Tri-Kap Blog

This term saw great success athletically for the brotherhood teams in our intramural competitions. With a championship title in IM Soccer and a 2nd place finish in IM Volleyball, our brothers continue to show that our hard work and dedication to athletics is a strong part of Tri-Kap. 
Led by brilliant play from club soccer players Anka Tezcan '15 and Hector Iturbe '16, the brothers of Tri-Kap prevailed 2-0 in the championship game against the Thayer engineers soccer team. The team had an undefeated championship run, tying only once against the Thayer team earlier in the season. 

The Championship Team
Coming off our IM Soccer championship, the brotherhood placed 2nd in the IM Volleyball tournament, narrowly losing to the AXA team in the finals.
We look forward to carrying these successes into the next term, when the brotherhood will participate (and win!) in IM Basketball, IM Hockey, and IM Tennis.
YiK,Aaron Goone '14

Our annual Tri-Kap Haunted House was a huge success, seeing many community members and their children attend and get scared by our new members. Families were able to have fun at stations run by co-hosting sororities (KKG, Tri-Delt, AZD, KD, etc) and then take a tour of our overhauled basement, transformed into a haunted house maze that elicited quite a few scares from children and adults alike. A huge thank you to Manav Raj '15, the Philanthropy Chair who organized and advertised the event as well as the new members who executed the haunted house and scared with perfection.

Take a look at some of the pictures taken during the event:

Jake Bayer '16 as Mr McGibblets from The League
Kevin Kim '16 setting up the maze








YiK,Aaron Goone '14

Thank you to everyone who showed up to make this Homecoming 2013 one of the best yet! We had a great weekend of festivities that kicked off early with Homecoming meetings on Wednesday, which featured a surprise early arrival of some '12 alums and an event with Alpha Phi sorority afterwards. The traditional Homecoming shenanigans continued Thursday and into Friday, including a large invite-only event with Kappa Delta sorority and Sig Ep fraternity immediately after the bonfire and a dance party featuring our very own Max Bildner '14 as DJ Nokturnal.

Saturday shifted gears to a more relaxed note to provide some recovery from the previous days' fun. We hosted our Alumni Barbecue and were greatly pleased to see and talk to many alumni and their families throughout the afternoon. After going to the Homecoming game versus Yale, the true competition heated up in the basement with our annual Alumni Beer Pong Tournament. While Saturday marked the end of official events for our Homecoming weekend, we had a great time with all those who stayed into Sunday and made for an awesome way to end Homecoming 2013.

Homecoming is always a time of tradition for Dartmouth and it is no different for us here at Tri-Kap. While the events make for a fun weekend, the alumni and friends who come up to share the experiences (and meet our great new class of '16s) elevate the weekend to the level of incomparable tradition within our brotherhood. With that said, the undergraduates thank absolutely everyone who took the time out of their busy schedules to make this Homecoming 2013 great, and for continuing to show how strong and important our brotherhood is.
From Left to Right: Andres Ramirez '14, Will Bollenbach '15, Josh Schoenbart '16, and Derek Leung '14
YiK,
Aaron Goone

Thanks to all those who made it to 1 Webster Avenue during the June Reunions period at the house. We had a great turnout from many classes including the ’68s, the ’69s, the ’78s, the ’83s, the ’88s and the ’08s at the receptions held by the Tri-Kap Board and the undergraduates in the living room.  It was a great time for Tri-Kaps to reconnect with the house and each other and meet fellow brothers.

The ’74s had a large gathering in August at the home of Paul ’74 and Amy Mesches in Westfield, NJ for a reunion 39 years after their graduation.  Paul reports that the get together was spurred by conversations months before among a few ’74s who agreed that they just couldn’t wait until their 40th class reunion in June 2014 to get together.  An impressive showing of 14 members of the Kappa class of ’74 and one ’73 made it to NJ with their spouses.  The group enjoyed a great afternoon and evening around a keg and the Mesches’ smoker, telling old stories, introducing spouses and generally catching up.  Ed Weselcouch even brought photos from their time together at Tri-Kap and Dartmouth in the early ’70s.  Most returned the next morning for bagels and cookies.  Check out the photo of the group at Paul’s house.

Caption for photo:   (kneeling): Steve Larmon, Scott Lewellen. (standing, left to right): Bo Shenberger, Ed Weselcouch, Bruce Williamson, Wayne Whitmore, Kevin McDonnell, Chris Gates, Jody Hodgdon, Bob MacAllister, George Wolohojian, Rick Castello, Paul Mesches, Jay Goebel and Steve Geanacopoulos.

This summer brought about major changes to the physical plant of our fraternity. As most of the brothers of the 2015 Class were living in the house, we grew, more than ever, to appreciate the hallowed halls of our brotherhood.

