It's Great to be a Florida Zeta!
- ztatlc.alisoncolangelo
- Oct 28, 2018
- 3 min read
Gamma Iota Chapter
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida
My travel day from St. Louis to Gainesville turned into a long one when my flights got delayed multiple times, lucky for me, the new fall edition of Themis, Zeta Tau Alpha's quarterly magazine dropped--and this just happened to be the edition including LC introductions, so I was extra excited to read it in the airport!
Check it out here: Themis, Fall 2018
Chomp in the Swamp
I had a great week in 'the Swamp' visiting with the ladies of Gamma Iota! I was mostly there for the elections of their new officers and it was so great to get to meet the rising leaders in the chapter and hear all their goals and ideas to keep improving ZTA at UF!
Go Gata, Go Zeta
I stayed with the chapter for 10 days and it was a jam-packed visit! I got to be there for initiation, a sisterhood retreat, Exec interviews, 3 social events, their big philanthropy event, Linedance AND a chapter meeting!
Aside from all the important work, I also spent some of my free time working on my tan. The Florida weather was just what I needed! It was sunny and in the 80s the whole time I was there and I took full advantage of the rooftop pool at the apartment I was at.
Gamma Iota's House is currently going through a major re-model so I didn't get to stay there, but I am so excited to see pictures of the new house next fall, the sisters are so excited!
University of Florida was a really fun school to visit! Their campus is full of palm trees, gator statues and of course, scooters! Everyone gets around on scooters, Director of Social Events, Kendal took me on her scooter my first day at UF and gave me a little tour of Gainesville!
📍Gator Walk
I obviously had to go see the Ben Hill Griffin Stadium where the Gators play! It's really nice because it's open to the public and so there are always students there studying and working out!
UF loves their Gators. Everything in the college town was Gator-themed! I at dinner at The Swamp, bought my school stickers at Gators Plus, stopped for lunch at the Italian Gator, got my nails done at Gator Nails, and got my picture taken with the bull gator on the Gator Walk to the stadium.
Sisterhood Retreat
The chapter hosted their Sisterhood Retreat while I was on my visit and I was so excited to get to know some of the sisters a little better! I actually met another sister from Pittsburgh and we figured out that we lived 20 minutes from each other!
The retreat was held at UF's Lake Wauburg! Such a sunny scene for some sisterhood love!
Sisterhood, The Ties that Bind Us!
Director of Sisterhood, Tyler has been doing an amazing job of planning extra sisterhood events because the chapter isn't in their house right now. They women did some bonding activities before getting a chance to swim and lay on the dock.
Congratulations Fall 2018!
The next morning was Initiation! Gamma Iota spent the day initiating 70 New Members into their chapter! We had two Zeta moms come and surprise their daughters, and lots of parents celebrated by sending their daughters bouquets of flowers!
Think Pink, Think Zeta
It's currently October and so all of our chapters across the country are holding their philanthropy events during Breast Cancer Awareness month and I got the pleasure of being there for Gamma Iota's: Line Dance!
Line Dance was Lit!
All of the Fraternities at UF make a team and they get ZTA 'coaches' that choreograph and perform a line dance with them!
I got to be a judge for the event with Kappa Delta, Lexi who is currently Miss. University of Florida and a UF football player, David! We had such an incredible time watching all of the Line Dances!
Before heading to my next visit, I made a pit stop in Alabama for one of my LC sister's weddings! Samantha and her now-husband, Jameson met at Auburn!
A few of us from my LC 2017-2018 class made the trip to Dothan, AL to celebrate Sam! It was so much fun to reunite with them and have the weekend off!
Next Up is Virginia Tech!
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