Dispatches from the Legion of Honor
Chapter & Alumni News
Alabama in Huntsville
This year, the Mu Beta Chapter is proud to have won the Regent’s award for academic excellence. In addition, the Chapter is proud to have brothers involved in several organizations across campus. They would like to recognize Drew Humphrey, Jarrett Grubb, Joseph Holbrook and Luke Worley as members of SGA as well as Anton Baylon, Drew Humphrey, Jarrett Grubb and Will Snyder in their participation in Lancers. Finally, they would like to recognize Drew Humphrey, Luke Worley, Nick Russo and Will Snyder for participating in the honors mentor program, helping incoming freshman in the honors program adjust to college life.
The Mu Beta Chapter is proud to have been a part of the philanthropy Margarita Ball, which was responsible for collecting over 4,000 toys adding up to a total of over $200,000. All of which were distributed to over 21 charities that service underprivileged children of the community of Huntsville. Multiple brothers also took place in helping to organize and plan Dance Marathon. This event was responsible for raising over $1200 for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. The chapter is also looking forward to hosting a First Responders Festival this spring. This philanthropy will be raising money for the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation to help provide Firefighters with their required gear to keep their communities safe.
Arizona
Alumnus Dr. Markus Renno who works as a Children’s Cardiologist at the Arkansas Children Hospital was featured on the local news station to talk about his work with 3D heart models and how they can improve care of his patients. The models he brought with him to show the viewers were models of hearts in all different colors and designs. Depending on the patient, children can be born with a couple diffident deformities of their heart and he wants to make sure that going into the procedure they get it right the first time. All models he showed were made for a different purpose for the proper heart function.
Auburn
On January 20, 2019 Beta Theta Brother Lee Perrett was inducted into the Chapters John M. Ward Alumni Hall of Honor. Lee has served the Chapter and Fraternity with great distinction over the years as an advisor to the High Council, Vice Regent, Grand Treasurer, Regent-Elect, and as our 65th Regent. Two of Lee's three sons are Beta Theta alumni - Fraser and Winn, Beta Theta 2709 and 2832, respectively. Eldest son Jay went to a school where his campus did not have a Sigma Nu chapter.
Auburn University Athletics Director Allen Greene joined the Brothers of the Beta Theta Chapter for dinner Wednesday, January 23, 2019. Following the dinner Allen Greene addressed the Brotherhood on leadership and stewardship of their opportunities.
In attendance were Chapter Commander Thomas Birchfield, Housemother Margaret Melzer, and Advisor John Burgess who was named Advisor of the Year and given the Regent’s Medallion.
Drury
The Brothers of Epsilon Beta celebrated their 100-year anniversary with an event in March commemorating receiving the chapters charter in 1919. They received their charter in December of 1919 They had an event filled with reconnecting with brothers and dinner, Regent John Hearn was also in attendance.
Florida
During the fall 2018 semester, the Epsilon Zeta Chapter strove to better its members and the community through campus involvement and philanthropy. For years, the Epsilon Zeta Chapter has been heavily involved in Dance Marathon (DM) at the University of Florida, and this involvement has continued to grow throughout the semester. Alumni Ryan Gruszczyk, was appointed as the Design & Technology Overall Director for DM, and Brothers Kevin Anderson, and Brian Nichol, were appointed as Captains for the 2018-2019 fundraising year. These Brothers led the charge during DM’s annual Transform Today, where they managed to raise $626,000 in 26.2 hours.
In the fall semester alone, the Brothers of Epsilon Zeta raised over $1,000 for St. Jude’s Children Hospital through their inaugural paired charity dinner “Hog Town BBQ” with the sisters of Tri-Delta, bringing the total amount raised for the 2018 year up to $2,800, which is a 1,300% increase from the funds raised in 2017. Brother Samuel McLane, was the driving force behind this incredible increase in philanthropic donations. Under the new guidance of brothers Nick Hudson, and Jeffrey Ho, the Chapter is eager to build upon their previous philanthropic successes.
Thanks to the relentless work of social chairman and brother Michael Nunn, and his committee, the Brothers enjoyed a homecoming week to remember with the lovely sisters of Alpha Phi. During the week, the two chapters enjoyed everything from watching Mo Bamba and the Orlando Magic play the Sacramento Kings to roasting smores in the Chapter’s backyard fire pit.
