KEARNEY – The University of Nebraska at Kearney chapter of Gamma Phi Beta brought home three awards from the sorority’s international convention last month in Louisville, Kentucky.
Gamma Kappa Chapter was recognized with the Advisory Board Excellence Award, Philanthropic Excellence Award and Academic Excellence Award during Gamma Phi Beta’s 82nd convention, held July 15-19. The biennial event brings together members from across the organization, which has 135 active collegiate chapters and more than 155 alumnae groups in the United States and Canada.
UNK was one of just three chapters to receive the Advisory Board Excellence Award, which recognizes chapters that demonstrate outstanding advising. The Gamma Kappa advisory board was honored for its leadership and teamwork, recruitment and retention of advisers, guidance for chapter officers and attendance at leadership events.
Gamma Kappa was also one of three chapters presented the Philanthropic Excellence Award. The honor recognizes chapters that raised the most money for Girls on the Run during the previous two years.
Girls on the Run is Gamma Phi Beta’s exclusive philanthropic partner within the National Panhellenic Conference. The nonprofit organization offers after-school programming for girls in third through eighth grades that combines physical activity with a research-based curriculum focused on developing social and emotional skills, self-confidence and healthy habits.
The third honor, the Academic Excellence Award, went to 20 Gamma Phi Beta chapters. Recipients must have a chapter GPA of at least 3.0 while also exceeding the all-sorority average on their campus.
Founded Nov. 11, 1874, at Syracuse University in New York, Gamma Phi Beta is one of the 10 oldest women’s organizations in North America and was the first to use the term “sorority.” The Gamma Kappa Chapter was established on the UNK campus in 1963.