Kathryn Lieber
| Kathryn Lieber | |
 | |
| Name | Kathryn Lieber |
| Chapter | Delta Chi Lehigh University |
| Date Inducted | Spring 2005 |
| Roll Number | (ΔΧ 168) |
| Alumni Chapter/Assoc | New York Metropolitan Area Alumni Chapter |
| Honorary Member | Zeta Alpha (ZA 53 at UC San Diego) |
| Major | BA: Theatre and Design Arts, MFA: Scenic Design |
| Birthdate | March 20, 1986 |
| Spouse | |
| Nicknames | Kat |
| Awards | Most Dedicated Brother Award ( Spring 09, Spring 08, Fall 07), Most Outstanding Fellowship Award (Spring 08, Fall 08) |
Kathryn Lieber (born 20 March 1986) is an Alumni Member of Delta Chi Chapter (ΔΧ 168) at Lehigh University, an Honorary Member of Zeta Alpha Chapter at UC San Diego (ZA 53), and a member of NYMAAC.
Contents
Early Fraternity Life and Career
As a freshman at Lehigh University, Kathryn received the now familiar Phi Sigma Pi invitation letter at the start of Spring semester 2005. Thinking it was an elaborate hoax set up by upperclassmen to throw water balloons at Freshmen (for 'honor' and 'fraternity' were not often in the same sentence at Lehigh), Kathyrn attended a Delta Chi info session wanting to be a part of what was sure to be the best prank ever. The end of the session came and the water balloons did not. Her curiosity was piqued. So she attended the rush events hoping to gain a better understanding of this group. By the end of rush she still did not understand what an Honor Fraternity was, but she enjoyed the people and the events and needed to find her niche in college life. So with an invitation to attend pref events, and later an initiate pin, Kathryn decided she would continue with Phi Sigma Pi until it stopped being fun.
Collegiate Years at Delta Chi Chapter
Spending only one semester as "just" a brother, she jumped into leadership and was elected Historian in the Spring of 2006. She dedicated her term as Historian to expanding the position into a more integrated member of the exec board with more of a presence within the chapter.
She organized the business of taking pictures at events to ensure that all events were covered, worked to further the practice of records keeping- digitizing much that used to be only in hard copy and setting up back-up best practices, and made it a term goal to update all Brother Info Pages (a binder that contained basic info of all the brothers so that potential Rushes and Initiates could quickly see the diverse and interesting range of brothers that Delta Chi offered). Her predecessor, Scott Menzer, had moved the Historian position into the 21st century by doing away with mandating that the Historian make a physical scrapbook in favor of a digital slideshow instead. However, by the time Kathryn came along, the budget still stated that she could only use her allocated funds to buy paper and glitter. She changed this to allow her to be able to purchase DVDs and could therefor burn a copy of the semester's slideshow for each brother.
Kathryn also worked to give the Historian a more active role within the chapter. Noticing that morale was dropping, and so was the chapter's knowledge of its own and national history, Kathryn started giving the Historian something to say during officer reports. She reinstated the tradition of the Historian giving an "Of The Day" as part of their report. Kathryn presented a Fact Of The Day, sometimes in quiz format with prizes, that reintroduced the chapter to important, interesting, or funny facts from the fraternity's past. Kathryn also presented a Brother Of The Day, highlighting one brother each week by showing off their Brother Info Page and reacquainting the chapter with that brother.
After one term as Historian, Kathryn spent the rest of her undergraduate years, including one bonus year as a "graduated student" by pointing out a loophole in the alumni policy allowing 5th year students not taking graduate classes to remain active in the chapter, as a Brother at Large. She helped to establish the role of this position within the chapter making the Brothers at Large in charge of chapter morale and resolving intra-chapter disputes. During her time in this role, Kathryn shifted the planning of the annual Brotherhood Retreat to the BALs, initiating a revamped retreat program with fun themes.
With her big having graduated shortly after her induction, she was a family of one, but was resolute in maintaining her family line. To this end she broke the linear family tradition and adopted 5 littles over the course of her time in Delta Chi, encouraging them to each go forth and prosper as well. She also changed the family colors to tie dye.
