Beta WPI D22 Newsletter

D-Term Issue May 2022

Eta Tau Newsletter State of the Chapter

in this issue...

Dear Brothers and Friends of Beta, With the harsh winter weather behind us and warm weather aplenty, this D-Term allowed for our chapter to flourish and form into a connected brotherhood that many brothers have not been able to see since the beginning of the pandemic.

We began this D-Term by welcoming our newest sweetheart Hannah Kachadorian who not only played an influential part in the planning of Fall and Spring rush but has greatly supported our brothers when they needed it the most. On top of this, we had the pleasure of adding Luke Foley, Ashton Kittur, and Edward “Spencer” Smith to our role as the members of our Spring Rush Class. I am extremely proud of what this class, Sigma Class, has been able to accomplish already in their short amount of time in the chapter and given that most of these new brothers have taken up officer positions already, I see great things to come from this class in the future.

Unfortunately with the addition of new brothers we also see the departure of old ones, this term we had to say our heartfelt goodbyes to 10 total graduating seniors who will be shortly leaving us to pursue postgraduate life.

Continued on the next page...

Sigmas and Sweetheart

pg. 3

Delightful D-term

pg. 4

Apple Review

pg. 5

Thai Chicken Curry

pg. 7

Hobby Talk

pg. 9

Senior Send Off

pg. 10

Of and in addition to these brothers we are sad to see our Risk Manager Matt Karns ending his time at WPI along with our Brotherhood Chairmen Josh Barney who has accepted a co-op position for the fall semester. Although we are sad to see them leave we are happy to welcome our two of our new brothers from Rho Class, Jeremy Allen and Matthew Letourneau, who will be filling the role of interim Risk Manager and interim Brotherhood Chairmen.

Beyond the welcoming of a new class and the parting of another this D-Term, we were able to bring back the brotherhood by kicking the term off with our first ever house retreat where brothers were able to connect fully and relax early on into D-Term. Throughout the remainder of the term, the chapter was able to come together in smaller ways by taking photos of brothers across campus and putting it in our slack, meeting up at the gym to exercise together, spending time on the quad on the nicer days, and coming together on the bottom floor of the Campus Center at “Pisland”.

To sum up, this term we welcomed a new and strong set of brothers while we said goodbye to a group of brothers who had a grand impact on us all. We now look forward to the Fall semester ahead, with plans for one of the strongest Rushes of late and an even stronger brotherhood.

Yours in __kai__ Casey Frommer #149

New 2022 Executive Board

Executives President Casey Frommer Brotherhood Matthew Letourneau Communications Gabriel Buziba Education Adam Ferrarotti Finance Daniel Rabinovitz Programming Elliot Dunham Recruitment Amitai Erfanian Risk Management Jeremy Allen

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Officers Chorister Gus Teran

Historian Spencer Smith

House "Home" Manager Joe Colley

Parliamentarian Trevor Mohlman

Superior Sigmas

164: Luke Foley

165: Ashton Kittur

166: Edward "Spencer" Smith

Sweetheart Spotlight

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Delightful D-Term

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A much more exciting chapter in our time in Beta! In Beta, we kicked off our classic Beta Theta Fries, where managed to raise $1064 for the African Community Education (ACE).

Matthew Lettourneau got to show WPI his move in Dancing with The Greeks. Outside of Beta, we got to see Geoffrey Garsson and Daniel Rabinovitz participate in WPI's Talent Show and Gabriel Buziba be a part of the Black Student Union's Fashion Show. With all this excitement we were able to have a fun Formal back at the house when finals were over. A personal highlight of the term was seeing some of yall comeback for our senior ceremony BBQ. Compared to C-Term this was an absolute blast!

By Sean Merone

Back again with yet another apple, it’s me, your favorite apple reviewer! Though now, I bring to you info and a review of one of my beta brother’s favorite apples, the fruit behind Apple’s signature laptop, and Canada’s national apple, the McIntosh.

The McIntosh was discovered by and named after John McIntosh, after he found a sapling of the tree in an uncleared section of his farm in Upper Canada in 1811.

Surprised but opportunistic of his discovery, McIntosh cultivated the sapling to a full tree and harvested the fruit for consumption and sale beginning in 1835 alongside the first grafts of the tree aided by his son, Allan McIntosh. The apple was an incredible hit following its commercialization in 1870 and quickly rose to prominence in Canada and the NorthEastern United States, particularly New England, becoming the single most popular apple for those regions up until the late 20th century where competition from other cultivars–particularly the Gala cultivar– impacted its popularity, dropping it among the 15 most popular apples.

Now to its parentage and qualities, however, since the cultivar dates back so far and was found in a very forested and vegetative area, it is unknown as to exactly what the McIntosh’s parent cultivars are, but it is known to be of European descent as crabapples among other European varieties were fairly close by. Even so, we have been left with the result and from the McIntosh, there is a bundle of interesting traits to parse through. The McIntosh is an incredibly small apple, short but compact, making it somewhat awkward to hold and eat.

Behind its red and yellow skin is a soft and somewhat mushy flesh with a wonderful tart taste to it that even rivals the Granny Smith. It also holds some amount of cooking utility, its tart yet soft flesh complimenting sweeter yet much firmer apples in several dishes, like traditional crisps, or providing an incredible base to apple sauces. While these traits don’t exactly match what I’m looking for in an apple, there is a very strong reason that the McIntosh is one of the most popular apple cultivars.

