Celebrating the Successes of the Last 25 Years...

By now, you have heard a lot about our celebrations at National Convention 2009. But as we relax on this labor day and head into the month of our founding and the big day of our 25th anniversary, I wanted to recognize here the alumnae who have made amazing contributions to our sisterhood.

For those of you that missed our Pyramid Builders Award Ceremony, our website has been updated with the list of those Sisters that were recognized:
http://www.phisigmarho.org/pyramidbuilders.php

Thank you all for your contributions to Phi Sigma Rho!

Congratulations Alumnae!

At Convention last month, Alumnae Awards were given out for the second time since they were started in 2007. We were able to honor some amazing alumnae for their accomplishments and especially for being great sisters. There were a lot of great stories, and a few tears as well! So please join us in congratulationing and honoring the following sisters for receiving the 2009 Alumnae Awards:

Friendship Award: Christina Osan, Penn State-Lambda Alumna

Scholarship Award: Emily Kilpatrick, Kentucky-Epsilon Alumna

Encouragement Award: Stella (Huff) Nuckels, Arkansas-Kappa Alumna

Sisterhood Award: Kathy (Beck) Johnson, Case-Omicron Alumna

First Corner Award: Sarah Fisk, Florida-Tau Alumna

Second Corner Award: not awarded

Third Corner Award: not awarded

Fourth Corner Award: Lila Ibrahim, Purdue-Alpha Alumna

Orchid Award: not awarded

Convention 2009 Thoughts

We had a lot of ideas come in from our "Thought Bag" at Convention last month and wanted to share a few with you all since we didn't have time to discuss it.

• Can we incorporate what research Phi Rhos are involved in into convention/conference? More professional speakers in engineering to know what they do and how they got there, as well as entrepeneuriship. -Great idea! As we continue to grow our programming at national meetings, it is a goal to get a technical side of things going like presentations from alum in cool jobs, discussion groups, etc. Let us know if you have any ideas on what you'd like to see!
• Dinner on the first night instead of karaoke, people were too tired - make it when people don't want to find food. -We're constantly trying to find the right balance of when to do programming and when to do social activities and cannot provide food for all meals without increasing the registration costs, so there are a lot of factors that go into the schedule. We had expected with a 6:30 start time, people would eat beforehand and the snacks would be enough, and we'll keep this in mind for next time.
• Alumnae activity ideas: Talks about child rearing & balance between raising kids and having jobs, motivational speakers as well. -As we continue to grow our programming for alumnae at national meetings, we will add things such as this, especially if we can get attendance from the right demographic for those workshops.

Thank you all for taking the time provide feedback, these were just a few we saw!

That doesn't mean the discussions are closed, we want you to continue to be giving us feedback and using this blog as a forum for it. Feel free to email us or add comments to this blog with any other thoughts about Convention, PSR, etc!

Building a Successful Foundation

Did you all hear the excitement from convention on the Foundation raising $10,000 in one weekend? Check it out - from Iceburgh drawing our thermometer on Thursday to Christine Jackson announcing reaching the goal at the banquet on Saturday!
The Phi Sigma Rho Foundation has been doing a great job in supporting the professional, educational, philanthropic, and leadership development opportunities of the sorority. In 2009, they have provided support primarily for LEAP workshops and the LEAP Series at Convention 2009 on top of their yearly scholarship.

So what kind of things will that $10,000 go towards? While staying in the range of the areas the Foundation is allowed to donate to, the sorority will continue to ask for support for LEAP events. This not only includes visits to chapter and the LEAP Series at national conventions and leadership conferences for both actives and alumnae, but future LEAP events at regional conferences. The Foundation can also support Regional Field Director visits for educational presentations to chapters and many more scholarships for our members!

With your support of the Foundation, the possibilities for Phi Sigma Rho sisters are endless and we can continue to build the future! So a huge *THANK YOU!!!* to the Foundation donors and the Foundation for a wonderful job in just a few short years!

For additional information on the Foundation, please visit: http://www.phisigmarho.org/Foundation/

Celebrating Chapaters: 2008 Year End Awards

Congratulations to the chapters that were given awards at Convention this month! It's a great accomplishment and you all should be proud of a great year! It was also really cool to see Rashmi and Abby hand out their awards!

The Rashmi Khanna Award: 2008 CASE - Omicron
The Abby McDonald Award: 2008 Penn State - Lambda

The Service Award: 2008 CASE - Omicron

The Senior Award: 2008 Leanne Smith (Purdue - Alpha); Marcie Aydelotte (CASE - Omicron)

Lifetime Achievement: 2008 Beth Holloway (Purdue - Alpha)

Alumna Officer Award: 2008 Uma Staehler (Purdue - Alpha)

Beth Holloway was given the 1st ever lifteime achievement award for her contributions to women in engineering and PSR. Also for the first time, the Rising to Excellence Award was given to Case-Omicron!

