Sisterhood Week Event!

One of my favorite events from last year’s Sisterhood Week was Karaoke Night so naturally I was Drunk in Love when I heard that it would be happening again this year. It was so much fun to see sisters Let it Go and having fun in a setting that helps to display their Beautiful Soul and lovely voices. All of their inhibitions went out the window and they were no longer trapped like a Genie in a Bottle. That’s What Makes You Beautiful when sisters can share such a special experience such as karaoke and My oh My What a Wonderful Day it was. My heart went Bidi Bidi Bom Bom with excitement and joy to see all of the sisters enjoying themselves and really giving it their all. We came in like a Wrecking Ball that night at Max Karaoke, who definitely know how to Cater 2 U, and I hope they were Counting Stars because we were one talented group and we were no Dark Horse and nor were we Unfaithful to the magic and trueness that is Karaoke. I love my sisters and I love Karaoke. Who could ask for a better night.

Western District Convention!

Surfin’ on Sound Waves

This year, in sunny, beautiful L.A., the Epsilon Kappa Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma and the Psi Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi hosted the 2014 Western District Convention. Amidst sisters and brothers, and accompanied by some perfect weather, the TBS and KKY chapters of the western district came together to discuss, vote, and grow in the magical bond that exists between our organizations. As my first district event, I couldn’t be more grateful or excited that WDC was held in L.A. and that I could participate in the election of our new district council. This was a weekend of many firsts for me--caucusing, seminars, and bonding on a district level; something I had never had the opportunity to do before. I learned so much in this short time that I know will help me become a better friend, sister, and leader.

We kicked off the start of WDC with an opening ceremony that I had never expected (in a good way), and it proceeded to turn into something I had never experienced before. There were surprises around every corner, I attended seminars taught by national TBS board members that gave me insight into my own chapter and what I could do to improve it and myself. In addition, I was able to see two wonderful sisters become honorary members of Tau Beta Sigma and be a part of their 2nd and 3rd degrees. Furthermore, there was a spectacular and powerful presentation from the “Women in Music Series” that just screamed women empowerment and made me proud to be a sister of TBS.

As the weekend came to a close, our last night was spent with our brothers and sisters coming together for a banquet, talent show (The school spirit was uncontainable!), and dance party. We danced (most of) the night away. Finally, and to all our dismay, after a prolonged night spent caucusing and discussing, we elected our new district council, voted on jurisdictional amendments, and had a bittersweet closing ceremony.

Overall, it was wonderful to interact with brothers and sisters from all over the district and to see how they do things differently from our chapter and, yet, remain just as dedicated and passionate about the ideals of Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi.

Unfortunately, WDC ended, but it was an amazing weekend spent “Surfin’ on Sound Waves”.  

Written by:

Sydney Dychiao

April 28, 2014

Reading to Kids meets Marching and Music!

Every second Saturday of the month for two hours of the morning, parents, siblings, students, and children alike gather at seven elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District to learn about cats in hats, hungry caterpillars, and mice ballerinas. For the third year in a row, the sisters and prospective candidates of Epsilon Kappa joined them for a special performance in honor of March as National Reading Month! In dedication to serving youth and exposing young audiences to the fun and joy of marching band, we traveled to Magnolia Elementary School and performed a few choice stand tunes!

The event was coordinated by EK’s Director of Service & Music, Sydney Dychiao of the Alpha Rho class. In preparation for this event, Sydney and 16 sisters combined to form a repertoire of four classic Solid Gold Sound tunes: “Sons of Westwood,” “How Far We’ve Come,” “Ow! Word Up,” and last but not least, “We Are the Mighty Bruins.” This was one of our first music events as a sorority to include one of every instrument, a feat we were incredibly proud of as a brass-limited group! Some creative switches, including our Parliamentarian Chris Torres switching from tuba to snare and Director of Sisterhood Activities Jessica Leatherman trading in her flag for some cymbals, enabled us to have the most complete instrumentation possible!

There were definitely a few special moments throughout the gig. After our first song, we had the kids learn the UCLA 8-clap with us. One girl shouted, “I learned this! I know this!” and was spot on! We also took a few minutes to introduce ourselves and all of our instruments’ unique names and sounds. (The crowd favorite was definitely the trombone, played by one of our candidates Brian Sydow!) But the best moment of the day was at the finish, when kids flooded us for pictures and one girl even handed us a note - “I like your music.”

It all brings home for me what it meant for me to join TBS more than three years ago as a freshman. And it underscores why it is so important to have music in children’s lives. I would not have made the friends and the values that I have today without having been part of music programs ever since the fourth grade. In addition to giving children an outlet of expression and a skill they will have their entire lives, reading and music are more intimately tied than we think! It is my humble opinion that music is our core language - it is read on a page, it is made up of symbols that are each attributed to a special character of sound, it follows rhythm, tempo, and patterns just as books do, and it helps us learn to listen, not only to ourselves but to each other.

(To learn more and sign up for a program near you, please visit the Reading to Kids website at <http://readingtokids.org/Home/main.php>!!!)

And with that, I leave you with two quotes about reading and music and how they make our lives better!

“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read with a child.”  

- Dr. Seuss

“Shh. Listen to the sounds that surround you. Notice the pitches, the volume, the timbre, the many lines of counterpoint. As light taught Monet to paint, the earth may be teaching you music.”

- Pete Seeger

Alyssa Lee

Alpha Omicron

March 10th, 2014

PsiEk's Flags!

