We Live the Creed

In Zeta Tau Alpha, one of the many things our beautiful creed teaches us is “to think in terms of all mankind and our service to the world.” In this statement, we are taught to not simply think in terms of ourselves and what will bring us up in the world, but to use the gifts and blessings we’ve been given to raise up all of mankind. These words teach us to give back to the world through service and rid ourselves of the selfishness that can so easily surround us. This can be as simple as a kind smile when walking past someone who looks like they’ve had a rough day, or assisting in making thousands of lunches to hand out to those in our community who may not be fortunate enough to know where their next meal will come from. Being a part of such a loving and humble organization has helped me grow in so many ways that I didn’t even know possible, and now having experienced it all, I can’t imagine my life without ZTA.

Carly Armstrong, VP2

We Live the Creed

"To be true to ourselves, and to those within and without our circle" is probably one of the most important lines of our creed to me. I think sometimes when people join an organization, they start letting it define who they are and forgetting themselves individually. The thing that makes my sisters so wonderful is that we are all different and can come together to create a collaborative and new sisterhood. This line of our creed also reminds me that it is important to make strong connections with my sisters and also with people outside of our organization. Maintaining a strong connection with our campus, fellow students, and other Greek organizations keeps us well rounded and grounded.


Staying true to ourselves is also a key part of the creed for me. It is so important to stand up for what we believe and to keep ourselves held to a higher standard. As college students we are all trying to figure out who we are, and as we work that out we have to hold ourselves accountable to be true to our values and ideals. If we can't be true to ourselves, we cannot be honest and vulnerable with our chapter and create bonds that last for life. 


Lindsey Dortch - VP1

#PinkOutThePit

                  Pink Out games are a special event we like to share with the UNT community and especially the athletics department. To kick off our philanthropy events this semester, we got to pink out the super pit for a Pink Out basketball and there was a great turn out! Our chapter's Think Pink Committee did an amazing job on preparing everything and making last minute shopping hauls, banners, posters, and spreading the excitement for this first pink event of the semester. Our sisters and UNT supporters came to the game decked out in pink and ready to cheer on our men’s basketball team! We got to meet so many UNT fans, alumni, and even coaches who wanted to help support our cause and spread breast cancer education and awareness with us.

Passing out ribbons and spreading the pink love around is always an amazing experience. At every event that I have gone to and passed out ribbons at, at least one person always has gone out of their way to ask if they can have a ribbon because their life has been touched by breast cancer in some way. It truly shows how breast cancer has affected the world today and how big of a difference one person, and especially an organization, can make.

One special thing we decided to add to our philanthropy events this semester is a “Who do you fight for banner?” where anyone can write a name of someone who has been touched by breast cancer. After just this one Think Pink event, our banner is already filling up and it warms my heart to see that our chapter can help spread awareness to so many. 

I am so excited about the semester ahead of us and what philanthropic awesomeness it will bring! This Pink Out was just the beginning and it will only get better from here!

Christi Witten – Director of Philanthropy

Sun Salutations

        This semester I wanted to amp up our sisterhood events even more and mix things up, so I applied to be a part of our Program Council as sisterhood chairman. As a graduating senior I wanted to give back one more semester to my Gamma Phi chapter before I entered the alum world. When I turned in my program council application I was nervous, I really wanted this position and I wanted to help bring our sisterhood even closer. When I got the call I couldn't wait to start planning new and exciting events with my co-chair, Kat. What I didn't realize about the position was the amount of planning and scheduling that would be needed. I'm not the most organized person; I’m more of a “it'll all work out”, laid back kind of person. However within these few weeks I already feel like I've improved myself so much and am so thankful for this one last opportunity in our chapter before graduation.

So here we are, three weeks into the semester and two planned sisterhood events later; it's been stressful at times, but this event fell together so perfectly. With a couple weeks of school and stress under our belts, I thought it would be nice for my sisters to have some down time as we got to the end of the week. I wanted this sisterhood event to be about taking some time to reflect on each other and ourselves. So Kat and I planned a yoga session at the house followed by an exercise to help us see how highly we think of each other.

      As we began our sun salutations, nervous giggles arose. Our yoga instructor, Megan Presley, advised that we let down any mental walls we’d built up and to relax. To me this is what practicing yoga is all about; to remain open when you feel like closing, which is also something especially important when it comes to a strong sisterhood. For the next forty-five minutes, my sisters and I held two different warrior poses, chair pose, cobra and too many planks to count. There were a few difficult and awkward poses that Megan led us through, like the triangle and pigeon, and when our muscles started to quiver, we looked to each other for strength, seeing that our sisters were in the same boat, shaking legs and all. As the end came near we were all pretty relieved to lie on our backs and stretch out our worked muscles. 

