Vannessa’s Farewell

It’s the end of another semester in APO. But for me, this also marks the end of my time in Alpha Phi Omega as an undergraduate. In thinking about what graduating from USC and leaving APO means for me, I can’t help but reminisce on what being in this organization for the past three years has done.

Coming to USC, I was a very quiet, shy, and heavily introverted person. I had no free time and would rather spend my nights studying my books than going out. But my sophomore year, I wanted to change that. I wanted to see what more I could do with my college experience. I had never heard of APO, but I will never forget that enormous sea of blue rush shirts at the Involvement Fair my spring semester.

Chi Class Spring 2011

I was never one to want to get to know people, but being a part of the rush population forced me to get out of my comfort zone and open up to others. This experience was magnified even more when I officially pledged in Spring 2011, Chi class. I learned to be comfortable in having small talk with others; I learned to not be afraid in expressing myself and my interests. I learned to make friends.

From then on, I continued to take the steps of being part of a new family. I have also had the fortune of being on Executive Board in each of the six semesters I’ve been in APO. From pledging I wanted to prove my worth and commitment to my class from the get-go; so I became the Chi Class Secretary. The semester after that in Fall 2011 I was Psi Class’ Sergeant-at-Arms. Spring 2012, Omega semester, I was the Rush Co-Chair, and thankfully was able to reprise that position the following semester with the Alpha Alpha class. For Spring 2013, I was elected President of our chapter. This past semester I served as the President Emeritus. Being in all these positions helped me bring out the courage that was buried deep inside me, a strength I honestly didn’t even know I had. I learned how to use my voice and be comfortable with speaking in front of a large audience every week. Each semester I wanted to do my job to the best of my ability. I kept asking myself, “What more can I do to benefit this organization? How can I contribute my heart and drive to help my brothers move forward?” I could only hope that through my work I was able to accomplish those desires. That’s what APO does to you. If you’re committed enough, it challenges you. It brings out the best in you. It changes you into a person who is better than you ever thought you could become. It broadens your horizons, makes you more cognizant of the human condition, and makes you realize that you have importance in this world. That you do make a difference; and I can attest that APO has definitely done all these things for me.

Alpha Alpha Westwood Invasion

For the brothers reading this, know that I will miss you greatly. You all don’t know the kind of impact you have made in my life, and this is honestly something I cannot express adequately in words. You were the ones who helped me come out of my shell and be more sociable. You gave me your shoulder to cry on when I was repeatedly in my lowest moments. You made me laugh and smile to brighten my day and helped me remember that everything would be okay. The best days of my life have been with you guys.

I know a lot of you because I either checked you into meetings every week, or coordinated a welcoming rush experience for you. And in having you guys as co-workers, classmates, mentees, you all have become a very integral part of my life. In constantly seeing you, interacting with you, sharing with you, going places with you, accomplishing goals with you, you all have become my family. And in seeing so many of you guys rise up to become our organization’s leaders, you don’t know how much that makes me smile. I am too happy to see your dedication and love in this organization grow to different levels. Everything that you do to take the principles of LFS to your very core, inspiring others to do the same…it just makes me really proud!

So, thank you to everyone. Thank you Psi class. Thank you Omega class. Thank you Alpha Alphas. Thank you Alpha Betas. And of course, shout out to my Chi bro Jeff Su! Thank you for literally being the best pledge brother ever and sticking around with me this far! And to the Alpha Gammas, many congratulations to you on being initiated as full-fledged brothers of our chapter. I hope that you never lose sight of what drew you to this organization. That you’ll continue to be inspired by your brothers and do what you can to make an impact on APO.

Alpha Phi Omega is too big a part of my life that I can’t leave it forever. I promise, I will definitely come back as an alumna! But until then, you all take care. Take care of yourselves. Take care of your fraternity. Take care of your community. Please, don’t think of our motto as just repeated words you say every week but take them to heart, as words you can and should definitely live by.

I can’t thank you guys enough for your presence in my life, but I’ll say it one more time. Thank you, my brothers. Thank you, my family. I’ll miss you guys so much, but I love you dearly.