Living in Los Angles, many PsiEK members have Disneyland passes and visit the park often, but there is also a growing number of brothers and sisters who have an interest in more extreme roller coasters. One weekend in January, nine brothers and sister ventured to Six Flags Magic Mountain for a day of fun and bonding. In what was a very successful day at a park that normally has two hour wait lines for a single line, we were able to ride many rides. While some brosters in attendance love roller coasters, others expanded their horizons by trying new rides. It was wonderful to experience so many different rides with brothers and sisters. The speed of Full Throttle, the belly-dropping height of Goliath, standing on Riddler’s Revenge, embracing our inner superhero on Superman, and experiencing so many things all at once on X2; every ride built upon the energy level of our group. It was a fun-filled day for the brothers and sister who went and we look forward to having the upcoming B/S events in these coming quarters.

Micah Shaw

Alpha Omicron

1/19/2014

2013 Band Camp!

Here is a little recap about what happened during band camp this past year :)

Band Camp this year was filled with some of our traditional events and some new ones as well. Since the drum line and color guard start band camp days before us we had a breakfast spread for them to show we appreciate their hard work. The Sunday before band camp we had a pizza party so freshman had an opportunity to meet some of us and people had a chance to relax and catch up before all of the craziness began. The rest of the week featured a run to Diddy Riese, an Incredibles Movie Night, and the Hemming Party. We also hosted an Ice Cream social where people got to come and hang out while enjoying some yummy sundaes. Finally, on the last day of band camp we provided the band with Otter Pops so that they could have a nice and cool treat. Overall our band camp activities were really fun and we got to know a lot of new people and enjoy each others company.

Audrey Urrutia
Alpha Omicron

Broster Time In The Kitchen

This is an event that was created by Robyn Monroe in order to encourage bonding between brothers and sisters as well as enjoy some deliciously cooked meals. I met up with Hanna Kim a fellow sister and Two Keenan and Cameron from our brother chapter in Kappa Kappa Psi. We were going to cook spinach ravioli and crescent rolls stuffed with cream cheese and parmesan as the appetizer. Thanks to Robyn’s incredible budgeting abilities, the four of us only needed to pay five dollars each in order to cover the cost of ingredients for the night. We washed our hands and then had Robyn explain to us the recipes and who would be doing each part. As all of us have varying cooking experience, certain terms and techniques were introduced to us as we need to learn them. For example, dicing the onion means to cut them into small cubes and sautéing the onion means to fry the onions over a high heat temperature for a short time or until translucent. To make the appetizers first shredded the parmesan cheese block and then mixed that in with the cream cheese. After that Cameron and Keenan proceeded to make the make the necessary if not unusual shapes out of the crescent roles for the filling to go into. After we all participated in wrapping the flailing we put the rolls in the oven for a few minutes. When they were done we took them out and then it was onto the ravioli. 
The ravioli took more time as it had three separate parts into its cooking. The first of which was to gather all of the ingredients necessary to help make the filling. After the ingredients were gathered and mixed, the mix was put into a blender and then filled to the top with spinach leaves before the blender was turned on. Once all of that was pureed it was time to start making the raviolis. This task proved to be a bit difficult as I lack fine motor control. Basically, we used the wonton wrappers (a substitute for ravioli ones) in order to put the filling into the wontons before wrapping them up. At first it looked like we would have too much filling leftover but then Hanna showed us all how to make the ravioli with just a single wonton wrapper instead of two which turned out to help balance the amount of filling we had. After that, we learned that the wraps needed to be boiled and float to the top of the pot before we could transfer them to the frying pan. Once they were fried to the right color we were able to eat them. 
On the next broster time in the kitchen, this involved myself, Keri Downs and Jorge and Thomas Lindblom from our brother chapter. This time, the menu included an eggplant humus to go with wheat thins for an appetizer and Asia Turkey burgers for the entrée. Like the time before we washed our hands before Robyn went over the recipes and asked about our prior cooking experience. As I had been to broster time in the Kitchen before I felt like a total pro this time around. The eggplant needed to be cut and cooked however before we blended it. As it was cooking we followed the recipe and Robyn made sure that we added the right amount of spices. As this was going on Keri proceeded to dice the onions while Jorge and I diced the red pepper. Thomas mean while helped with cutting the apple pieces. Next we threw the onions and peppers into the frying pan and Keri sautéed it until the onions turned translucent. Following that, Robyn took out the cream cheese and turkey meat and we put all of that into a mixing bowl where I had the satisfaction of mashing it all together. Next I proceeded to make little mini patties while Keri, Thomas and Jorge helped to cook them. This turned out to be absolutely delicious as cream cheese inside a warm burger is a taste sensation that is overwhelmingly awesome. I highly recommend this recipe to everyone and the experience of cooking with brothers and sisters was the icing on the cake.

Michael Mehlberg 

Alpha Pi

Melting Pot of Holidays

Although it is already March, I always like looking forward to (and back on) the winter holidays! This past December, Psi-EK had a great B/S event: Christmahanukwanzikah. This holiday party for everyone offered sisters and brothers an opportunity to enjoy the winter festivities together. The evening was full of food, games, gifts, and even some holiday Drum Corps watching! May and Josh—the Directors of Brotherhood/Sisterhood Relations—executed this event well, moving from activity to activity through the party. One of my favorite games of the night was “Would You Rather.” That game really taught me a lot about my sisters and brothers.

Christmahanukwanzikah is definitely one of my favorite events of the year. It is always around finals week, so life tends to be a little more hectic. However, taking a break to spend time with brothers and sisters was a great choice! The joint bond is so great—seeing everyone in a cheery holiday mood is so calming. And by the end of the night I had given and received my first holiday gift! 

Sarah Cox