Congratulations to the 12th NC! Thank you to the 11th NC!

The National Convention elected our 12th National Council of Phi Sigma Rho at National Convention 2009! Here are our new council members:

President: Nikki Yovanof, Lambda: president [at] phisigmarho [dot] org
VP of Standards: Becky Frye, Kappa: vpofstandards [at] phisigmarho [dot] org
VP of Finance: Kellan Ponikiewicz, Lambda: vpoffinance [at] phisigmarho [dot] org
VP of Communications: Kristen Waters, Lambda: vpofcommunications [at] phisigmarho [dot] org
VP of Collegiate Affairs: Teresa Phillips, Theta: vpofcollegiateaffairs [at] phisigmarho [dot] org
VP of Alumnae Affairs: Sara DaSilva, Zeta: vpofalumnaeaffairs [at] phisigmarho [dot] org
VP of Programming: Minna Krejci, Omicron: vpofprogramming [at] phisigmarho [dot] org
VP of Expansion: Cate Landry, Lambda: vpofexpansion [at] phisigmarho [dot] org
VP of Publications: Jennifer Andy, Omicron: vpofpublications [at] phisigmarho [dot] org

Thank you to the 11th National Council for all of your hard work! Penguin Shout-out to the past NC officers:
Sara DaSilva, President
Vivian Robertson, VP of Standards
Allison Lenhoff, VP of Finance
Lindsay Gelorme, VP of Communications
Tracy Egut, VP of Collegiate Affairs
Monique Chinchar, VP of Alumnae Affairs
Nikki Yovanof, VP of Programming
Sharon James, VP of Expansion
Meghan Edwards, VP of Publications

National Convention 2009 - Follow Up

A lot went on last weekend at convention! You'll be hearing more about the announcements and other follow up in the next few weeks though. Please don't hesitate to email National Council with any questions or comments. But if you were there, please make sure to fill out the feedback form:
Click Here to take survey

And if you have pictures, please send them to Sigmand@phisigmarho.org! Check out what we have so far here!

National Convention 2009 - The Big Day!

On Saturday at Convention, we had so much fun celebrating that we didn't get a chance to tell you all about the day! What a great celebration it was! Look for more information and details soon - but here are some of the highlights!

We started out the morning with the legislative session where we voted on some proposals and held elections for the 12th National Council of Phi Sigma Rho! Congratulations to our new officers and the ritual committee for a job well done.

After the legislative session, we had a great awards lunch where we got to thank our convention volunteers, present chapter and alumnae awards, and hear from our Founders! Abby, Rashmi, and Christine all took a few minutes to talk about their experiences and their thoughts on PSR. Between some of the awards and their speech, we had a very emotional event and some inspiring moments.

The afternoon was filled with roundtable discussions, meetings, and other activities including the Foundation Hospitality Suite for donors. All day, the Phi Rho Lounge was filled with people and amazing historical items. You could also see a table completely covered with donations for the penguin drive for the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.

The final celebration of the weekend was our Pyramid Builders Award Banquet where we honored sisters for the top 25 significant contributions to the sorority. Our MC's did an amazing job - Christine, Kristin, Minna, Leanna, and Lisa were great! And our sisters have been truly inspiring over the last 25 years - we cannot wait to see what the next 25 hold for us!!! (Stay tuned for more ideas for the next 25 years from Convention!)

We found out about a special surprise at the banquet too - Christine Jackson and the Foundation raised $10,000 this weekend! What an amazing accomplishment - thank you to all of our generous donors. We are so excited about the potential that all these donations can bring to future sorority events.

The celebrating lasted well into the evening when the Pitt-Zeta chapter hosted a Murder Mystery night that was quite a hit and the other alumnae and actives hit the dance floor all night! Look for pictures soon - we had a blast! How many other sorority girls can say they danced all night with their Founders?

Congratulations on 25 years Phi Sigma Rho! We hope you all had as much fun celebrating as we did!

National Convention 2009

Today was quite an eventful day at Convention! We started off the day with an alumnae workshop on finance and wealth management as well and LEAP workshops on personality styles, 5-year planning, team management, and ritual. While the actives worked hard with the LEAP programming, the alumnae had a lovely lunch with guest speaker Don Engel talking about stewardship and then spent a nice afternoon getting together and hearing about all the wonderful things PSR has done in the last 25 years from Dayton-Gamma Alumna and past Executive Director, Amy Mazzanti in Phi Rho 101.

