Kappa Delta, Pi Kappa Phi, Phi Beta Sigma Win Greek Week Title

Kappa Delta, Pi Kappa Phi, Phi Beta Sigma Win Greek Week Title

The University of San Diego’s Greek Week, a friendly annual series of competitive and fun events that bring together the campus’ fraternity and sorority organizations while also raising funds for a worthwhile cause, concluded in a big way on March 31.

2017 USD Greek Week Skits

The skits competition, in which a fraternity and a sorority combine their students and their resources to create backdrop sets, create costumes, choreographed dances, act and entertain the audience and, most importantly, the judges, took place in the Jenny Craig Pavilion to wrap up a week of activities. 

Having a theme of using Pixar-created movies, each paired organization — there were a few groups with three Greek orgs — performed a 10-to-12-minute skit that incorporated a USD affiliated storyline from such films as Cars, Inside Out, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

When the night was all over, the trio of Kappa Delta, Pi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Sigma, who performed scenes in costumes from The Incredibles, finished second in the skit competition and it propelled them to win the overall Greek Week title. The group was also honored as the best fundraising group with more than $5,000 raised.

“It’s really great to see people who are so into it and so dedicated and we couldn’t have done it without everyone’s hard work and effort,” said USD Kappa Delta chapter president Nina Paoloni, a junior psychology major and economics minor after the final results were revealed. “It’s great to have girls and guys who are so passionate about in all aspects — fundraising, dancing, all of the events, they really gave it their all. It was awesome.”

Equally impressive was the entire USD Fraternity and Sorority Life community, which raised more than $14,500 to support the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Research Center. It will specifically aid in research work being done by a doctor there to support a current USD student and Greek Life member who is battling a type of stomach cancer known as a gastrointestinal stromal tumor.

Meanwhile, the winner of last Friday’s skit competition was the team of Kappa Alpha Theta and Beta Theta Pi, who performed a scene from Inside Out. Winning the skit event helped them finish second in the overall standings. Third place in the skit event was the trio of Pi Beta Phi, Lambda Chi Alpha and Alpha Pi Sigma. Third place in the Greek Week overall standings was Alpha Chi Omega and Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Other specific Greek Week awards went to Gamma Phi Beta and Phi Kappa Theta, who were honored for having the most spirited fan crowd; and Alpha Chi Omega and Sigma Phi Epsilon, who were recognized as having the best sportsmanship.

Greek Week’s other events from March 27-31 were a Philanthropy Night in which all Greek Life members worked with student organizers of the upcoming USD Relay for Life event (April 7-8) to help create luminaria bags, writing messages on cards for cancer patients and making tie blankets and activity bags for Ronald McDonald House at Rady’s Children’s Hospital; Coin Wars to fill jars with loose change that would go toward this year’s charity cause; Academic Bowl competition and a field day of activities.

The Greek Life community at USD is a vital part of the campus. Nearly 30 percent of USD's undergraduate student body is affiliated with one of its 18 student organizations, which are overseen by the Infraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council and USD’s Student Learning Involvement and Changemaking (SLIC). All members are committed to maintain five core values — social justice and selfless service, high social standards, leadership, academic excellence and sisterhood/brotherhood — and strive to develop strong friendships and leadership potential.

During Greek Week, the pairing of a fraternity and sorority happens randomly and it’s up to the teams to work together and seek to do their best.

“You start off as two chapters and usually, you don’t know each other that well. But over a couple of weeks, you get closer. I think that speaks well of USD’s Greek Life community because we’re very inclusive and everyone puts in the effort,” Paoloni said. “Across all of the teams, I think everyone came together and did a great job. All of the skits were great and all of the teams tried their best. It was awesome to see. It was really inspiring.”

Asked why The Incredibles movie was picked for their skit, Paoloni’s answer fit perfectly to her thoughts of being involved in the Greek community.

“Why The Incredibles? We just think Greek Life is incredible and we wanted to market that and show it off,” she said. “I know we take a lot of pride in our sisterhood and we’re so thankful to the Greek community for bringing that opportunity to us. We just wanted to show how incredible it is to be part of Greek Life, especially here at USD.” 

— Ryan T. Blystone