Hello Theta Alpha sisters!
On behalf of the National Board, we hope that everyone has been enjoying the holiday season and fall festivities! We have some exciting updates from our National Board regarding upcoming events, updates from the local chapters regarding our new sisters and their operations, information for our alumnae, and a few alumnae spotlights for alumnae doing great things recently!
NATIONAL OFFICERS
Welcome our newest officers to the National Board!
These officers are returning to the board (some continuing their terms, some starting new positions!):
NATIONAL BOARD EVENTS & UPDATES CLASS REUNIONS
It's time to go back to school - the National Board is excited to kick off our "class reunion" effort, spearheaded by our lovely NAC Hannah K. and chapter representative Brooke! The National Board is hoping to give time for specific pledge classes and "eras" of Theta Alpha sisters and alumnae to reunite and spend time together in spiritual growth, experience a healthy dose of nostalgia and "remember when's", and discuss ways that the group has given and can continue to give back to Theta Alpha in the future.
The FIRST class reunion will take place December 11, 2024 at 7pm! Sisters who were active in Theta Alpha from 2013-2017 are invited to attend! This event will take place over Teams! Please register here to attend: Class Reunion Registration Link
PROSPECTIVE NEW CHAPTER ESTABLISHMENT AT UNC CHAPEL HILL
Exciting news - we are launching a Prospective Chapter at UNC Chapel Hill! After being approached by a current student of the university and seeking the Lord’s guidance, the National Board has decided that this is a great opportunity for our Theta Alpha community to grow!
UNC Chapel Hill does not currently have a Christian Sorority. We are excited to bring Theta Alpha’s community + sisterhood to their campus. Please join us in prayer as we begin the process of collecting Founding Members. As the weeks continue, we will reach out with many opportunities for involvement and ways our active AND alumnae sisters can join us to support this new chapter!
THE GARDEN: OUR SEMI-ANNUAL MEETING OF THETA ALPHA SISTERS AND ALUMNAE
MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Our Winter 2025 meeting in "The Garden" is currently planned to take place February 18, 2025*. "The Garden" was started Summer 2024 as an effort to unite all sisters of Theta Alpha, young and slightly less young 😉, to fellowship and spend time together, grow together spiritually, and hear updates from local chapter leaders and the National Board. We are SO excited to host "The Garden" again and hope to see you there! Look for the registration link in a separate blog post in early 2025!
If you did not attend our inaugural "The Garden" meeting and haven't had a chance to read our recap from the first Garden meeting, click here to learn more!
(*This date is our current plan but may be subject to change based on UNC chapter establishment schedule! Stay tuned for potential updates.)
BETA CHAPTER UPDATES
BID DAY
This semester’s rush was so much fun! We inducted the BEST pledge class and are thrilled to welcome them into the sisterhood. Bid day was an absolute blast and was packed full of laughter, line dancing, and lots of tiny cowgirl hats! It was definitely a successful Ruby round up, and we’re all super excited to get to grow alongside each other in faith as the semester progresses💗
BIG LITTLE REVEAL
INITIATION
We have initiated 13 new members into our chapter! We love our new Pearls so much!
DELTA CHAPTER UPDATES
BID DAY
Delta’s bid day theme was Welcome to Paradise! We loved getting to shell-ebrate our new sisters!! We had 20 sweet rubies receive a bid this semester. We are so blessed to receive this group of girls. We can’t wait to see where God takes them on their Theta Alpha journey!
SERVICE DAY
On October 19th, our sisterhood volunteered at Orlando’s Children’s Church for our semester service day! This organization is our philanthropy and we absolutely love volunteering with and supporting them! Leading up to service day, we held a candy drive so we could provide OCC with candy for their Halloween party. During our service day, we helped prepare breakfast for the kids, played board games and outdoor games with them, and led small group bible studies with them. Our sisterhood absolutely loves seeing how the Lord moves through this organization and we love having the opportunity to serve them!
INITIATION
We have initiated 19 new members into the chapter. We are beyond blessed to have amazing girls who are on fire for God!
ALUMNAE UPDATES
GET TO KNOW OUR NATIONAL ALUMNAE CHAIRWOMAN AND CHAPTER REPRESENTATIVE!
