Kat Clark

Kat Clark
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Name	Kat Clark
Chapter	Beta Kappa Clemson University
Date Inducted	Spring 201o
Roll Number
Alumni Chapter/Assoc
Honorary Member
Major	English - Writing and Publication Studies and Performing Arts - Voice
Birthdate	April 22
Spouse
Nicknames
Awards	Spirit of Phi Sigma Pi 2011

Kat and Beta Kappa Alumnus Chelsea Weithman at the 2011 First Friday Parade

Katherine "Kat" Clark (born April 22, 1991) is an Collegiate Member of Beta Kappa at Clemson University [1].

Early Fraternity Life and Career

Kat came to Clemson University as an awkward Freshman in 2009, moving a whopping 40 minutes from her home in Greenville, SC. Because she, like all PNMs, excelled in academics, she received in her second semester a fateful email from Beta Kappa inviting her to come to an information night. She, who was already feeling gung-ho about academics after joining the Calhoun Honors College that semester, decided to pledge the fraternity, in hopes that it would encourage that gung-ho feeling to last.

As a Freshman she also joined the High 5 Club and became a DJ for the campus radio station WSBF, both of which she still participates. Since her Freshman year she has also joined several other respected organizations such as Kappa Alpha Theta (joining the ranks of the many Beta Kappa "Brosters," a.k.a. the Sisters in Theta/any other sorority who happen to also be Brothers in Phi Sigma Pi), Order of Omega (Greek Honors Society), Sigma Tau Delta (English Honors Society - and yes, she did realize the humor of the name), and Mortar Board (Senior Honors Society). She also successfully managed to find time to serve as a Major Mentor for the Arts, Architecture, and Humanities college, work in the Brooks Center box office, and participate in performing arts productions.

Collegiate Years at Beta Kappa Chapter

In Spring of 2010 Kat pledged Phi Sigma Pi, among a beaucoup (around 65!) of other newbies. As the pledge process wore on the number of pledges was whittled down, until final vote where in her interview she was asked to sing for the Brothers (she sang the German Art Song "Lachen und Weinen" by Shubert). Having impressed the Brothers enough with her skill she became 1 of 24 remaining pledges to be initiated into Beta Kappa as the Alpha Eta class. Her Big was Parliamentarian Beth Parris, who was in her final semester at Clemson. While she was an awesome person, she was somewhat slack as a Big and has therefore not maintained a relationship with her Little since graduating in the Spring of 2010.

As a new Brother, and still quite shy, she did not step up to serve in any leadership positions in her first official semester. This changed Sophomore year when she became Semi/Formal chair, in charge of organizing both of those events. With the experienced help of Brother Annsley Troxell, both events went well. She also had the opportunity that year to attend the Mid-South regional conference at Kennesaw State in Georgia, where she got to meet a lot cool people from other schools and learn how they run their chapters.

At the end of Sophomore year Kat ran for the Executive Board position of Written Historian and won with the goal of having better, more streamlined showcase of Beta Kappa's events, as well as a clearer, more updated look at the chapter's history, which over the years had become lost. In Fall of 2011, Kat was honored to be awarded with the highest chapter award given: the prestigious Spirit of Phi Sigma Pi award, for embodying all three points of the tripod: Scholarship, Leadership, and Fellowship.

In Spring of 2011 she took on her first official Little, Melissa "Luke" Hibdon (her first Little, Kathryn Woodward, dropped before becoming a Brother). Luke is a super awesome Little who loves to go to Moe Joe's coffee house and hangout and just be awesome all around.

As Written Historian she created several projects with the goal of promoting the chapter history:

• The Beta Kappa Tumblr blog was created in September of 2011, as a fun, streamlined way to track Beta Kappa events, as well as show-off/share ideas to other chapters. Fun fact: Beta Kappa was the first to create a Tumblr PSP chapter blog. You can check out the BK blog here.