One major change that took place during 13X was the institution of weekly Friday House Manager Projects in place of our normal lock-in projects. We ended up setting aside 2-3 hours every Friday and several Saturdays for a project that would both involve the entire brotherhood and improve the physical condition of our house.

We began by doing some major yard work consisting of trimming and excising the overgrown hedges on the side of the house and power-washing the bathroom and the beach. The following week, we refurnished the main hall and painted the front entrance (both interior and exterior), giving a fresh, new look to our foyer. Subsequent projects ranged from cleaning up the attic, GOTE Room, and power-washing the kitchen room of the basement. We'd also like to give thanks to brother Jeremy Thibodeau for doing a great job in refurbishing our first floor bar in conjunction with his movie project being shot right here on campus.

The state of the house is slowly improving, and our class has done its best to keep the house lively and presentable for our alums, parents, and visitors. Stop by soon to have a cold drink and offer any suggestions you might have for how we can better maintain and further improve our beloved property here at 1 Webster Avenue.
Yours in Kappa,Kevin Kim
House Manager

Early this summer, a few brothers of Trikap decided to travel up to Montreal and compete in a Tough Mudder competition. Tough Mudder is a 10 mile obstacle course, where teammates must work together overcome obstacles such as 10 foot wall climbs, swimming through water tanks filled with ice, mud crawls, all separated by stretches of course where we could walk, but chose to run. It was an ultimate test of strength, stamina, and willpower. All of us both started and ended the race together in under three hours. It was tough, and seemed impossible to continue at points, but we were able to push each other to the end and all earn the title "Tough Mudder." The beers waiting for us at the finish line didn't hurt!
Pictured left to right:  Tri-kap '15s Justin Lee,  Will Bollenbach, Marty Gatens,  Nish Ravichandran, Anka Tezcan, and friend Alexander Steele
Yours in Kappa,Marty Gatens Summer Vice President

A big thank you goes out to Andrew Jean-Louis '09, Dana Cetlin '80, Luke Turechek '03, and Saad Hasan '03 for hosting the Boston gathering on June 6.  Tri-Kaps ranging from 70's to current undergrads made it out to Lir to celebrate each other over food and drink. Good times were had by all, and the format of the next Boston Tri-Kap gathering is already under works.  Can you say Kappa grill-a-thon? 


Many of the Tri-Kaps who attended the Boston Reunion

Some of Tri-Kap's newest alumni gathered on the lawn before commencement. 
Congratulations and best of luck to the Class of 2013. We look forward to seeing you and all our alumni brothers returning soon to your home here at 1 Webster Avenue.
Yours in Kappa,  2013-2014 Undergraduate Executive Board

Thank you to Nannan Hu ’06, Brian Crane ’06 and Chris Ehrlich ’92 for hosting nearly 25 Tri-Kaps from the ‘60s to recent grads at last week’s San Francisco Reunion!  The group got together at Cantina on Thursday, May 16 for a night of food and drinks.  Those in attendance reported a great time, and a desire to continue to get together and engage with Tri-Kap.
 Chris Ehrlich '92 and Dan Crisafulli '87

 Most of the Tri-Kaps in attendance at the San Francisco Reunion

 Jason Kobilka '03, Peter Robinson '79, Peter's son Nico (soon to be Dartmouth '17), Derek Nee '02 and Nannan Hu '06

Nannan Hu '06 and Kenny Ireland '66

Eddy Vaisberg '12, Leonard "Smacks" Chang '11, Jinwoo Baik '11, Adam Merber '10, Sam Kennedy '09 

This winter I spent fifteen weeks working at Renesys, a local internet intelligence company located a few minutes north of town. With the new school schedule granting students an extended winter break, I decided to make the most of it and began work a few weeks after enjoying Thanksgiving. While many find Hanover winters miserable and gloomy, these past few months have been a well-needed and balanced combination of work experience, leisure, and relaxation.
On the job, I was immersed in an fast-paced environment that had aspects of both data research and internet monitoring. Live events all over the world had propagating effects that directly influenced our work, ranging from the network outages caused by the Syrian civil war to the opening of a submarine internet cable into Cuba. By analyzing the types of responses that certain devices, such as routers and computers, were returning to our servers, we were able to compile vast amounts of data regarding the structure of the internet. We would then use computing clusters that rivaled the power of those in Thayer or Sudikoff to convert, filter, and produce easily understandable interpretations for clients and further use in data analysis.
Without the lingering burden of homework, I found myself with much more time to hang out with friends, hit the gym, and attend campus events. And while I'm very much looking forward to what spring term will bring me, I'll always consider this term a very successful and meaningful one.
I would highly recommend and encourage any students thinking about off-term options to consider enjoying the benefits and comfort of Hanover while working in any of the region's wide spectrum of industries.
YiK,Kevin Miao '14