Crispness: 4/10

Cost Efficiency: 10/10

Texture: 5/10 Cooking Utility: 6/10 Size: 3/10

Taste: 8/10

Final Rating: 6/10

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Thai Chicken Coconut Curry

By Spencer Dill

INGREDIENTS

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• 1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded carrots • 1 to 3 tablespoons Thai red curry paste, or to taste (curry powder may be substituted, to taste) • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste • about 3 cups fresh spinach leaves • 1 tablespoon lime juice • 1 to 2 tablespoons brown sugar, optional and to taste • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped for garnishing (basil may be substituted) • rice, quinoa, or naan, optional for serving • 2 to 3 tablespoons coconut oil (olive oil may besubstituted) • 1 medium/large sweet Vidalia or yellow onion, diced small • 1-pound boneless skinless chicken breast, diced into bite-sized pieces • 3 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed • 2 to 3 teaspoons ground ginger or 1 fresh ginger, finely chopped • 2 teaspoons ground coriander • one 13-ounce can coconut milk (I used lite; full-fat will deliver a richer/thicker result)

6 Servings Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: ~15-20 minutes

Making the Curry To a large skillet, add the oil, onion, and sauté over medium-high heat until the onion begins to soften about 5 minutes; stir intermittently.

Add the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes, or until chicken is done; flip and stir often to ensure even cooking.

Add the garlic, ginger, coriander, and cook for about 1 minute, or until fragrant; stir frequently.

Add the coconut milk, carrots, Thai curry paste, salt, pepper, and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to medium, and allow mixture to gently boil for about 5 minutes, or until liquid volume has reduced as much as desired and thickens slightly.

Add the spinach, lime juice, and stir to combine. Cook until spinach has wilted and is tender, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Taste and optionally add brown sugar, additional curry paste, salt, pepper, etc. to taste.

Evenly sprinkle with the cilantro and serve immediately. Curry is best warm and fresh but will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 1 week.

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Hobby Talk Miniature Painting

by Gabe B.

Time: 30-50 Minutes

Tip: Since painting generally takes a while, it helps to choose a model that you are interested in. I like the super soldiers with overly dramatic weapons, lore, and feats, so I paint space marines. There are many different models from many different games and series. You can learn more about them by going to your local gaming store

Due to the pandemic, a lot of us had a lot more free time to dive into new hobbies, or reawaken old interests. And while the pandemic has lessened over the past few years, this doesn’t mean we still can’t learn about new things. For me, I have recently gotten into doing miniature painting. Miniature painting is a type of hobby where you paint on small miniature models usually around an inch or two tall. Despite being this small, they still come packed with a lot of detail, from the bolts on their guns to the marks for their eyes. This can be very overwhelming for beginners but I’m here to introduce y'all to it.

For this paint session, I made a space marine from Warhammer 40k. A lot of my painting projects are based on of from Warhammer. To begin, we have to prime him so the paint sticks our model nicer. There are many different ways to prime a model, but for today I just used some black spray primer. Shake the can for a bit and spray from a good distance away from the model, making sure to get all the nooks and folds of the model. Don’t put too much though, or else we start to lose some detail.

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After the primer has dried, we move onto adding our base coat. When adding paint to miniatures, you need it to be watered down so that it doesn’t cover over details of the models. Each paint is different, but from my experience, use enough water to give the paint a milk-like consistency. This should allow for enough paint to stay on the models without covering up its details. Spread the paint as much as possible, so it doesn’t build up in one spot. Think of it as giving the model two thin coats, so that the color really shines though. Don’t worry if you paint over any part you didn’t mean to, base paints are really easy to paint over.

Next we paint the details. This is stuff like the barrel of the gun, the emblem on his chest and the lights in his lenses. When it comes to detail work, I would recommend using a small brush to paint the smaller details. You can go into this stage as you want, painting where the light hits the edge of the armor, or giving the leather sheath some scratches. In this stage you can also use a wash. Washes are watery paints that are great for staining paints to different colors or adding huge detail into the cracks. Again if you mess up in the detailing stage, you can always go back later and paint over it.

And now you should have your completed product. This can make for a great display piece for your home office, or can be used in some tabletop game. With this hobby there are so many different techniques and tricks you can learn and develop to really make your models shine.

Don’t worry if your model doesn’t already look the best by the end of it. I followed all the same steps I’ve told you above and my models still weren’t the greatest. But as long as you still pick up the brush, you'll be amazed with how much you can improve.

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Senior Send Off

Matthew Karns

Hoang "John" Do

"For the Staunchest" For the staunchest band of brothers, Raise you hands on high Test your strength against all others, Beta Theta Pi Hail the fairest; Hail O Beta; Hail in Phi Kai Phi Now the clan to us the closest; Beta Theta Pi When our college days are over We will toast on high Our fraternity beloved, Beta Theta Pi.

Arnold Muralt

Augustus Teran

Taylor Cox

Ryan Tougas

Andy Ventura-Molina

Jason Davis

Brian Zawacki

Nicolas Fish

Congratulations Brothers, we hope to be seeing you again soon! Never forget the home you made here and the memories you've made when you enter the world as Alumni of the Eta Tau Chapter.

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Contact Us! Contact Matthew Hagan (matt@doublediamond.io) to learn more about Alumni Board involvement.

Contact Gabriel Buziba (gabuziba@wpi.edu) about general alumni matters.

Contact Andy Iovanna (and.iovanna@gmail.com), the Chapter Counselor, about becoming an advisor.

Contact Casey Frommer (president@betawpi.org) about chapter operations.

Contact communications@betawpi.org if you want to reach out to chapter.

Follow Us! • @beta_wpi • /BetaWPI • @Beta_WPI

Announcements 10 years ago, on June 5th, 2012, we were established as a colony, come celebrate with us on Homecoming!

Date will be announced in the near future.

Newsletter Editor: Gabriel Buziba