On February 11 we attended a conference given by the veterinarian and livestock consultant, Dr. Carlos Rodolfo Saenz from Nicaragua. The conference was about the economic and ecologic benefits of the conventional farming vs. the certified organic production and its challenges.

After a successful Rush week, we extended 18 bids to interested freshman and sophomores. We had 12 people accept and come to our Pinning ceremony. The 12 pledges have very diverse backgrounds and interests from Natural Resources to Animal Science. We are very excited to guide them through the process of becoming new members of Alpha Zeta!

The Cornell Chapter just finished 2 fun-filled weeks of Rush! From January 17th to January 29th we held events and participated in Greek Smokers to attract new members. With activities every day like bowling, broomball, line dancing, open houses at our house, and sledding we had many people show interest in our organization. At the beginning of every semester after a long break, Rush allows our chapter to bond together while attracting new potential members. A lot of work of planning always pays off!

On Friday Feb. 4th, at 1pm seven Alpha Zeta brothers met at the fairgrounds to go to the Southern Farm Show.  Admission to the Southern Farm show is free.  The Southern Farm show is a trade show showcasing different types of agricultural equipment and companies.  There were many different types of tractors for us to see.  They had a tobacco harvester, hay bailers, fertilize spreaders, and bushhogs.  They also had different types of cattle equipment that was demonstrated.  They also had cattle dog demonstrations and demonstrated how to properly vaccinate cattle.  Different companies that could one day employ us were also there so it was also a great time to network.  After walking through the trade show, we went to dinner and then came back to the mule pull held at the horse complex.  We all had a lot of fun and it was a great opportunity for us to see some of the latest technology in agriculture.

Since we had such a great time bowling the first time we decided to have a round 2 with all the new brothers.  We had 30 brothers attend with 3 alumni in attendance as well.  We all needed time to unwind after a successful candidate education week.  It was also a great way for us to get to know the new brothers.  We all had a great time.

The North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta met at a local bowling alley on Feb 8 for a time of fun and fellowship.  We had 15 brothers and attendance.  We got pretty competitive we are games and we all had a great time.  We did walk away with a few injuries from the bowling balls such as crushed fingers.  We also had 3 alumni show up.  We had a great time.

On Sunday Feb 6th, the brothers of the North Carolina Chapter of Alpha Zeta met to interview our potential candidates.  We all met at Weaver labs at 11am in business professional dress and brought breakfast or brunch items to share.  We started the day by welcoming the potential candidates, showing them a slide show presentation of some of our activities, and singing the AZ friendship song.  These interviews gave us an opportunity to get to know these talented individuals and a time for them to ask us questions.  We interviewed twenty seven potential candidates and extended 25 bids! We are very excited about this potentially large candidate class and can't wait for them to become brothers of our fraternity.

We organized a fundraiser called Grilled Cheeses for Diseases. For this event we partnered with ATZ Farmhouse Fraternity and used their house to make grilled cheeses that were sold to students walking by. All the proceeds went to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This event was a great way to bring the members from each class together in a fun way that benefited a great cause. Our chapter participated because we wanted to do something that we never tried before and everyone really seemed to have enjoyed themselves. The chair of the social and community service committee organized the event with the help of her committee and ATZ members. We distributed flyers on campus, made a facebook group and made posters advertising the event.

On Saturday Feb 5, six brothers met at Weaver labs at 6:30am to volunteer for the annual Krispy Kreme Challenge.  We carpooled to our local Krispy Kreme, two miles from campus.  The Krispy Kreme challenge is an annual run starting at the bell tower on NCSU's campus.  The runners run 2 miles to the Krispy Kreme, eat a dozen doughnuts and then run back hoping to finish in under an hour.  Our brothers helped set up, pass out doughnuts and water during the run and helped clean up after. We even had 2 brothers that competed in the run.   It was unfortunately raining the entire time.  The Krispy Kreme even donated doughnuts for our roundtable the day after the event.

On the 20^thof January ten Americans arrived in Puerto Rico from different states, including New Jersey, North Carolina, California and Missouri.The first day we picked them up at the capital of the island, San Juan and then traveled to where they were going to stay.We took a walk around the town to show them about the culture.The second day we visited "Casa Pueblo” in Adjuntas...