   On Wednesday, February 13, Tri-Kap brothers from 5 generations gathered at Dewey's Flatiron in Manhattan for our 2nd Annual New York City Tri-Kap Reunion.      It was great to see brothers who attended last year and many new faces as well.  Over food and drinks (and a couple chugs and house songs) in our private space, brothers caught up with each other, shared stories and heard about the impressive crop of undergraduates in Hanover and the upcoming Tri-Kap Capital Campaign to rebuild the house at 1 Webster Avenue.      Many thanks to Sunil Bhagavath '03, Max David '12 and Sean Wilson '80 for helping to organize the evening and to the ~50 brothers who attended. We hope to see many more brothers at other reunion events around the country and in Hanover in the future. Here is a picture of many who attended our NYC Reunion.A crowd of Tri-Kap brothers enjoy an evening at Dewey's Flatiron
during the 2nd Annual NYC Tri-Kap Reunion
Yours in Kappa,Michael Brasher '10Board of Alumni

   On Tuesday, the brotherhood had the opportunity to host Dartmouth Professor Marcelo Gleiser for an hour while he discussed his current research with those in attendance. Professor Gleiser is a world-famous physicist who works to popularize science to benefit the whole of humanity. He has written three books on the origins of the universe and has a weekly feature on NPR. 


  
    He came to Tri-Kap to discuss his studies in the realm of theoretical physics and their implications for intelligent life in the universe. For example, his most recent research has been into whether or not our universe is one large simulation -- think The Sims on a universal scale. Turns out there is not really much of a way to prove whether we are or not, so "don't worry about it."
   There was strong attendance by the brotherhood, and every seat was filled as Professor Gleiser answered numerous questions from inquisitive brothers. Even though he eventually needed to rush out to continue his work, his visit left everyone in attendance pondering very big questions for a long time afterward.


YiK,
Vince Marriott
Academic Chair

After being in Hanover for four straight terms, it was great to enjoy Dartmouth's new six-week winter break by traveling around China. On this trip, my goal was to go beyond the commercialized metropolises of the new global power and discover the natural beauty of the landscape, as well as learn about the different minority (non-Han) cultures in Southwest China. After flying from Shanghai into Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province and China's gateway to Southeast Asia, I visited the Stone Forest, an amazing park filled with stone formations said to be around 270 million years old. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. 





During the two weeks that I spent in Yunnan, I traveled as far up as 13,000 feet above sea level. Along the way, I was struck by the beauty in the way the clouds and the sky seemed to linger right over the horizon. By the end, I had learned a little Tibetan after spending a night at a Tibetan's home for a party (and sharing some drinks with our host), almost getting hitched to our host's daughters, gotten absolutely sick of Yak meat, and gained a greater understanding of people whose lifestyles have only recently started changing after hundreds of years of stagnancy. The rest of time in China was spent doing conventional touristy things in big cities. By the end of my trip, I felt refreshed and ready to return to our home at 1 Webster. 

If anyone is interested in visiting that part of China and needs any travel tips, feel free to let me know. I definitely recommend it. 

Yours In Kappa,Anthony Zhao '14

Last term the brotherhood purchased a projector from Best Buy to replace the TV that was devastatingly broken over the summer. It took two months to get here, but it is now finally installed in the first floor library. The screen measures 106 inches diagonally. That's 8.8 feet or about two times as tall as Paul Wagdalt '13, Tri-Kap's president. For all you technofiles out there, the projector is an Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 3020 3D 3LCD projector. We haven't tried the 3D mode out yet but I'm sure it will add a lot of depth to the viewing experience.
But wait, what if the projector is broken just like the TV was? - you must be asking yourself. Well we thought of that, and have made it really difficult to break this one. The projector is tied down in a wooden case mounted on the ceiling, the speakers are at the top of the walls out of reach to most, the receiver is locked up, the screen retracts, and the door to the library has a combo lock, preventing any non-brothers from entering the room. I have also sent many stern emails to the brotherhood about protecting this room.
Anthony Zhao '14 enjoying a RomCom on the new projector.This projector has helped revive the library and turned it back into a room where you can always expect to find a handful of brothers hanging out. It has already proven invaluable to our house in creating a great space for brothers to bond with each other. From romantic comedies, like the one Anthony Zhao '14 is watching in this picture, to super bowl football games, the projector surely will light the way to a stronger Tri-Kap brotherhood.
YiK,
Chris Woods '13Treasurer

Please join fellow Tri-Kap alumni from the New York City area for our next Tri-Kap reunion event on Wednesday, February 13th at Dewey's Flatiron. Tri-Kaps from all decades had a great time last year when we all last got together. Please go to http://trikapnyc2013.eventbrite.com/ for all the details and to RSVP. Help us spread the word. We'll see you on the 13th!
Yours In Kappa,Michael Brasher '10

