rome to Venice to Brussels to Luxembourg! However, her favorite place she visited throughout her stay in Germany was London! Check out her blog for more stories and pictures of Lauren’s time abroad: http://laurencostin.wordpress.com/ We missed you Lauren!

Congratulations to this year’s graduating SENIORS! A big THANKS goes out to you girls for your dedication and support throughout your 4 years in Pi Phi! Our wonderful chapter would not be the same as it is today without your hard work and love for Pi Phi. We will truly miss you all and wish you the best as you start this new stage of your lives! PPL and ours PC ‘08!

This year, the lovely ladies of Texas Eta came together to celebrate Founder’s Day with a murder mystery dinner at Messina Hof winery in Bryan, Texas! (No worries…no wine was served at this dinner!) Around thirty girls were picked to play the parts of the murder mystery characters with outlandish names like Blondie Hawn, Mag Niffe, and Cha-Cha Meringue and the rest of the girls were detectives and spent the night questioning the characters and gathering information to solve the mystery. The food was fantastic and the girls looked absolutely PHINE in their cocktail attire and masks to fit the masquerade theme. The winning table, which also happened to be where the murderer and murder victim were sitting, received a tour of the winery as their prize as well as Messina Hof button-down shirts. What a wonderful way to celebrate 145 years of Pi Phi sisterhood!

Congratulations to Meghan Reilly, who was just named COSGA Director for the 2012-2013 school year!

COSGA stands for Conference on Student Government Association. It is a four-day conference where hundreds of delegates from colleges nationwide (and even some from Mexico and the Bahamas!) come together at the Texas A&M campus to share ideas and engage in fellowship with one another. The days are filled with amazing speakers, roundtables on various aspects of Student Government, and sessions on how to start and run organizations at your own school (such as Big Event!). At night there are socials where the delegates get to know one another and form new friendships. It is truly an amazing experience for all the delegates and is so cool that Texas A&M is the host for such a prestigious conference!

Meghan has been involved with COSGA and Student Government in many ways since her freshman year at Texas A&M. We are so proud of her and excited to see how her passion for Student Government is displayed as the director of COSGA 2013. Way to go Meghan!

A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to PC ’09 member Abby White who has just been named a director for the 2012-2013 Abbott Family Leadership Conference!

For those of you who haven’t heard of AFLC before: Abbott has been a program of the Memorial Student Center at Texas A&M since 1995. Each year 70 students go through a selective application and interview process and are chosen as delegates to attend one of the two the Abbott conferences. While at the conference, students are challenged to examine and define their personal values, applying what they learn about themselves throughout their time at Texas A&M as well as later on in life, no matter the career field they intend to pursue.

Abby herself was involved with Abbott last year as a delegate to the San Antonio conference. She says of her experience, “I would definitely characterize my experience as life changing. It was so encouraging and yet humbling at the same time to be surrounded by professionals who are very successful, but have continued to hold strong to their morals in a world that often sees success and ethics as opposing forces.” Abby’s time at Abbott sparked in her a passion to continue to be involved with the conference. As a director, she will have the chance to share what she has learned, giving back to future delegates by helping them have an experience like her own. We are so proud of you Abby! 

CONGRATS to PC ‘11 members Joy Stimson and Amy Weissler (pictured left to right) who were recently accepted to Texas A&M Honors Programs! Joy has been accepted to the Business Honors program at Mays and Amy has been accepted to the University Honors program. Pi Phis really do have beauty and brains! Way to go Joy and Amy!

Each year, Pi Phi holds their formal in April with Kappa Kappa Gamma! Monmouth, as we call it, is actually a national tradition among the two sororities who both were originally founded at Monmouth College in Illinois; Pi Phi in 1867 and Kappa in 1870. We celebrate this connection each year by having a joint formal which is always one of our favorite events of the year! With a casino night theme, there was plenty to do at Monmouth this year including dancing, blackjack, poker, face painting, and a photobooth! It was definitely a memorable night!