From a chickadee: Shruthi

To all our potential Zetas, if you’re looking for a warm, welcoming organization to call home, you’ve come to the right place.

Chi Kappa Phi Service Society was founded upon a collective love for service and willingness to support our fellow Chickadees, longhorns, and members of the Austin community. Our members are diverse, inspiring individuals with ambitions to change the world, passions that drive their service, and hearts of utter gold. I can honestly say that interacting and learning from my fellow Chikadees made my freshman year as fulfilling as it was.

This is because the kinds of service we do is truly genuine. It’s not always pretty like when we got down and dirty at the UT Microfarm. It’s not always easy either like when we hand washed about a 100 bowls of hardened icing at the Thinkery’s Ginger Bread House Workshop. None the less, it’s always productive and tremendously rewarding, and your first exposure to a Chickadee-esque service opportunity will be the Zeta Class Peep Project.

The Peep Project is the Chi Kappa Phi inaugural service project that will take up to six months to plan and execute. Its role is threefold:

First, the Peep Project in extremely broad terms is an on campus service event aimed to raise awareness for a philanthropy of your class’ choice. For example, the Epsilons chose to partner with Caritas of Austin, a local homeless shelter downtown. We decided to hold a succulent and bake sale right on speedway to not only raise money for Caritas but also get their name out on campus and make students and faculty more aware of the amazing work they do for the homeless community. Caritas, as well as all philanthropies involved in past Peep Projects, has become a long term partner of Chi Kappa Phi, and we volunteer with them on a regular basis.

Second, the Peep Project is a way to foster the dedication to service that already exists and brought you to our doorstep. It’s to give you an avenue to immediately start making a difference in the Austin community, which we know you’ve been itching to do since you arrived on the 40 acres. You and your fellow Peeps choose what organization you want to partner with in whatever area of service you’d like. It’s your project, and you hold the reigns.

Third, the Peep Project is a perfect opportunity for self-growth. If you haven’t had to make a professional connection with an outside organization, this is your chance to dabble in outreach! If you’ve been the one to do all the work in group projects, you’ll have to learn team work and delegating! If you’re not the most outgoing person in the world, here’s a chance to make awesome, lifelong friends with your fellow Peeps while creating something beautiful.

The Epsilon’s Peep Project benefitting Caritas of Austin did such a great job of all three of these, that I wanted to be a part of another one as your Peep Mentor. My job is to help the Zetas first collectively decide on a philanthropy and then nurture a long term partnership before facilitation the completion of the Peep Project. Essentially, I’m here to help you transition from a newly hatched Peep to a high flying Chickadee. Having just completed my own Peep Project, I have fresh experience to share, oodles of ideas to share, and tons of advice to make your project the best yet.

I hope your Peep Project is the Disney Movie of all service events. I hope it has Cinderella’s love-at-first-sight moment when you pick the perfect philanthropy to partner with. I hope there’s a Herculean I-can-go-the-distance moment as you work together and plan a successful on campus event. I hope it’s topped off with a triumphant Lion King roaring-at-the-edge-of-Pride-Rock moment with your successful Peep Project to look back on and future endeavors on the horizon.

I am so excited to get to know and work with each and every one of you because the things you will accomplish as the Zeta Class and as individual Chickadees will be awe-inspiring and will honor the reputation of Chi Kappa Phi Service Society.

Welcome home, Zetas!

Fly,
Shruthi Avantsa
2017-2018 Peep Mentor