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After completing candidate lessons, candidate projects, and interviews, the Beta Psi candidate class was looking forward to celebrating Third Degree and becoming active brothers on Saturday, April 11, 2020! But then, the unexpected happened with the COVID-19 pandemic, and soon enough, our Spring Quarter became remote… Oh no, would we be able to become actives this Quarter after everything we’ve been through?  The full Beta Psi class posing during Second Degree (unfortunately, not Third Degree yet)!  The opening slide from Ariel's wonderful reflection speech at Beta Psi's Graduation Celebration! "Kappa Kappa Psi + Psi Chapter + Beta Psi = Triple Ex”Psi”ted to be actives!!!" The answer was a resounding “Yes!” Although we wouldn’t be able to partake in Third Degree immediately, we would transition into active brothers on Saturday, April 18, 2020. So on that date, a graduation was planned by our amazing Vice President and “Guiding Spirit” Erica Vellanoweth with the help from her Membership Committee! At 5:00 PM, members of the Beta Psi Class as well as brothers of the Psi Chapter gathered over Zoom to welcome the Psi Chapter’s newest class of Actives! The program started as a joint celebration with PsiEK Vice Presidents Erica Vellanoweth and Kerianne Brennan commemorating how far Psi’s Beta Psi Class and EK’s Alpha Omega class have come in terms of lessons learned and meaningful bonds formed. Then, in a brief intermission, each organization separated to have their own unique and personalized recognition of their soon-to-be actives, after which, Erica continued to emcee Psi’s ceremony. The next speaker was myself, as I served as Beta Psi Class President, and I delivered a reminiscent reflection of our undeniable spirit of brotherhood, our 10 PM candidate lessons, and our inside jokes/memes made throughout the candidate process (highlights include: numerous amounts of 8 Claps, the Rasputin dance from Just Dance 2, and the beloved Cowboy Emoji). Then, in arguably the most emotional and touching part of the graduation, each of our bigs presented a beautiful PowerPoint slide that included their favorite memory with us, a chosen superlative & patronus, and of course, favorite pictures of us! We were all incredibly touched by the kind words that our bigs had to say! Finally, after getting through all 29 slides, the final speech came from our Psi President Daniel Fernandez, and it was impactful as expected! To finish off our graduation, with Daniel’s strike of the gavel, Beta Psi was no longer a group of candidates, and we officially became your newest actives! As the graduation ended, some families gathered to keep the celebration going; one example being a few brothers of the Petrissage fam playing rounds of Skribbl.io and chatting over Zoom! What a fun & memorable evening/night it was!! Ultimately, we would like to thank everyone who supported us through our candidate process, especially our bigs, all the brothers in our lines/fams, all those who interviewed with us, and the alumni who were part of our inspirational alumni panel! We can’t wait to bring our service, music, and leadership to the brotherhood and continue building on the amazing foundation provided to us by every brother before us! Get ready to hear a lot from us over the next 3 years because we are full of energy, passion, creativity, and love to share with the Psi Chapter and everyone around us! In the meantime though, stay safe and, as always, AEA! (Fun fact: we still have no idea what this means, and it will be revealed to us in “due time.” But honestly, “due time” can’t seem to come soon enough!)  Comments are closed.
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