Forever in Leadership,
Forever in Friendship,
Forever in Service,
Forever Your Brother,

Vanessa

Benefit Concert for Monday Night Mission–Ryan Ochoa

On Friday, November 22nd, we held our annual benefit concert at Ground Zero Performance Café. The money raised will be donated to Monday Night Mission, a nonprofit organization that works to provide meals, blankets and other necessities to the homeless population on Skid Row. There was a wonderful lineup that consisted of Clara C, Drew Tabor, Shawn Halim and Katie Stump.

Shawn Halim Music started the show off on a good foot by pumping the crowd up with their infectious sound. Next, Katie Stump’s captivating voice demonstrated her beautiful song-writing skills. Drew Tabor (who has an amazing Super Bass cover on Youtube) has an infectious voice and played the guitar beautifully. The star of the night was Clara C, a YouTube artist that became popular after winning various competitions. You can check out all of these artists on Youtube, which I would highly recommend.

I personally had a blast working on the committee. I was specifically a part of the public relations committee and our goal was to get as many people as possible to know about the concert. Thanks to our wonderful chair, Joanne Zhu, we were able to get featured on the Daily Trojan as well as the kiosk located near Campus Center. This combined with social media efforts as well as spreading flyers around campus led to an extremely successful turnout, even with the chilly rain. I think this was a good experience partially because I was able to see all the work that goes into planning an event. Every detail was carefully thought over and executed amazingly. From ordering CPK for the band, to getting tables in order to fundraise, to calling numerous companies in order to get donations to actually getting an artist as big as Clara C to perform, the committee devoted countless hours to planning this event.

A memorable part of the night for me was sitting at a table with Clara and some other people from the committee. What surprised me was how normal she was. She was checking her phone, talking to us about college and asking where the nearest Starbucks was. In fact, a member of one of the other bands even mistook her for a student, asking what her major was. I suppose I would have thought the same if it was not for her discussing her recent tour across the United States and marriage. She was interested in our lives to and we told her about some of our brothers. She cracked up as she scrolled down the Shit Alpha Beta’s Say Tumblr on her phone. During this whole conversation, she was scribbling down and scratching out titles of various songs on a little piece of paper. 10 minutes before she was expected to perform, she asked us what we wanted to hear. She had just gotten off of tour and wanted to do something new. Over all, I found her lovely and someone I would want to be friends with.

During her set, she unapologetically admitted that there was a mishap with the scheduling and her band was not there. If anything, this made the performance more intimate. We were all astonished by her unique vocals and mesmerizing stage presence. Everybody crammed near the stage hoping to get closer to this clearly talented and rising star. She joked with the audience and was a beautiful closer to a fun and memorable night. Afterwards some lucky audience members got to meet her as well as the rest of the committee but I unfortunately had to leave (to study for Final Boards). I found the back of a nametag sticker so I decided to write a love note on it to Clara. It was beautifully written and I poured all my heart out (it said I heart u-Ryan). Surprisingly, she actually saw the note and responded by recording a video calling me the “sweetest thang ever.”

I really enjoyed the event and one thing Clara said really stuck with me. I’m paraphrasing, but essentially she expressed that usually when she plays at smaller events like this, they are poorly planned. She said this was not the case of our event and that it was really well planned. I think this all shows how we worked together and supported each other. Huge props to Michelle Kang who chaired the event and made the evening a huge success. I cannot wait until next year!

Related articles

• Alpha Phi Omega to hold benefit show for Skid Row (dailytrojan.com)

Why I’m Glad I Found APO

I remember when I was learning about social psychology in AP Psych, my teacher said, “I guarantee it, when you guys come back to visit from college, you guys will all be wearing your fraternity or sorority sweaters. ALL OF YOU!” Though his claim was a bit absolute, he wasn’t wrong. A great majority of us do find ourselves joining an organization or a fraternity of some sort. So, how do you know which one is the right one for you?

