Get to Know Alpha Beta Alumni Chapter!
We are the alumni chapter associated with the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy and are based out of Storrs. We are a fairly new chapter, reactivated with the graduating class of 2009, and have slowly become more active. One thing that makes our chapter unique is the diverse membership, as we have members located both in Connecticut and across the country. A number of our members are directly involved with the School of Pharmacy, many working professors, while others serve as preceptors and adjunct faculty members. Because so many of our members are closely affiliated with the University, many of our events are centered around the collegiate members.
What are your more popular events?
Some of our favorite events include the annual homecoming football tailgate and the P4 dinner, in which we celebrate the accomplishment of our graduating sisters and welcome them into the alumni chapter. These are our traditional events that we attend yearly, but we try to come up with different events each year that will promote attendance and interest the wide range of members that we have in our chapter. Some of the events we have done in the past that have had favorable attendance and reviews from members include a beach day in Rhode Island, a casino night, and dinner at a local restaurant. Now that we have a number of recent grads who remain active with the alumni chapter, we have taken this opportunity to share our experiences as new practitioners with the collegiate members. They have hosted us at the University for a residency Q & A, etiquette dinner, CV and resume workshop, P4 rotations talk, and Skype interviews with some of our members with questions about work/life balance and a day in the life of a pharmacy resident.
How do you keep sisters involved and engaged?
Many of our members are at that exciting point in their lives where they are finally settled into their careers and are celebrating weddings and becoming homeowners, so we have happily attended each other’s functions in the past few years. While these are not official fraternity events, they are certainly events we as sisters look forward to, and it keeps us involved and engaged as members as we celebrate successes and special moments in life. Aside from our events with the collegiate members, most of our communication and meetings are done electronically, so we are always thrilled when we have the opportunity to see each other in person. We also try to keep our more geographically distant members involved by providing opportunities for them to mentor the collegiate members through e-mail and participate in some of the Skype-based events that we have done more recently.
How does your chapter meet the Core Values of LKS?
We always try to incorporate the Core Values into our events in order to foster those behaviors in our collegiate members. So we have tried to share examples of how we demonstrate those values in our work. One event that the collegiate chapter arranged was based on the Core Value of Integrity, where we had the opportunity to share with the membership examples of how we demonstrate integrity both at work and in our personal lives. We are trying to integrate scholarship into our chapter by arranging for a CE day specifically for our LKS members, although many of our members will gather for UConn’s CE day and use that as a way to get in CE credits while catching up with our lamb friends! Many of us are involved
in other organizations and activities outside of LKS, where much of our community service is accomplished.
Some of our members volunteer through church, others through work, and many of us have donated to various causes such as hurricane relief. One thing that our chapter prides ourselves in is the annual scholarship fund that we have been able to donate to each year since the chapter was reactivated. This scholarship allows a first-time convention attendee to go free of charge. Some years, we were even able to award this scholarship to two members. Our members are always happy to donate to the Educational Trust, but one thing we hope to achieve in the near future is another scholarship for a member who exemplifies the Core Values.
If you are ever in Connecticut or passing through New England, we encourage you to stop by or reach out to us for guidance or just to see a friendly face when you’re exploring the area!
Chapter Spotlight: Alpha Beta Alumni