As our new National Alumnae Chairwoman and Beta Chapter Representative settle in on the National Board, we encourage you to get to know them! Send them an email to introduce yourself at alumnaechairwoman@thetaalpha.org and/or chapterrepresentative@thetaalpha.org. They would LOVE to meet you and hear from you about how we can best support you!
ATTEND A LOCAL CHAPTER EVENT!
Please contact the respective chapter secretary for information on local chapter events that are open to you as alumnae! Please feel free to attend open events at any chapter you are local to or in the area for, regardless of the chapter you graduated from:
Hailey Kon - Beta (Gainesville - UF Area) Secretary: ufthetaalphasecretary@gmail.com
Rain Milkos - Delta (Orlando - UCF Area) Secretary: thetaalphadelta@gmail.com
UPDATE YOUR CHURCH HOME IN THE CHURCH DIRECTORY!
We love to use this resource to help sisters who are graduating from college, moving to a new city, or just in the area for a bit find a church they can feel welcome at with a friendly face. If you are willing, please feel free to add your church to our directory here! (If you don't have a website account yet, please submit a request for a website account to gain access to the church directory!)
SPRING SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE
If any alumna is interested in serving on the Spring 2025 scholarship committee, which decides on both local needs scholarships and our Golden Tulip scholarship, please send a message to our National Treasurer Sydney at treasurer@thetaalpha.org.
HAVE A QUESTION REGARDING LOCAL OR NATIONAL OPERATIONS?
Our local officers are hard at work serving their local sisterhoods and being college students. If you have any questions or needs regarding our local chapters or the National Board, please direct your questions, comments, and requests to alumnaechairwoman@thetaalpha.org AND chapterrepresentative@thetaalpha.org. Messages sent to our local chapters via email, DMs, or other means regarding local or national operations will be redirected to the National Board. Thank you for caring for our chapters and loving on our chapters in this way!
ALUMNAE SPOTLIGHTS
KRISTEN MARKS - PC'07, BETA
Kristen Marks is an alumna from the Beta chapter who has been working to better serve families and children through founding Otem Collective, an organization designed to strengthen families and communities to care for vulnerable children. Here are some words from Kristen regarding her work through Otem Collective:
"I’ll never forget the day I sat across from a sixteen-year-old girl named Hannah (name changed for child protection). I was on my first trip to Uganda with my new job post-grad school, working for an organization that served orphaned and vulnerable children. Hannah had been living in our children’s home for eight years, separated from her parents and brothers, even though they lived just 45 minutes away in a village. With sadness in her eyes, she looked at me and said, “Kristen, it’s hard being apart. I miss my brothers.” Her words pierced me. I couldn’t help but wonder—why was she here, away from her family, when her whole family was alive?
That moment changed me and became the driving force behind Otem Collective. In Uganda, 98% of children in orphanages have living family. Many families feel they have no choice but to send their children to orphanages when they can’t afford basic needs, but separating children from their families isn’t the solution. Otem Collective reshapes how the world cares for orphaned and vulnerable children—by placing families at the heart of the solution rather than relying on orphanages and the residential care model. We strengthen families to care for their children and help orphanages reunite children with families, ensuring kids like Hannah can grow up in safe, stable, and secure families.
This work isn’t just a mission for me—it’s a calling from God to reflect His heart for family and restoration. As James 1:27 reminds us, we’re called to care for orphans and widows, and at Otem Collective, we believe this means caring for families as a whole—supporting not only the children but also their parents, so that they can stay together. The work we’re doing to get and keep children in families is at the very core of God’s heart."
As Kristen and Otem Collective work to shift the global approach to caring for vulnerable children, she would love to have the support of Theta Alpha sisters! This work requires a movement of people who are committed to moving away from how things have been done and towards something better for children. Here’s a few ways Kristen would love for you to be involved:
Pray for the children and families Otem Collective serves.
Learn more about family-based care and why kids do best in families.
Share Otem Collective’s mission with your network and church.
Serve by offering your skills, time, and resources to strengthen families and raise awareness.
Give to reshape the future of care for vulnerable children.
