Xi Beta
Hillsdale College
The Xi Beta Chapter of Hillsdale College enjoyed a busy and productive 2023-2024 academic year. Club members and officers met in August to plan events and select student leaders for the organization of each event.
In the fall of 2023, Hillsdale’s chapter held two events under the leadership of Co-Presidents Emma Sanders and Megan Draghiciu, Vice President Grace Umland, Secretary Catherine Draghiciu, and Treasurer Emma Turner. Emma Sanders and Emma Turner secured funding for these events from the Hillsdale College Student Federation and the Hillsdale College Spanish Department.
The first Sigma Delta Pi/Spanish Department event was a campus-wide Noche de Poesía co-sponsored by Sigma Delta Pi and Pi Kappa Delta, the rhetoric honorary society. Club President Emma Sanders recited poems written by Professor Olga Muñiz, a talented poet who taught in the Hillsdale College Spanish department for three decades. Students and faculty members recited poems in many different languages, and everyone enjoyed mock sangría and manchego cheese after the recitations.
For the second fall Sigma Delta Pi/Spanish Department event, Spanish Trivia Night, 12 teams of students answered trivia questions relating to the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures. Spanish faculty members and Sigma Delta Pi Co-President Emma Sanders asked questions, graded answer sheets, and kept track of trivia team scores. During the event on November 2, students enjoyed Day of the Dead pastries as they competed. Winning teams received gift cards for local restaurants.
In late November, the Hillsdale chapter of Sigma Delta Pi organized a caroling night at a local nursing home. Club members and Spanish department faculty members prepared a list of villancicos to sing at the Hillsdale County Medical Care Facility.
In the spring of 2024, Sigma Delta Pi celebrated the induction of the following new members: Ana Acuña, James Bieser, Nicholas Cain, Kaeleigh Di Cello, Reese Dragovich, Miranda Heid, Elizabeth Hook, Jason Lu, Lily Ann Maciejewski, Katelyn Mitchell, Leah O’Donnell, Ashley Poole, Zachary Rinas, Ellyana Tierney, Sarah Trimbath, and Chiara Vaccaro. This brought membership to 30 students! All enjoyed refreshments that included Sigma Delta Pi logo cupcakes and mock sangria, and student members elected the 2024-2025 Sigma Delta Pi officers as follows: President Emma Turner, Vice President Grace Umland, Secretary Ana Acuña, and Treasurer Jason Lu.
The final Sigma Delta Pi/Spanish Department event for the 2023-2024 academic year was Venezuelan Culture Night. Dr. María Eugenia de Carreño taught students how to make Venezuelan arepas (corn cakes), reina pepiada, and carne mechada. Students enjoyed these foods and Venezuelan candies while Professor Víctor Carreño showed an excerpt from the film The Twilight of Magical Socialism. Dr. Carreño also led a very moving discussion about how Venezuelans suffered under President Hugo Chávez and continue to suffer under President Nicolás Maduro.
The chapter’s academic year ended with news that Hillsdale had been named an honors chapter for the first time in its history, and it also won the Premio Fénix for the 2023-2024 academic year. The chapter is grateful for its enthusiastic chapter members, for the generous financial support of the Hillsdale College Student Federation and the Hillsdale Spanish Department, and for the Hillsdale College Spanish professors who serve as partners in sharing Spanish and Latin American culture with the Hillsdale College community.