Alumni Years to Present
- former Alumni Advisor for Zeta Alpha Chapter, now happy that they have local alumni to fulfill this role but she still reads their minutes, newsletters, and facebook posts and offers advice when she can. Kathryn is always happy to see their names and faces pop up in national news and can't be prouder
- was an active member of New York Metropolitan Area Alumni Chapter while living within the city limits and continues to participate as much as possible with her 4 hour commute to the city
- a recent addition to the Greater Boston Area Alumni Association eboard as the Webmaster/PR Chair and is excited to help drum up more interest in her new home Phi Sigma Pi organization
After graduating from Lehigh in 2008, and actually leaving the school in 2009, Kathryn enrolled in a graduate program pursuing an MFA in scenic design from the University of California, San Diego. Upon announcing this intention on Facebook, brothers quickly informed her that Phi Sigma Pi was looking to expand in the West and she should contact Ryan DeGuzman and offer to help. Which she, of course, did.
After a slow start, Ryan and Kathryn started the fledgling Zeta Alpha Chapter and Kathryn continued to guide and advise the young chapter while at UCSD. She served as their first Alumni Advisor and was admitted as an honorary brother of the chapter in her last year at the school. While she passed on many more important bits of knowledge to the new brothers of Zeta Alpha, such as guiding them through forming a risk management policy, how to create quality events on a budget, and what the national organization can offer to a then-isolated chapter, she is most proud of her efforts to transform their induction ceremony into something memorable. Held outside in garden created by a famous San Diego citizen overlooking the town of La Jolla, the final knighting takes place with views of the stunning Mormon Temple and with a cake.
While living in SoCal, Kathryn finally had the opportunity to attend the Alumni Convention hosted in Las Vegas, a short 5 hour drive from San Diego. There she reconnected with brothers from Lehigh and met new friends through her plaintive missive on Facebook looking for an open spot in a shared hotel room. Andrew Berman offered her a spot and effectively started the next chapter of Kathryn's Phi Sigma Pi journey.
Wishing San Diego farewell, while constantly reminding ZA to keep in touch, Kathryn moved to Queens, NY and connected with NYMAAC through her Las Vegas friend, Andrew Berman. Proving the lasting power of Phi Sigma Pi, Kathryn became fast friends with many of the brothers in New York and even found work through their advice and by working directly with Kate McConnell. After being the token theatre student in her undergraduate chapter, it was great to finally be in a community where she could actually take advantage of all the great networking Phi Sigma Pi can offer. Proving NYMAAC deserves their Most Outstanding Alumni Chapter award, they made this new recruit feel extra welcome by making attending a performance of one of her first shows in the city, Company, a fraternity event. Andrew Berman also introduced Kathryn to the Big Apple Corps marching band, bringing the Phi Sigma Pi Marching Band roster up to 4 including Lindsay Becker and Courtney Pike.
Because staying in one place would be too easy, and because despite Kate's best efforts Kathryn wasn't making enough money to pay her rent, she moved to Boston to try her hand at trade show design, and in doing so, moved into a new PSP region. It was a rough transition as Kathryn had just been elected to NYMAAC eboard and had to use her first action as a member to resign her position. She still travels to New York many weekends both for marching band and fraternity events and does her best to keep up with the brothers there, often getting the comment "Didn't you move to Boston?" when she shows up at an event.
Now a proud member of GBAA, and their newest Webmaster and PR Chair, Kathryn has enjoyed reconnecting with fellow Delta Chi alumn Jeremy Tallman and meeting new friends. She has helped to institute a monthly event, Third Tuesday Dinner, and probably brings up NYMAAC too often. Kathryn is hoping to use her position to drum up more interest in the association and hopefully usher the group into chapterhood.
National Involvement
Kathryn hopes that someday National events will stop being held in places she just was or will be soon and will instead be held close to where she currently is.
- She had a great time at Alumni Convention 2011 in Las Vegas, at the 2013 Tri Chapter weekend in NYC, and the 2014 Tri Chapter weekend in Atlantic City.
- Kathryn gate crashed National Convention 2013 in Philadelphia, and officially registered for the banquet making it hard to determine if she has actually been to this convention or not. Either way, she had a great time and got to accept the Most Outstanding Alumni Chapter Award with NYMAAC. She attended National Convention 2015 in D.C. registering as full participant and peanut for the first time.
- Kathryn returned to Delta Chi to attend the 2013 East Region Conference with other NYMAAC brothers to partake in the alumni panel.
Bigs and Littles
Kathryn Lieber's Big Brother is Alon Abramson, who is also an Alumnus.
Kathryn has 5 Little Brothers:
- James Blaney, Alumnus
- Heather Wilson, Alumna
- Perri Alex, Alumna
- Brian Lindeboom, Alumnus
- Johnathan Kuhn, Resigned
Further Resources
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