Sister Spotlight: Kelso Brown

Kelso Brown is a new alum in Kappa Kappa. She is a part of PC’16. She recently graduated from Ball State university as a Fashion Merchandising major and a minor in Marketing.

Kelso’s journey through Ball State University began with some trials. She lived in Fort Wayne from fifth grade through twelfth grade. At the time, she was in a serious relationship with a high school boyfriend. When she started touring campuses, she quickly realized those schools were not for her. She had wanted to attend Ball State, but ultimately decided on Purdue University Fort Wayne. At the time, she parted with her desire to attend Ball Sate, denied the acceptance, and deleted her account. After the relationship had ended, she had a big decision lying heavily on her heart. Kelso described her effort to get connected again with Ball State, explaining, “I need to call Ball State, today. I remember the exact day. I was working at Old Navy on break and gave them a call.” She loved how big, yet small and intimate the campus was. Kelso’s grandfather also attended Ball State and a lot of her family lived in Muncie or close to the area. She loved that she could have the traditional college experience, yet aunts, uncles, and grandparents wouldn’t be far. She was ready for a fresh start. Kelso described her dislike for high school and her desire to move away from Fort Wayne. Ball State was perfect for her.

Throughout her collegiate career, she had three majors. In the beginning, she came to Ball State undecided. Kelso loved Planet Earth books and encyclopedias, explaining, “I’ve always loved animals. I’ve been a freak for animals my entire life.” She first decided to major in Wildlife Biology. She wanted to visit rehab facilities or take wildlife photography. It was a monumental dream of hers. Her mother encouraged and supported her dream, yet sometimes Mother does know best. Kelso explained, “Biology and chemistry were kicking her butt!” Kelso ultimately decided it wasn’t for her and changed her major to Public Relations. After Kelso had to take her first journalism class, she had a revelation. “I don’t give a crap about the history of newspapers. This is not where my interests lie,” Kelso expressed. After learning about her dislike for her newly changed major, she leaned on her best friend’s older sister. She was a fashion major and encouraged Kelso to explore fashion merchandising. She was a mentor to her. Kelso described, “Fashion or animals, it’s always been my passion.” Kelso learned that the fashion industry is the second leading polluter next to oil. She informed me that fast fashion is killing the Earth. She has always seen fashion as a great art and is really supportive and passionate about people taking clothing and making it their own.

I asked Kelso what her dream jobs would be. Such an ambitious woman with so many ideas, I can’t wait to see what she does! She would love to be a buyer. That would entail going to market and buying products or fabrics for companies. The companies she would like to work with would be in New York, Dallas, California, Arizona, and Georgia. As a buyer, Kelso described, the role is to run numbers on what is being sold and what isn’t. She would like to be a buyer for sustainable textiles for companies such as Everlane, Patagonia or Parks Project. She would also love to be an entrepreneur and run her own business. Another dream she has is renovating a school bus and visiting different AOII chapters across the country collecting merchandise that can be given to other chapters or redesigned. Kelso said, “In the end, that’s kind of what I’d want to do.”

Kelso is a girl of many tastes. She favors indie, indie alternative, and psychedelic pop or rock music. Kelso explained further, “My favorite band is Glass Animals and Tame Impala. Those are my two favorite.” She also has a few television guilty pleasures, as she mentioned, “I’ve been binge watching so much stuff right now.” She loves Grace and Frankie, Broad City, and Impractical Jokers. She also loves anything documentary. Kelso laughed as she described, “I loved Planet Earth. Obviously that was a given.” She has been enjoying her downtime playing Animal Crossing New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch, loves to read, doodle on her iPad Pro, sew, and create hoop embroidery.

Her sophomore year, she won a $5,000 scholarship from Alpha Omicron Pi. Kelso described how, “That fueled my fire to keep on working hard in college. For me to uphold the requirements for the scholarship I had to hold a position in AOII and a certain GPA. That fueled my motivation to keep going.” This year, she won the Jessie Wallace Hughan award. She feels so accomplished and proud of herself throughout her college journey. Kelso also proposed to her fiancé. She always wanted to be different and loved doing something that typically is shied away from.

Kelso has always known she was an AOII. The Thursday night of formal recruitment, she had a lab and had to miss the round. AOII had asked her back for the next round just based on a letter she had rote. Kelso said that the letter was just explaining herself and wasn’t even that long! She lovingly said that AOII, “…saw something in me that made me so drawn to the chapter.” At the time, Kelso described her struggle with finances and was debating if she could even afford a sorority. At first, she didn’t picture herself as sorority girl or being a part of one. Every time she visited AOII, she fell more and more in love with the chapter. No other chapter was more important in her mind than AOII. She instantly knew where her heart was, describing, “I know exactly where I’m going. My heart is set. Forget about everything and anyone else.” Kelso is so grateful for AOII. She explained, “AOII taught me what it was to be a woman and my values.” Through the process of four recruitments and four initiations, she began to understood what values meant and what she valued. AOII taught her how to prioritize, how to be involved, and how to be ambitious. AOII motivated Kelso to be more involved with not just our chapter, but other chapters as well. She described, “I’ve always been weird. AOII taught me not to be weird but to accept the weird.” She has always wanted to put a smile on others faces and uses the weird AOII taught her to accept to make others happy.

A letter from Kelso:

To Kappa Kappa Chapter,

Enjoy every moment. You may have heard this multiple times before but time does fly by. It’s hard for me to imagine that I am graduated from Ball State. I’m always one call or text away if you ever need anything. ALAM,

Kelso