The celebrations really got off to a good start later in the evening when we hopped on the buses to head down to Station Square for the night! A slight rain delay forced our group picture to inside the station from Mt. Washington (pictures to come soon!). With dinner, shopping, and sightseeing (once the rain cleared up), the rest of the evening was a lot of fun! The PSR Foundation also had some fun hosting a hospitality suite for their alumnae donors this evening. And we all got a chance to spend time with one of our Founders, Abby (MacDonald) Schwartz and another charter member, Christine (Mooney) Jackson! Look for more news from them after tomorrow's events too! Can't wait to share all the fun of our big day of meeting and celebrations with you tomorrow!

Kicking-off Convention 2009!

National Convention 2009 kicked-off tonight with a few fun events! We hosted about 70 people at the meet & greet followed by the State of the Sorority Address and Q&A with National Council and the Foundation. After that, we kicked off the celebration with some karaoke thanks to the talents our Pitt-Zeta actives and our national volunteer Minna Krejci.

We're so excited to be in Pittsburgh this weekend and can't wait to see how the LEAP workshops and alumnae sessions go tomorrow. We hope to keep you all updated on the activities of the weekend as we celebrate silver!

Convention this week!

I am so excited for Convention this week! I can't wait to meet many of you who I haven't met, and see those of you I haven't seen in years! I am excited to renew our hope and goals for the next 25 years as well!

If you're going to Convention, please feel free to discuss any of your goals for the Sorority with the current and future National Council members. Our strategic plan mirrors the goals we hear about from the sisterhood, so speak up!

We'll be sending as many updates as we can from the Convention, so stay tuned!

PRL!
Sara Dasilva, National President

Going for Gold - Looking at the Next 25 Years!

As we kick off summer, it's been very exciting to get closer to our 25th anniversary celebration. We're going to be doing a lot of reflection of the last 25 years, but we also want to hear what everyone wants to see out of PSR in the next 25 years! Even if you can't come to convention, we want to hear your ideas for what kinds of accomplishments you'd like to see PSR go after in the next 25 years. So here's your chance - we'll be collecting comments here on the blog and sharing them at Convention 2009. Take a few minutes to post an idea! We want to hear from everyone! What should PSR do to go for gold in the next 25 years?

Girls Inc Letter Writing

Wow, Convention is now less that 1 month away and I can't wait. I've been working with Girls Inc for the last few months to coordinate more activity between Phi Rho and their affiliate centers. I wish Girls Inc. had been around when I was growing up because it sounds like a truly amazing organization for young women! They have members from elementary school through high school and focus on teaching girls to be Strong, Smart and Bold. - Sound familiar? I think alot of our past and current Phi Rhos (think Abby and Rashmi) have these same qualities. I'm excited for the opportunity to write letters and encourage these young girls to follow their hearts and march to the beat of a different drum. Our letter writing campaign at Convention is only the beginning of (hopefully) a long and fulfilling partnership between Phi Rho and Girls Inc.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at Convention and PRL,

Heidi Nelson
Girls Inc. Coordinator

*For additional information on the letter writing campaign, please see the website: http://www.phisigmarho.org/programs.htm*

PSR National Alumnae Awards - Nominate a Sister Today!

Phi Sigma Rho is full of exceptional women who touch lives in many ways. In 2009 we will honor those Alumnae who have exemplified sisterhood in nine areas. This is an opportunity to honor sisters for their contributions to not only Phi Sigma Rho but to our society—our communities, our schools, our families, and our sisters. The winners will be chosen by the Alumnae Awards Committee and the awards will be presented at an Awards Luncheon at National Convention in Pittsburgh, PA on July 18^th, 2009.

Each award is represented by a symbol of Phi Sigma Rho. The nine areas in which we will recognize sisters are:

• Sisterhood Award—Service to Phi Sigma Rho

Recipient exemplifies what sisterhood means by volunteering her time with Phi Sigma Rho and/or promoting the Sorority positively in her community and with other sisters.

• Friendship Award—Best Friend

Recipient exhibits friendship by being the best friend a Phi Rho can have.

• Scholarship Award—Academic leadership

Recipient is a leader in academia.

• Encouragement Award—Mentorship

Recipient shows her encouragement by participating in mentoring other women, whether affiliated with Phi Sigma Rho or not.

• First Corner Award—Service to Community, Inner Strength

Recipient volunteers a significant time and energy to her community, exemplifying inner strength by giving back.

• Second Corner Award—Super Mom, Endurance

Recipient shows endurance as a super mom.

• Third Corner Award—Technical Excellence, Ingenuity

Recipient has exhibited technical achievement either in industry or academia, or in self-employment.