To learn more about Kristen's work, visit otemcollective.org or follow them on social media @otemcollective!
REGAN SAMPSON - PC'20, DELTA
Regan, an alumna from the Delta chapter, worked this past summer at Pine Cove, a Christian day-camp in Texas. After graduating from UCF and her time at camp, Regan felt called to join Pine Cove's Christian leadership development program. Here's what she has to say about her time so far in the program and how her faith has grown:
"Hey! My name is Regan and I rushed Theta Alpha Delta in the Fall of 2020! I graduated May of 2024, worked a summer at a Christian traveling day-camp with Pine Cove in Texas, and am currently a part of their program called The Forge! This is an 8-month Christian leadership development program with about 33 students based in Tyler, Texas. I’ve been taking 10 classes a week, with topics ranging from Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology to Identity/Relationships! I’m working an internship as well, and traveling about once a month with the program. We will be headed to Turkey in April to learn in the exact places that we have studied all year. I’ve been learning so much about who God is and His sovereignty throughout the Bible, and who He has made me to be. After this program is over, I’m working one more summer at camp, and then hopefully getting a full time ministry job in college or student ministry!"
We are so proud of Regan and her commitment to serving through this development program and are excited to see what she does next! If you want to support Regan during this time or send her any fan mail while she's in Texas, please reach out to our NAC Hannah K. for info.
NIKKI WEIDLER - PC'19, DELTA
Nikki, an alumna from the Delta chapter, rushed Theta Alpha in Fall ‘19 and graduated in Fall ‘23 from UCF! Hear about Nikki, her upcoming wedding, and her time in school post-undergrad here:
"Hi! My name is Nikki and I rushed Theta Alpha in Fall ‘19 and graduated in Fall ‘23 at UCF! Theta Alpha brought me some of my closest friends and my soon to be husband, who was in KYX at the time, and for that and many more reasons, I'm forever grateful for Theta Alpha! We get married December 20th, and we are so excited to enter this new season the Lord has for us!
Currently, I am getting my Doctorate in Occupational Therapy at the University of Florida! I have known since high school that the Lord had placed a desire in my heart for helping people with special needs and those suffering from an injury or new diagnosis, so it's been exciting to finally get to a point of doing what I love! I am almost done with the didactic portion of my program and will move back to Orlando to begin my clinical rotations! I am excited to get involved back in the Delta chapter as an alum and pour back into the sisterhood that gave me so much!"
We're so thrilled to celebrate Nikki and her future husband soon, excited to hear more about her professional achievements as she grows in her career, and thankful for her continued support of our local chapters. We love you, Nikki!
MELISSA DEPORRE (BARKER) - PC'18, BETA
Sending ALL the love and prayers to Theta Alpha alumna Melissa DePorre (née Barker!) who was recently married!!! We are so excited to celebrate Melissa and Vincent as they begin their lives together and are wishing them nothing but happiness for years to come! We love you both!
Do you know a sister doing great things who we should feature in our next newsletter or social media post? Send their name and details to our Tulip Love form so we can all share in celebrating their achievements!!!
PRAYER REQUESTS
Pray for our new Beta and Delta sisters, that their faith be multiplied as they are poured into by our active sisters.
Pray for new and old big/little relationships and for the Lord's hand to be over each discipleship as they grow in their knowledge of the word together.
Pray for our local officers, that they are poured into by their local church communities, actives, and mentors on the National Board and lead from an overflow. May Christ sustain them as they continue to carry out their responsibilities as officers.
Pray for UNC Chapel Hill and the hearts of their students as we endeavor to bring this ministry to their campus! Pray about how you and our fellow sisters and alumnae may feel called to serve this new chapter, whether through your prayers, your time and service, your financial support, or a combination of these areas.
Send your own prayer requests to us so that we can pray over you! Send all of your prayers and praises to our Tulip Love form. You can also use this form to send us life updates, achievements, or just brag on your sisters.
We are so excited for the rest of this semester and the new year to come! Stay tuned for more Theta Alpha updates and keep in touch!
Thank you,
The National Board of Theta Alpha
Regan!!! You are doing great things girly 💛