Founder
Arushi Rathod
Arushi co-founded Eta Theta in 2025 and served on the chapter's first executive board.
LinkedInAbout the Chapter
We're the Eta Theta Chapter of Phi Chi Theta at UNC Chapel Hill, and we've been here since 2025.
What We Do
We help each other get ready for careers in business and economics, and have a good time along the way. There are 36 of us, led by 13 officers.
Professional Development
We hold about two professional events a month. Some are hands-on, like résumé reviews, LinkedIn workshops, and mock interviews. Others bring in speakers from places like the NYSE, wealth and asset management firms, and consulting. There's also a career trek every year, and every new member is paired with an older member who mentors them.
Community
Every semester brings a retreat, a mixer, and a big-little reveal. We have semiformal in the fall, formal in the spring, and Founders' Day on March 6. We're small enough that you'll know everyone by the end of your first semester.
Philanthropy
We partner with Book Harvest, a Durham nonprofit that gets books into the hands of kids and families. We run book drives, volunteer with them, and fundraise for them, and we do at least one service event every month.
Arushi and Sydney
In 2025, two students decided Carolina needed a Phi Chi Theta chapter, so they started one.
Founder
Sydney Kalish
Sydney co-founded Eta Theta in 2025 and has been on the executive board ever since. This year she's our Vice President.
LinkedInHistory
Phi Chi Theta began as two business fraternities for women, both founded in 1918. They merged in 1924, and the fraternity opened to all students in 1976.
- 1918
Two Women's Fraternities
Phi Theta Kappa is founded at the University of Denver, and Phi Kappa Epsilon starts the same year. Both are for women studying business and economics, who weren't allowed into the business fraternities of the time.
- 1924
Phi Chi Theta Is Founded
On June 16, the two groups merge at the La Salle Hotel in Chicago. Each sends three delegates, and those six women become Phi Chi Theta's founders. Eight chapters are chartered that day, and three of them, at NYU, Pitt, and Boston University, are still active.
- 1976
Open to Everyone
After Title IX, the fraternity votes at its June 1976 convention to open membership to all students. The same idea had been voted down four years earlier.
- 2025
Eta Theta Comes to Carolina
Arushi Rathod and Sydney Kalish start the Eta Theta Chapter at UNC. Founders' Day is March 6.
- 2026
Where We Are Now
We're up to 36 members and 13 officers, and we welcome a new class every semester.