• Fourth Corner Award—Success in Business, Ambition

Recipient is a leader in her field in industry or has experienced significant accomplishment in business. Recipient can be a business contributor at any stage of her career.

• Orchid Award—Woman of the Year

Recipient has exemplified what it means to be a Phi Rho, in all areas. She shows by example that friendship, scholarship, and sisterhood are the ritual she follows for life. She may have significantly contributed in any one of the above areas.

The nomination form can be filled out by any Phi Rho sister. The nominee must be an Alumna or Honorary member but need not be present at National Convention to accept the award, though there will be a presentation of awards at an Awards Luncheon and attendance is encouraged. Nominations can be e-mailed as an attachment or as a text document to vpofalumnaeaffars@phisigmarho.org. Nominations will be accepted through June 19, 2009.

Many Phi Rhos are lifelong friends. This is a terrific opportunity to honor a friend or mentor who has exemplified what Phi Sigma Rho is all about—friendship, scholarship, encouragement, and sisterhood.

Final reminder - Register for Convention 2009 Today!

Just wanted to take a minute to remind you all that registration closes for Convention 2009 tomorrow! Register today for your chance to celebrate with alumnae, actives, and founding sisters!

http://www.phisigmarho.org/Convention2009/

Convention 2009 Registration - Less than a month left to sign up for the fun!

We are very excited to tell everyone that as of our early bird registration close last Friday, we have over 130 attendees registered for Convention 2009! This is definitely a great showing for the event and we're looking forward to seeing you there.

So far these numbers also include registrations from past National Council officers and some of our founders! Abby and Rashmi will both be in attendance, and they'll be joined by Christine Jackson, another charter member! Since registration is still open until June 1st, who knows what other surprises we'll have in store!

It's not too late, you can still register: http://www.phisigmarho.org/Convention2009/

More from Pittsburgh! A look at where Convention will be...

I grew up in Pittsburgh, so celebrating 25 years there with you all is very exciting for me! I spent this past weekend there and did the tourist thing in Station Square, up the incline to Mt. Washington, and downtown. I thought I'd share a few pictures of the view from Mt. Washington for you all to convince you to come join us in Pittsburgh - since we'll be spending Friday night here!

Here's a view looking up from the Monongahela Incline as we headed up Mt. Washington:


Station Square (where we'll be Friday night) from the top:


The Point, with Heinz Field (Go Steelers!) and PNC Park (There's a Pirate game on Friday, July 17th if you're interested) in the background:


Downtown Pittsburgh:


Pittsburgh is not only the "Steel City", but the "City of Bridges" with 446 bridges!:


The next two pictures are from Station Square - the Bessemer Court fountains and some old steel mill historic statues:

This is in downtown Pittsburgh, the PPG (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) Center Buildings, which are my favorite. Primanti Brothers, home of the world famous sandwiches, is located in the market area.

I just wanted to share a little with on the city that I love and hope you guys will get to see it yourself in a few months!

See you in Pittsburgh,
Nikki Yovanof
VP of PRogramming

Come to Convention 2009, from Pitt-Zeta!

Cheers from the lovely city of Pittsburgh! Myself and all the girls from the University of Pittsburgh chapter are so excited to be welcoming Phi Rhos from all over the country to our town this July. I love this city and hope that all of you will too. Its a wonderful, homey place, and hopefully while you are here you can experience some of the fun it has to offer! Especially Friday evening when we head
off to Station Square for dinner and entertainment, including wonderful restaurants, hopefully some outdoor music, shopping and dance clubs -- for the ladies over 21, the country bar Saddleridge is a person favorite! I'm sure that this 25th anniversary edition of the National Convention will be one to remember! I, and we here at Pitt,
look forward meeting you all this summer!

Convention 2009 - Early Bird Reigstration Deadline in 1 Week!

We only have one week left to register for Convention 2009 at the early-bird registration rate! After that, the registration fees will go up. This is a great opportunity for you to get to convention at a lower price for meals, social activities, the formal banquet, networking sessions with alumnae and actives, time to chat with our Alpha Chapter, Alpha class and other Alpha Class members, join the legislative session, and hang out with all your favorite Phi Rhos! Hope we can see you all in Pittsburgh!

Recognizing Our Distinguished Phi Rho Alumnae!

We are taking a new step towards recognizing the accomplishments of our alumnae and we hope that you will help us by nominating alumnae you know for the Distinguished Alumnae Awards! Our goal is to put together a "Who's Who" in PSR and recognize that amazing things that Phi Rhos have done beyond college and the sorority.

For more information, see what we've posted online: http://www.phisigmarho.org/news.htm

Do you know someone who has achieved success in their chosen path? Now's the time to recognize them! Let us know if you have any comments or questions!