I joined APO fall during the fall semester of my sophomore year, which meant that I had quite sometime to explore my options to find the right organization for me. In retrospect, I’m glad I found APO because it really was the right organization for me. And here’s the number of reason why I was glad I found APO:

LA Food Bank- January 2013

1. Service

I was in a community service club in high school, so when I was searching for service-related organizations in college, APO was one that really spoke to me. They offered a wide range of service opportunities like, serving food at Monday Night Mission (a homeless shelter on Skid Row), walking dogs with Furbaby Rescue and many more! The best part of it was that I was give the opportunity to participate in those service events during rush so I can be sure of my decision to join the organization. And boy was I glad that I did! There are service events almost everyday, so no matter what kind of busy schedule I had, there were always time to service the community.

Beach Clean Up, November 2012

2. Friendship

A great factor of APO that all the brothers would agree with me about is that as we’re doing service, we’re also having fun with our friends. For example, volunteering at the LA Regional Food Bank is another regular service project that we do. We usually get paired up when it comes to sorting the foods, and it’s a wonderful way to catch up with your friends!

Service aside, since friendship is another one of our cardinal principles, there are a lot of fun activities–like beach trips, scavenger hunts (the options really are limitless!)–to hang out with fellow brothers/friends.

3. Leadership/professional development 

During pledge meetings, there would be leadership development workshops that helps the pledges become better leaders. One that I remember the most was a work shop led by Eric Chao demonstrating the various types of leaders people are.

However, there are over 20 leadership/eboard positions that our members can run for. Also, for pledges they can run for pledge e-board, too! I’m currently serving as the PR chair, and I’m a PR major. I’m learning so much with this position, and it’s a terrific opportunity for me to apply what I’ve learned in my PR classes.

4. A second family

One of the best things a fraternity has to offer is the experience of being a part of a pledge class. I was blessed with having warm, loving pledge brothers and a pledge team that always had my back and really heightened my APO experience. One of my favorite memories was going on a Thanksgiving road trip with some of my pbros!

Are you excited to create your own fun memories!? Hope you find the org that you will some day look back and laugh about the great memories!

Joanne

Message from the President

Welcome to the Alpha Phi Omega-Alpha Kappa blog! Alpha Phi Omega is the nation’s largest co-educational service fraternity, but we don’t stop there. We even have chapters in the Philippines and Australia! The main purpose of APO is to develop leadership, to promote friendship, and to provide service to humanity and thus, our vision is to be recognized as the premier service-based leadership development organization.

Here at USC, APO has helped serve the university with many activities and events such as Friends and Neighbors Day and Spirits at Troy to create a better campus community for all Trojans. Off campus, we have established great relationships with many organizations in the greater Los Angeles community to help serve anyone and everyone that we can! This includes the sheltered dogs that we take on weekly walks, students all ages to whom we provide educational services and especially for the young kids, our energy for recess, and the homeless on Skid Row that we help feed through organizations such as Monday Night Mission and United Rescue Mission. APO has such a large variety of service events that you will most definitely be able to find events that you have your heart set on or if you just want to have a little taste of everything, that works too!

Of course, none of this would exist without our fellow brothers. My APO brethren are a solid group of dependable, driven, and dynamic individuals, who are dedicated to providing service to the campus, community, fraternity, and nation and APO has such a large group of diverse personalities, hobbies, and interests that there is a place for everyone (some of my closest friends and my best friend are from APO)! Personally, I was looking for an organization that was similar to a club that I was a part of in high school, which was heavily service based and members were like a family and for me, APO was the perfect match. For the past two years, cliche as it may sound, this group of people has really challenged me to step out of my comfort zone to try new things, explore new possibilities, and look at things in a different light. I can say without a doubt, that being a part of APO is an unforgettable experience, the whole sha-bang!

I really encourage you to look through our rush page to find out more about us and if you feel like it’s something you are looking for, we welcome you to join us at one of our many rush events! If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact me and I will gladly help you out. We hope that you have a great fall semester and we wish you luck on your future endeavors as a Trojan! Fight on!

In LFS,

Michelle Kang

Alpha Phi Omega-Alpha Kappa President

president.apousc@gmail.com