     After wrapping up yoga, we all gathered in a circle and each sister got a wooden white letters for her name. We passed them around the circle and for each letter, we wrote a little message to its owner saying what we appreciated and enjoyed about them. The empty space on our bare letters soon filled up with sweet and encouraging words. As the event came to a close we all walked away with our letter and our sisters heart-warming comments that can now be hung on our walls as a reminder of how much we mean to each other here at Gamma Phi.

To me, sisterhood means walking into the Zeta house and being able to be your complete self. It means feeling comfortable enough to strike up a conversation with any one of our sisters and that is what makes our chapter so special. Kat and I look forward to planning many more successful sisterhood events like this to keep our sisters relaxed during a busy semester!

Jenny Herrera – Sisterhood Chair

We Live the Creed

The Zeta Tau Alpha creed is something each sister holds close to her heart. It is what guides us in all moments of life and creates the ideals of our sisterhood. To me, the first line of our creed means that Zeta Tau Alpha puts a lot of opportunities within reach for its sisters. These could be opportunities for leadership, sisterhood, or to better our academic vision. All of these things are put in our way to better us and to make us more "noble." Joining ZTA gives every sister opportunities she may never have been presented with otherwise and helps us to grow individually, as a chapter, and nationally. We work together as sisters to overcome challenges and appreciate all the wonders of being a part of this amazing organization. If Zeta Tau Alpha has taught me anything, it's how to turn my opportunities into dreams and my dreams into reality. 

Jordan Roberts - President 

A Grand ZLAM

BID DAY! BID DAY! BID DAY! The day I was dreading and excitedly dreaming about all at the same time. Dreading, because if something were to go wrong it would all fall on me. But dreaming about, because it’s the day we all come together to celebrate our beautiful and growing sisterhood and most importantly, welcome our most precious spring new member class. And let me tell you, precious they are! Gabby, Maddie, and Megan: the itty bittiest but most perfect little pledge class I could have ever imagined to be blessed with.

Our theme this spring was, “A League of Our Own, and a Place to Call Home.” So basically all-you-can-eat baseball and ‘Merica! Who would want it any other way? We had cotton candy, popcorn, all American corn dogs, delicious hamburgers, and red white and blue on every wall!

While there’s always stress and chaos getting all of the decorations set up and organized, the amount of love and support you feel when sisters who have no obligation to help at all come running to your rescue makes all the stress and chaos worth it. From sisters building giant wooden boxes with the American flag painted on them, to sisters going out late at night for last minute banner supplies and staying up to the wee hours of the morning out of the kindness in their heart to finish it, all the way to sisters driving you all around Denton to help you get food and décor when you know they probably have their own list of things to do. It’s in the times of stress and chaos that we lean on our sisters most. To be a part of a sisterhood where even at 3am, with bags under our eyes and acrylic paint all over our leggings, we still laugh together to the point of tears, is an incredible and unforgettable thing.

After the weeks of planning the theme and the food and the decorations and every tiny detail in between, it all became completely worth it when I peeked my head through the doors and saw three stunning new Zeta ladies standing right outside with the biggest smiles on their faces. It was such an amazing sight to see them as excited to be here as we were to have them here. So after getting the first glance at the 3 women making up our Spring Pledge Class of 2016, I close the door, and about 10 seconds later… “ZETA! Z-E-T-A-T-A-U-A-L-P-H-A! GIVES YOU LOVE AND SISTERHOOD EACH AND EVERY DAY!” We open the doors when we’re finished chanting and the three girls walked right in with huge smiles and open hearts.

While my sisters welcomed our new members, it was all I could do not to get emotional. I had the craziest goosebumps on my arms and the craziest butterflies in my stomach. Nothing could match the feeling I had at that moment. The excitement of having such amazing new members and the love I already felt for them as their pledge mom was unreal. There was an instant bond and that bond is Zeta Tau Alpha. I am so happy to welcome home these beautiful ladies and I can’t wait to see all of the amazing things they bring to this chapter.

WELCOME HOME SPRING ’16! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH ALREADY.

Zeta Love and Forever Mine,

Carly Armstrong – New Member Coordinator