On Saturday, November 3rd Tri-Kap hosted its annual haunted house once again.  We had a lot of support this year from APhi, AKA, AZD, EKT, KD, Sigma Delt, Tri-Delt, IFC, and the President’s Office.  Kids from all around the Upper Valley enjoyed face-painting, cookie decorating, bobbing for apples, the haunted house, and many more.  Kids collected prizes and candy while getting to meet brothers and sorority sisters.  There were plenty of brothers helping out, and they were well rewarded for their effort with leftover candy and pizza.  Once again, the event helped bring students closer to the community around us and served to remind everyone that Greek houses have a strong positive impact both on campus, and in the entire surrounding community.

YiK,
Kyle Bojanowski
Philanthropy Chair

On Saturday October 13th, the brothers of Tri-Kap went paintballing for their first brotherhood event with the newest members of our fraternity, the Class of 2015. The group was large enough to receive personal attention and therefore was able to participate in exclusive events. We played a total of 8 10-minute rounds of paintball including Last Man Standing, Capture the Flag, Octagon, and Melee. As is tradition, Brothers faced off against Pledges and were able to welcome the new class with a generous dose of paint. Afterwards, the group stopped by a pizza parlor to relax, dine, and exchange stories about battle scars. The event is our more expensive outing and each brother enjoyed a moment they will be able to cherish for the future. We had a total of 19 participants.

Yours in Kappa,Parth KaulProgramming Chair

On October 15th, 2012, the newest members of Kappa Kappa Kappa participated in the annual pledge dance, in which they opened up for Sheba and were preceded by the Taal a capella group. Andres Ramirez ’14 spearheaded the event, organizing the performance groups and choreographing the dance for the pledges. After a very close vote on song selections, Birthday Cake (remix) was selected as the preferred dance by the brotherhood. After a week of practicing, the pledges were determined to kill their routine, and they did. With a very packed crowd (with many looking through the side windows because there was no room), Taal, including it's Tri-Kap members Tanay Ganga ‘13, Sanders Davis ‘14, Nate Reznicek ‘14, and Marty Gatens ’15, started the event off with a 10 minute set. After swooing the crowd, the pledges seduced the crowd and transitioned perfectly for Sheba. Overall, it was a very successful event and a crowning moment for the newest class. If you want to see the dance, you can view it here: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l7U003EBzw&feature=youtu.be&hd=1.

Yours in Kappa,Andres Ramirez '14Programming Chair

On October 13th, 2012 the Brothers of Kappa Kappa Kappa and sisters of Alpha Phi Sorority co-hosted Semi Formal at 1 Webster Ave. The event welcomed guests from all around campus to enjoy a themed evening of dancing and merrymaking.The theme for this term was “made for each other”, implying that couples should go together as things, people or words that complemented each other. The event was a success with fantastic turnout from both the brotherhood as well as Alpha Phi sorority. The brotherhood was able to enjoy a wonderful evening with an entourage of attractive dates as well as socialize with its friends of Alpha Phi and others.


YiK,
Mike Barile '13 & Aaron Goone '14
Social Chairs

On Saturday, September 15, five of our brothers (Arun Gomatam ’13, Paul Wagdalt ’13, Roberto Guerrero '13, Jorge Pelaez '13 and Robinson Culver '13) competed in the Warrior Dash race held in Gilford, NH. The Warrior Dash is a grueling 5K race that challenges its contestants to crawl through mud, leap through fire, and conquer obstacles all while raising money to support St. Jude's Children Research Hospital in childhood cancer research. The race pushes runners to their mental and physical limits while they have fun dressing up in costumes and celebrating with the clink of beer mugs. This year, there are over 48 races occurring across the country from SoCal to New Hampshire, attracting thousands of participants in each location.
(L to R: Arun Gomatam '13, Paul Wagdalt '13, Roberto Guerrero '13,
 Jorge Pelaez '13, Robinson Culver '13)

Despite their different levels of physical ability, our five Tri-Kap warriors stuck together as a team, tackling one obstacle after another until they crawled through the final mud pit towards the finish line. The steep uphill slope of the course, in addition to its various obstacles, made it extremely difficult. However, these hellish conditions only made the Dash all the more rewarding when it was finally complete.
After the race, these five celebrated with a meal for champions; giant sized turkey legs and pints. The day’s activities did not end there. The brothers continued their celebration by playing a couple rounds of mini golf at the nearby Pirate’s Cove mini-golf course. All in All, the warrior dash was a great way to challenge ourselves, bond together as a team and give back to a good cause. If the Warrior Dash ever comes to a location near you we highly recommend getting involved.
YiK,
Paul WagdaltTri-Kap President