Phi Chi SXM

Here are a few shots from the beach BBQ! A beautiful day, the beach, cold drinks, good food and volleyball!

-Tyler Brinkman

Saturday’s beach BBQ/ volleyball tournament was an immense success. We had a beautiful day for the occasion, leading to a great turnout of students from every semester. There were a variety of beach games going on with students tossing Frisbees, footballs, and kicking around soccer balls, as well as the usual lounging on the beach. The team called “Sam’s army” consisting of John English, Connor Johnson, Mike Hobson, Brian Shelton, and Alexis Engle won the volleyball tournament. Congratulations!

Besides the great beach activities, we also had a fabulous layout of food and beverages. Redbull sponsored us by letting us use their tent along with donating many cases of Redbull. AMSA and Phi Chi were cooking up veggie burgers, cheeseburgers, and hotdogs. Special props belong to Ryan Hauser, Justin Shin, Damian Salerno, and Josh Mosdale for running the grills in such hot weather! Everything was great guys Props to everyone that went grocery shopping as well; I think that everyone worked well together to make this a memorable event.

The fun continued on Sunday with a pool party that Dr. Atchley graciously hosted for us as our last recruitment event until interviews on Tuesday. We had lunch catered by Rare as well as a variety of ice cream selections that Dr. Atchley picked up. Naturally, as a great blogger, I had to try all 5 ice cream flavors in order to give you the full facts =P. The coconut was my favorite, followed closely by the raspberry sorbet, although the mango ice cream had a divine texture and makes a close 3rd; the strawberry and Chocolate were tied for the finish. As for the meal, everything was absolutely superb. We had ribs, steamed broccoli/ carrots/ corn, salad, and a cheesy pasta. The pledges that came were a joy to get to know, and we look forward to getting to know them more tomorrow during our business casual interviews at 6:45pm in the ICM wing near LH1.

-Amanda Kennedy

Welcome avid blog readers to the official St. Maarten Phi Chi blog. As one of the new historians, I’ll be updating you on the latest and greatest from our Phi Chi chapter as my co-historian, Tyler Brinkman, will be capturing the action on camera. We look forward to documenting all that Phi Chi has to offer, including great social events, fundraisers, and service projects.

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At the end of last semester, Phi Chi donated $1000 towards a service trip to Yantalo, Peru lead by Dr Shupe and Dr. Vander Wang, which Phi Chi members Ryan Fisher, Zan Jafrey, and David Fromberg attended along with a larger group of students from AUC. While there, they taught kids about germs and CPR to the teachers and nurses at a local Hospital. Ryan commented that he really enjoyed the young students level of interest in their presentation; “Their energy and enthusiasm made it easier to struggle through our poor spanish to get the information out.  The really liked shouting out answers and interacting.”

The volunteer group also had the chance to put their book knowledge from AUC into practice during clinical situations; Ryan Fisher describes such an occasion, “One of my favorite times was when I had a conversation with one of the local ER doctors and he gave me an entire lecture/tutorial on med micro and pharm.  I was amazed, first that I could understand this complex conversation in Spanish, but also that my training here at AUC prepared me to know exactly what he was talking about with the bugs and preferred treatment for each.”

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This semester started off a little rough due to Hurricane Earl passing through. We had originally planned a volleyball tournament and beach bbq for the first weekend of the semester to welcome the new first semester students and to let them get to know the members of Phi Chi, but unfortunately the storm destroyed the volleyball court. This presented a chance for our first mini-service event to benefit the school and local community. Phi Chi will be purchasing a new volleyball net and re-setting the volleyball posts. The welcome bbq has also been re-scheduled to Saturday September 25^th at noon.

Interviews for new Phi Chi pledges will occur Tuesday September 28^th at 6:45pm. We’re looking forward to getting to know more about the future brothers and sisters of Phi Chi.

-Amanda Kennedy