Gamma Phi Beta

Counting down the days until we're reunited with our girl group!💃🏻 Remember to sign up for Fall Formal Recruitment!✨ #gogreek #gammaphibeta

Until forever comes you'll find us chasing the sun with our sisters!☀️ #gammaphibeta #gogreek (at Athens, Greece)

Different chapters, same sisterhood🌙💕#whygammaphiwednesday #gogammaphi #gogreek (at Alameda County Fair)

Hi! I’m Bonny and this summer I spent my first few weeks back home eating at my favorite spots and letting my brain rest by binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy (I finished season 13 this past week). The first few weeks, I tried doing all the basic attractions in Los Angeles—I went to LACMA (the one with the lights and Picassos), The Broad (has the America light display), Urth Caffé for lunch (awesome coffee and instagram-worthy food), hiking at Eaton Canyon (I fell into the river), and Harry Potter World at Universal Studios Hollywood (go Hufflepuffs). By the time I started taking my English and Physics course at a nearby community college, I was a bit relieved to not have so much free time available. Watching Meredith Grey save lives is great and all, but some stimulation to the brain is much needed after a certain amount of episodes. Once I started classes, most of my time was spent there: three hours for English, three hours for physics, and three hours for physics lab. It was pretty exhausting on top of outreaching to new UC Berkeley students on behalf of Golden Bear Orientation, helping to plan the logistics of my sorority’s recruitment, and still hanging out with old friends from home, but like any Berkeley student, anything one is passionate about is worth it. To hear new students talk about how excited they are to be apart of the UC Berkeley community, to help plan another year of recruiting amazing individuals into Gamma Phi Beta, and to reconnect with people over the summer who I know will be my lifelong friends, makes it all worth it. Even though I am currently 400 miles away from Berkeley and spend four days out of the week in school, what I can truly count on to make my summer something to become nostalgic for are my sisters from Gamma Phi, my best friends from high school, old friends from Berkeley, and new friends from Pasadena City College. They have shown me their beautiful hometown of Santa Barbara, the history of hiking trails in Los Angeles, how to “look” at art, how torque contributes to rotational motion, and how to get lost in the Chick-Fil-A sauce. Although my summer can be considered pretty ordinary in terms of a Berkeley student summer, I am sure I will miss it, because of the extraordinary people I have spent it with. I have really only experienced half of my summer so far, but I can tell this is going to be a good one.

Hey I'm Xena! This summer has been a crazy one, from beach visits with friends to video games alone, but what set this summer apart was the work I did to prepare for my future career as a fighter pilot in the Air Force. Next semester, I have to take an exam which determines whether or not I get to be a pilot, so I have been studying aeronautics and basic knowledge similar to that you would see in an SAT/ACT. I have also been training for my physical exam as well as taking care of dogs to make a little extra cash! I'm only an incoming sophomore but my career is decided in this coming year, crazy huh? It's been a busy and work-loaded summer, but I've been creative writing and painting too, as well as practicing my trumpet for the coming marching season! Oh, and sleeping. Always sleeping.

This past semester as I was making my two hour drive home, I found myself deep in thought about how the next time I was in Berkeley it was going to be different and reflecting on all the unforgettable memories I had made with my senior friends who had just graduated. Even though my mind seemed to be back in Berkeley I was looking forward to my summer adventures! Once I arrived in my small Northern California town, I would stay there for a couple weeks. After that my mom and I would hit the road heading east, the end destination being Washington D.C. where I would spend the summer with the Cal in the Capital cohort. Surprisingly this wouldn’t be the first time I made a trip across the country, it was my third! Even though I had been across the country multiple times before, I still had much to see and this trip didn’t disappoint with that. The biggest highlight of this trip was visiting Nashville, TN in Berkeley my love for country music isn’t always reciprocated, but there it was EVERYWHERE! From eating at all the local places, listening to the local bands, and learning about the legacy and history of country music I had a blast! This was just one highlight from an adventure of a lifetime. Once we arrived in D.C. a whole new adventure was about to take place. From spending one night in a different city and often a different state to going to the same place and sitting at the same desk everyday was a stark change. Part of the Cal in the Capital program is to participate in an internship during the summer. I was hired at the Institute for Educational Leadership, with their Coalition for Community Schools. I was looking forward to working with the coalition and learning about a different aspect of education I haven’t experienced previously, but nervous about the transition into office work. However, it was a seamless transition and a lot of that had to do with my experience in Panhellenic. First in D.C. I found Panhellenic connections in so many places. With my roommates, coworkers, and even coworkers wives. Having this common connection it makes conversation easy and fun. Another thing is being a sorority has taught me how to be professional in dress and in manners, I find it natural to navigate the professional landscape with the background being a Panhellenic woman has given me. My internship has provided me with a breadth of experience in the education non-profit sector. I have had the opportunity to work on projects ranging from communications, national conference planning, creating reports, advocacy, and even more! Overall I am loving my time in D.C both at my internship and exploring everything this coast has to offer! I have made sure to explore more than just D.C. going to places like Philadelphia and Charlottesville. The East Coast may have my heart for the summer, but I can’t wait to get back to Berkeley this fall. As always, Go Bears Go Greek! -Shawna Hulsey

