Spring Term

Spring term started Wednesday. It is going to be a VERY fun term!! I am taking Social Psychology, College Writing II, and Public Speaking. Those subjects are my fortes, so it will be enjoyable work. I can’t wait to see how things go. My social psych professor is really funny and his lectures are very interesting. He has written articles for Newsweek, and had his work discussed in different tv-shows, so the stuff he is talking about is relevant and he knows his stuff.
I am still in Alpha Phi Omega. I got nominated and voted to be Public Relations Chair- which mainly means I advertise for all of our events. It is going to fun to decorate our club bulletin board too- right now it is really boring!
Tonight at our weekly Alpha Phi Omega chapter meeting, we talked about our plans for spring term. We are having a run-a-thon to (I think) raise money for the jail in the city. The money goes to the literacy program, which teaches classes at the jail. We also have a program at Knox that donates old textbooks to be used for teaching. Some of the students in Alpha Phi Omega go over there and teach classes as well. It’s a really cool program. We are also raising money to send several members of our group to Guatemala this summer. In Guatemala, they are going to be volunteering in communities for (I think) 6 weeks to do two things: A) teach English- the average Guatemala has very little formal education, and they have a hard time with good teachers, much less English teachers. The second things my brothers are doing over there is working to build new stoves. The ones that are primarily used in the country are (and I don’t know the specifics) open wood-burning in their homes, which is terrible for their lungs and the environment. I am really excited to send them to Guatemala; we have spent all school year fundraising to make it possible for those that can’t pay.
Alpha Phi Omega also does a book co-op. Since the bookstore’s prices are so ridiculous, and when students sell back old textbooks they get about 10% of what they paid for it, Alpha Phi Omega created a program where students bring in their old textbooks, decide how much they want to sell them for, and we put them on categorized shelves. Then, at the start of every term, students can come in, knowing what their classes are, and buy books for their classes that are used and they can get them for a fraction of the prices (a used book at the co-op might be $20, while in the bookstore it might be $80). The money that is made goes right back to the student that sold it-all 100%. So this is a non-profit program that keeps prices low for textbooks. It is a really helpful thing.
At our meeting tonight, we talked about other projects to do this term. We had $200 to do a service project of our choosing. People suggested really cool things, and I had an idea too: because Galesburg has a terrible relationship with Knox (all they hear are the bad things, and all they see are drunk students walking in the middle of the street on Friday nights), we should create a positive relationship between the Galesburg community and Alpha Phi Omega. This way, we can show a positive aspect of Knox AND Alpha Phi Omega itself, because we do SO many cool things for Galesburg (including but not limited to work at the jail, work at the elementary school reading with the kids, volunteer in preschool classrooms, walk dogs bi-weekly at the Humane Society, volunteer our time at the food pantry and women’s shelter, have ice ceram socials and Bingo nights at the senior home, and do fundraising to raise money for ALL of these places). We do so much for Galesburg that they never hear about, because many don’t know we even exist! So I thought it would be fun if we do some advertising at the community center, and (once the weather gets warm) we have a picnic where all of Alpha Phi Omega’s members go and talk to Galesburg residents that want to meet us/know more about us. Most importantly, after they meet us and learn what we are about and what we do and our place at Knox, we can find out what THEY want us to do in their community. Where do they see the need? What do they want us to spend our time and energy doing? Do they want to be involved? I just feel that if we are spending 80% of our energy doing off-campus service activities, those that are affected by our work should have a say in gets done.
ANYWAY- that was long winded!- everyone voted and my idea passed! So I am heading a committee to put this on. I’m really excited- the way this goes really defines our future relationship with the community! I can’t wait.
Another cool thing we talked about is our mascot- Frank the rubber chicken. At the end of every chapter we nominate people for “chicken”- if someone did something dumb, we say it to the chapter and we vote on who did the stupidest thing. Whoever wins has to carry Frank the Chicken around for the week. If you want, you can do something to Frank to show that you had him. In the past, people have painted Frank’s toenails, tied a ribbon around his leg, given him a “tattoo,” etc. Anyway, the last girl that had him for a week drew a Jesus fish on him (often seen on cars/bumper stickers). Many members of Alpha Phi Omega were really upset/offended. So we talked about it as a group, and had a forum discussing how we felt about the issue. Most people spoke, but the main idea was this: Knox is not affiliated with a religion, and Alpha Phi Omega is also non-demoninational. If people have to carry around a chicken that represents both their organization and them (they’re carrying it), they shouldn’t feel uncomfortable. This conversation lasted about 45 minutes, and it was really interesting to listen to both sides. End result: the Jesus Fish got turned into a sun.

So that’s all for Alpha Phi Omega. Other stuff this term? I am volunteering at a preschool for one day a week to be an assistant- help the teacher with whatever he/she needs. I am VERY excited!
Jack and I also signed up for a radio show. Knox has a really good college radio station that is nationally ranked (I think 6th in the country), and I wanted to be a part of it. Jack and I don’t know exactly what time it is going to be, but we it will be a late night slot- after 10 PM, so when people are getting ready to go to bed. So we are calling it: Hit the Sack with Kate and Jack! So people understand that it is bedtime music. Should be interesting.
I am also doing intramural dodgeball with a bunch of my really good friends. It’s a spring intramural sport, so we might practice outside. My idea for our team name: The Bodge Dallers. Get it? Think about it. Say it out loud. Play around with it. It’s funny.



Love,
Kate




p.s. Jack and I went to Boston for spring break. I'll post about it in the next couple days, with pictures.