On October 16th, Alpha Zeta-Cal Epsilon launched the "Save the Date" for the Alpha Zeta-Cal Epsilon Development Summit.  The Development Summit will be held Saturday, November 16th, at Fresno State's Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.  At the AZDS any member of Alpha Zeta or the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology will have the unique opportunity to work with experienced industry professionals in respective fields....

On October 24th, the Alpha Zeta Cal-Epsilon Chapter held their New Member Pinning Ceremony along with their Professional Meeting for the month of October. The Cal Epsilon Chapter welcomed 11 new members in which the Censor, Brittany Hitchcock, organized a professional and elegant New Member Pinning Ceremony. Brittany addressed each new member stating:...

In honor of two of our alumni, we host an annual 5K to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Parkinson's Disease research.  We also have a representative from the Be the Match Foundation present to talk about bone marrow donation.  This year we raised $350 dollars and the Be the Match Foundation received an $80 donation and 3 new donors.  We provide runners with t-shirts and door prizes as an incentive to come out to the race...

Seminar 2's purpose was to broaden the perspective of new members to prepare them for Brazilian culture as well as educate them about diversity. This was accomplished by having all new members go through Open Doors (diversity) training,  hearing from a Veteran's panel to learn more about the military, community service (volunteering at a food bank in Springfield, OH), and hearing from a LGBTQ panel.  

A group of the Florida Chapter went out to Kanapaha Botanical Gardens this past week to help maintain their gardens. Kanapaha is a 62 acre botanical garden with the states largest public bamboo display and herb garden in the Southeast region. Kanapaha was nicest enough to take us on a tour of the gardens before they showed us where we would be performing our service activities. We helped maintain the bamboo displays and mulched the area to be aesthetically pleasing to the public.

On Friday, October 18th, 2013 the Alpha Zeta - Cal Epsilon Chapter volunteered their time to serve the community of Fresno at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo's annual Zoo Boo Event.  The event primarily focuses on a safe and family fun environment in which children can dress up and "trick-or-treat" around the zoo after normal operating hours.  Cal Epsilon had a superb group of volunteers in which they lead sections of the harvest carnival games and a candy station in front of the giraffes exhibit.  Members in attendance had a grand time passing out Halloween candy and proctoring carnival games...

This past weekend, the Florida Chapter went to the Lubee Bat Conservancy Festival. The conservancy only allows the public in on this one day out of the whole year. The goal of the festival is to educate the public on how beneficial bats are to the Florida environment and ecosystems.  Additionally, the festival helps raise awareness and money for the conservancy. As a chapter, we learned a lot about bats and were happy to help the conservancy by assisting with parking, and educating the public about the conservancy.

On September 25, Cook AZ visited the Viking Village fishery in Barnegat, NJ. We learned about the different kinds of sea life they fish and talked about the effects of Sandy and other natural disasters on the fishing community. We were able to watch them pull several large fish off a recently returned fishing boat for evaluation. We learned about the different grades of fish and other factors, such as sharks, that can affect the quality of the product they are able to produce. They are also working on research using Confined Animal Feeding Operations that we were able to look at and discuss.

The new member retreat served as a more relaxed welcoming event on the morning after Big/Little Night. The new members were able to engage in a casual discussion with both the e-board and each other. The primary purpose of this event was to establish a stronger connection between new members since they were all now officially committed to the Fraternity of Alpha Zeta. By growing as a new member class, the new members could begin to form bonds with each other and learn to rely on each other for help in the future.

On September 11, Cook AZ held the first brotherhood mixer, which provided both potential new members and brothers the chance to formally meet each other for the first time. This was an opportunity for perspective new members to learn more about Alpha Zeta, what we stand for, and who we are. Potential new members first met the members of the e-board in order to learn more general facts about the Fraternity of Alpha Zeta and to learn about our history with Rutgers University and the surrounding community....