Monmouth's Alpha Xi Delta chapter receives national awards for philanthropy, academic excellence
Monmouth, IL (09/05/2019) — Monmouth College's Beta Epsilon chapter of the women's fraternity Alpha Xi Delta brought home two awards from the organization's national conference in Seattle this summer, and the chapter has also started the academic year well with good results during Recruitment Week.
Chapter president Jordan Utter '20 of Germantown Hills, Ill., attended the July conference, where she collected the Changing the Future Award for philanthropy, as well as an award for academic excellence. The latter award was presented to chapters that maintained a grade-point average of 3.0 or above for the 2018 calendar year.
Utter said the philanthropy award "is based on the number of people you have in your chapter and how you did with your philanthropy efforts."
The Beta Epsilon chapter supports Autism Speaks, Alpha Xi Delta's national philanthropy.
"We try to help educate people about what autism is and tell them how they can be helpful with the effort and help people who have autism function better," said Utter. "Nationally, we just hit $10 million raised for autism over the last 10 years."
Perhaps the most visible sign of the Beta Epsilon chapter's commitment to autism is shining a blue light on the Wallace Hall cupola on World Autism Awareness Day on April 2. Chapter members also raise awareness for autism that day by dyeing the cream cheese blue in the Einstein Brothers Bagels shop in Hewes Library.
"One of the events I attended at the national conference was the Philanthropy Breakfast," said Utter. "We went over what we'd done and what we hope to do. We heard from a family - a mother and her son - about how the Autism Speaks campaign has helped them and how much her son enjoys interacting with the Alpha Xis."
While in Seattle, Utter also attended breakout sessions on mental health, diversity and inclusion, and changes to Alpha Xi Delta's new member program, among other presentations.
In August, Utter was part of a recruitment effort in her chapter that brought in 14 new members. The total membership now stands at 49, with room for 18 Alpha Xis in their Victorian-style house on Broadway, across from Wallace Hall.
Looking ahead to the rest of the fall semester, Utter said her chapter has several philanthropy efforts planned to benefit autism, including the return of AXD's Mac-n-Xis fundraiser and helping out for a couple days at Pizza Ranch in Galesburg.
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Jordan Utter '20 of Germantown Hills, Ill., is pictured at Alpha Xi Delta's national conference in Seattle in July.