Mandi Barbarich
| Mandi Barbarich | |
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| Name | Mandi Barbarich |
| Chapter | Kappa California University of Pennsylvania |
| Date Inducted | April 26, 2008 |
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| Alumni Chapter/Assoc | |
| Honorary Member | |
| Major | Social Work, concentration in child welfare |
| Birthdate | March 22, 1989 |
| Spouse | n/a |
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| Awards | |
Amanda "Mandi" Barbarich is an Active Member of Kappa Chapter at California University of Pennsylvania. She is currently the longest serving active Brother of Kappa Chapter. She has served as Secretary for one and a half terms, Pledge Advisor for one term, and is currently the Head of the Alumni Relations Committee.
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Early Fraternity Life and Career
Mandi Barbarich came to California University in August 2007 as a freshman. She was the first person in her immediate family to attend a four year university program. Originally enrolled as an undecided major, Mandi changed her major several times before eventually settling on Social Work with a concentration in Child Welfare. In addition to Phi Sigma Pi, Mandi became very involved in the California University's Women's Center, where she worked part time. She still volunteers there, and is known on campus for her roles in the annual productions of the "Vagina Monologues", a feminist play about women and the obstacles they encounter. Mandi Barbarich pledged in the Spring 2008 semester. During her pledging process, she served as the Pledge Class historian. She was inducted with the Alpha Pi Mu pledge Class on April 26th, 2008. She has remained active since that semester. Her first semester as an active Brother was the Fall 2008 semester, during that time she served on the Scholarship/Accountability committee.
Collegiate Years at Kappa Chapter
After her first year as a brother, Mandi became the Recording/Corresponding Secretary of Kappa Chapter at the end of the Spring 2009 semester. Mandi's responsibilities including establishing a good working relationship with the National office, completely redoing the attendance policy that had been in place, but was no longer working for the Brothers, and trying new methods of communicating within the chapter to provide information to everyone. She redid the Phi Sigma Pi - Kappa Chapter Facebook page, succeeded in creating a working relation with the National office, and created a new attendance policy that was adopted into the By-Laws and is still used by the chapter to this day. In addition, Mandi also became the head of the Scholarship/Accountability committee. She used this position to plan many events, such as Tie-Dye Events, a Murder Mystery Party, and a trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo.
After her term as Secretary expired, Mandi ran again, and was re-elected as Secretary for the Fall 2010 semester, which served as an interim semester as the Chapter switched from academic year officers to calendar year. After her final semester as Secretary, she was elected as one of Kappa Chapter's pledge advisors. As pledge advisor, Mandi began trying new things to help Kappa Chapter's rush be successful. She started planning Rush events, such as UNO tournament nights, a "Balloons and Tunes" party, Tie-Dying, Mario Kart, and Capture the Flag. Not all of her events were unqualified successes, but her willingness to try new things really opened the eyes of the Chapter to the possibilities of Rush. She was very proud to report that Rush, which she considers her specialty, was an unqualified success the past two semesters. In September 2011, Kappa Chapter had over 70 people attending Rush events, compared to forty the semester previous, and twenty five the semester before. She credits this success to increased communication with the National Office and the fact that the Chapter is taking advantage of resources they never knew existed previously.
As Pledge Advisor, Mandi guides the current pledge class through the process, teaching them the history, and also instilling the values and beliefs in them that make members great Brothers. Mandi honestly is humbled every semester by watching the pledge class grow closer to each other and the Brothers. She is constantly surprised by the abilities of each Pledge Class, and has long standing relationships with each Brother she helped guide through the process. She had guided two Pledge Classes, Alpha Chi Kappa and Alpha Psi Phi. These two pledge classes are both larger than normal for Kappa Chapter, and Alpha Psi Phi was the largest pledge class Kappa Chapter has seen in recent years.
Currently, Mandi has left the Executive Board but continues to work on the newly formed, separate, Alumni Committee.
She has won numerous awards and superlatives from Kappa Chapter. She was named as part of the "Best Big/Little Duo" in the Spring 2009 semester, "Most Likely to Become a Soccer Mom" in the Spring 2010 Semester, "Kappa Brother of the Year" in the Fall 2010 semester, and "Miss Kappa" in the Spring 2011 semester. She was also runner up to Mercedes Himmons for Best Big Brother, an award given by the Alpha Upsilon Kappa Pledge Class.
Bigs and Littles
Mandi has three little brothers:
- Jessica Show - Spring 2009 Alpha Sigma Mu Pledge Class (Resigned)
- Amanda Wise - Spring 2010 Alpha Upsilon Kappa Pledge Class
- Ashley Isiminger - Fall 2010 Alpha Phi Zeta Pledge Class
She began as part of the Shitz family, but has broken off recently with her Littles and Grandlittles to restart the Untouchables family, an old family at Kappa Chapter that has been "dead" for several years.
Further Resources
Mandi can be emailed at bar5441@calu.edu
Other Interesting Facts
- Mandi is a Vegetarian
- Her favorite flowers are Daffodils
- Her favorite color is yellow
- She loves the Christmas season.
- She wants a huge family
- She loves dogs
- As is well known to the Brothers of Kappa Chapter, Mandi has an unnaturally strong hatred of Pop Tarts.