Greetings from Athens! I’m Sierra Schiano – recent graduate from UC Berkeley, lover of ancient cultures, and member of Gamma Phi Beta. In my undergraduate years, I studied Classical Civilizations, with a focus on ancient Mediterranean art and archaeology. This summer, I’m spending 8 weeks excavating the Athenian Agora with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. It’s been an AMAZING experience, but it’s also required me to break out of my comfort zone! I was never a very athletic kid, but working at an archaeological dig requires a lot of physical exertion. I work Monday through Friday, from 7am to 2pm, with temperatures in the 80s or 90s. I also have to be very careful as I dig in order to preserve the context of each artifact. Sometimes it feels like thankless work. Like I could dig for hours and the most exciting thing I’d find is a pile of ancient bricks. However, on the days when we do find something exciting and informative, it’s an incredibly rewarding experience. The Athenian Agora has a very rich history, which means that there’s a lot of valuable material to discover, and a lot to discover from that material. For instance, over the course of the excavation, we’ve dug up all kinds of artifacts – Byzantine glazed pottery, battered Roman coins, Classical sculpture fragments, and legible marble inscriptions – and from these artifacts we can learn about the kind of people who produced them and what their lives were like. The thrill of discovery inspires me to meet the daily challenges of the excavation head on! Living in Athens has also been a fun adventure, but one that tests my ability to adapt to new surroundings. Since my knowledge of ancient Greek is… a work in progress, and my grasp of modern Greek is…practically nonexistent, I’ve gotten very good at nonverbal communication! There are also moments when I feel very much like a dumb tourist – like when I get lost on the metro or forget common cultural practices (a word to the wise, nothing is open on Sunday and dinner is eaten around 8pm, not 6pm!). But every moment of awkwardness is made inconsequential by the fact that I’m in Greece! The people here are friendly, the food is great, and the countryside is beautiful. Plus, being up close and personal with the ancient art and archaeological sites that I’ve been studying for the past four years is a dream come true. Nothing beats walking down the street and passing by ancient monuments like it’s no big deal. Like, oh yeah, the Acropolis? Been there all the time, I work right next door. I can’t wait to wrap up this adventure with a visit from my Big, Cathy. When I was first applying to this excavation, my professors told me that it was a very prestigious program that typically hired more experienced graduate students. I wasn’t sure if I stood a chance against the competition and I wondered if I should even bother applying at all. But Cathy encouraged me to follow through. I’m glad she’ll be able to share this experience with me, since I wouldn’t be here in the first place if it weren’t for her support! Happy Summer! -Sierra Schiano

Hey I’m Iris! I’m a second year intended Public Health major and my summers are usually either spent being productive in a classroom/work environment or trying new things while on vacation. Before coming to Cal, I probably would have never considered combining the two through a summer study abroad program. I spent the last six weeks this summer taking a course in Chile, while also embarking in new adventures through the city. Studying in South America was a huge culture shock. In the beginning, my three years of high school Spanish barely got me through customs at the airport, but eventually I found a way to communicate with locals at restaurants and other places. Throughout my time in Chile, I stayed in hostels in three cities: Santiago, Concepción, and Valparaiso. My six weeks were instantly filled with new food, people, and memories. I studied a course on the Politics of Development in Latin America, which was taught by the amazing Professor Tiffany Page, and gained much insight into the historical and current political climate of Chile. I did get homesick pretty often as I’d never been out of the country for so long, but a lot of the bustling port city of Valparaiso did remind me a lot of San Francisco. My weekends were filled with beach trips, snow tours, as well as museum visits. Even during the week, my classes were often held as field trips to museums or communities so I rarely felt like I was in an actual classroom. Some highlights included visiting the National Congress and eating with the indigenous Mapuche community. Actually seeing the things that I learned first-hand was a huge change from learning in the lecture halls. While I did learn a lot about politics in Chile, a lot of what I learned came from outside the classrooms and the assigned readings. Being in Gamma Phi Beta does make it easier to connect with other people in the Greek community, but with philanthropy events, exchanges, and game days; sometimes it seems like all my friends are in other fraternities or sororities. So having a group of 20 students of all ages and backgrounds was very interesting and rewarding for me. My new friends ranged from ages 18 all the way to 32, and all had very unique personal stories to share. However, they all had one thing in common- a passion for social justice. Every single person had at least one issue that he/she/they felt strongly about whether it was LGBTQ rights, the feminism movement, or workers unions. Even in our rooms, the atmosphere was always alive with intellectual discussions and conversations about the political and social issues in the U.S. and Chile. As a result, I learned how to be even more culturally sensitive and aware. At the start of this summer, I didn’t know much about politics about Chile or the U.S. (embarrassingly enough), but I’ve gained so much information about both countries now that I am actually considering taking a few political science classes or even pursuing it as a major. Summer 2017 in Chile was definitely one to remember!

Congratulations to all our seniors who graduated yesterday!🎉 We are so proud to call you our sisters💗In IIKE🌙

Peace out Spring '17✌🏼Thank you for the amazing memories this semester! We'll see you later Berkeley🐻💙💛#gammaphibeta #berkeley #gobearsgogreek