• The Little Lampadion newsletter: The editions of the newsletter, which basically served as a tangible copy of the BK blog and can now be seen on the Tumblr, featured Highlighted/outstanding events, Brother's birthdays, BroTips, upcoming events, and most importantly the Brother of the Month interviews. The newsletter had three editions (once a month) in Fall of 2011, but has since been put on hold indefinitely due to Kat's busy rehearsal schedule in Spring of 2012, and may be absorbed into the Tumblr all together.

• She is currently working, with the help a few dedicated Brothers and Alumni, on the enormous task of updating the the Beta Kappa family trees, as well as making a concise record of early Beta Kappa history (especially it's inception).

• With the help of Fellowship Historian Elizabeth Hafner she is planning a kick-ass senior day (update: The event, held at Y-Beach with the additional help of Social Chair Julie Weigand and the social committee, was a great success even though it rained!)

In the Spring of 2012 Kat reran for the position of Written Historian and won! She has continued to maintain the blog but has absorbed the Little Lampadion into the blog. The Brother of the Month interviews are still being held but they are now in video form and published on the blog.

In August of 2012 Kat attended Nationals, hosted at the Double Tree Universal Studios in Orlando, Fl, with President Chase Burbage and VP Liz Herlihy. It was one of the most amazingly fun, and crazy weeks she had ever attended. She made lots of friends and plenty of contacts in other chapters as well as on the National Level. It was there that she got to meet the legendary Beta Kappa alum/VP of Finances Matt "Fresh" Nicolletta and his wife, Juana.

Due to the contacts made at Nationals, Kat was also appointed to be the ICR chair for BK that year. She is currently working on advertising BK's first ICR event, a semi-formal masquerade dance held at The Vault in Seneca, in recent years. She is also in charge of planning formal in the spring and will be working to make that an ICR event as well.

Kat also created a book club for Beta Kappa to promote the Tripod (but especially scholarship). The club meets once a month for an hour to discuss what was read. The first meeting was on Sept. 27, 2012 and she discussed Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris in the Academic Success Center.

Also in Fall of 2012, Kat was approached by Emily Mattison to be her Big after Emily's original Big (and Kat's pledge class president), Sarah Johnson, was expelled. Kat gladly accepted and now has two awesome Littles to call her own.

Alumni Years to Present

Kat plans to graduate in Fall of 2013. As far as what she will do with her life, it's up in the air. She has plans to take the GRE and possibly go to graduate school for Arts Administration. If she could just get a job straight out of College in that field that would be lovely. Applying for Teach for America is also a solid option in her book.

Basically, Kat is going to figure out life as it comes to her.

Bigs and Littles

Kat and her Little Luke

Kat and her Little Emily going to an 80s party.

Kat's Big Brother is Beth Parris, who was serving as Parliamentarian when Kat Joined. Beth was a very fun, cool girl who was in her graduating semester at Clemson and therefore unfocused on new members, resulting in a very slack (but still lovable Big). She did, however, gain brownie points after she gave Kat (among other random things) a giant roll of bubble wrap for her little gift. Sadly, she has since lost touch with her Big. Today, she and her descendants form the PartyKat Family (a name created by her Little, Luke), a sub-family of the larger Nacho family. As of Fall 2012, there are 9 active Brothers in the PartyKat line.

Kat currently has two Littles:

• Melissa "Luke" Hibdon [Spring 2011]
• Emily Mattison [Adopted Fall 2012]

Two Grand Littles:

• Allie O'Brien [Luke's Little - Fall 2011, expelled Fall 2012]
• Meg Delarm [Luke's Little - Spring 2012]
• Lauren Ball [Luke's Little - Spring 2012]
• Chelsea Waller [Luke's Little - Adopted Fall 2012]
• TBA [Emily's Little - Fall 2012]

Two Great Grand Littles:

• TBA [Chelsea's Little - Fall 2012]
• TBA [Meg's Little - Fall 2012]

Further Resources

Check out the Beta Kappa Tumblr: Beta Kappa Tumblr