In 2018, the Brothers were involved in on-campus organizations such as Florida Blue Key, student government, the national history honors society, Green Greeks, The Order of Omega, and the Interfraternity Council. In addition to all their on-campus involvement, the Epsilon Zeta chapter boasted the eighth highest GPA amongst IFC fraternities. Brother Jackson Glover, has increased his involvement on campus with the founding of two new student organizations. He is a founding member and the treasurer of Green Greeks, an organization built around promoting sustainable practices among all Greek members at the University of Florida. He has also co-founded the university’s first National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association.
In addition to the overwhelming success on campus, the Epsilon Zeta Chapter is excited to highlight the accomplishments of its Brothers off-campus. Brother Tirthan Shah, recently accepted a technology analyst and consultant position for Capgemini in New York City. Capgemini is a multi-billion-dollar company responsible for providing technology solutions to corporations around the world including Coca Cola and IBM. Also, Brother Cameron McConkey, accepted a summertime construction management internship with Barton Malow in Orlando. Brother, Paulo Bazan, accepted a year-long systems engineering internship specializing in Avionics Platforms with Airbus UK in Bristol, England. Airbus is one of the largest civil and military aerospace companies in the world, responsible for most of the European commercial aircraft manufacturing.
Illinois State
The Brothers of Theta Rho wanted to challenge Illinois State fraternities to improve their involvement in philanthropy in 2018. Philanthropy Chairman Cole Douglas and Reporter Michael Plantamura came up with "SNUfest", a concert in which all proceeds would go to Susan G. Komen in benefit of breast cancer awareness. After months of searching, the Chapter landed R3HAB, an internationally-known DJ, to play in Bloomington, IL, on Halloween night.
The Chapter marketed the event for months, as well as sold tickets, and set up fundraisers across campus. Everyone was blown away by the results, as $26,000 of expenses were incurred but the organization was able to bring in $41,000 of revenues. In total, the Brothers of Theta Rho donated $15,000 to Susan G, Komen, and it ended up being the biggest fraternal donation in recent Illinois State University history.
Brother Michael Rubio is a senior who is graduating in May with a political science degree. Rubio recently won the 2019 Future Alumni Leader Award which is given to a student who exemplifies outstanding leadership and service to Illinois State. He is currently serving as Student Body President and President of the Theta Rho Chapter.
Mississippi
Alumnus Joe Walker Jr. is currently the Assistant Track and Field Coach at the University of Louisville and was recently inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. He started out his coaching career at the University of Mississippi, but in 1985 left to head for an opportunity at Florida that he could not refuse. After some time, he just didn’t feel it was the right fit and decided to head back home to Ole Miss. In 2012 he gave up the head coaching position to go on to the position he is at now, to be with his family and his son who is was also a coach at Louisville. Throughout his career in coaching among his successes were coaching two Olympic gold medalists, four Olympic medalists and has 160 All Americans and over 200 collegiate conference champions. Walker says “It was never about the championships or the trophies. It was always about the people, the athletes. My trophies are the people.” He will be the first inductee to enter into the hall of fame strictly as a track and field coach. Those who know him says he has no ego, the people he coaches love him and he is a humble man who has made a huge impact and instilled lifelong lessons in his athletes’ lives.
MIT
David Silverstein was a coauthor on research published in the February edition of Science magazine. The work, titled An Ingestible Self-Orienting System for Oral Delivery of Macromolecules received a lot of media attention, and provides promise as an alternative to the painful injections associated with diseases like diabetes. Through an undergraduate research opportunity at MIT, David collaborated with peers to develop a novel method for delivering biomacromolecules, such as insulin, through the stomach. To prevent rapid degradation and poor absorption in the gastrointestinal tract, the team created an ingestible self-orienting millimeter-scale applicator which will automatically deploy the biomacromolecules once in the gut. David is currently a junior at MIT studying Chemical Engineering.
North Georgia
In late 2017, Sigma Nu Headquarters informed Kappa of their approval to seek re-charter. In January 2018, Headquarters sponsored 2 young men, Preston Sams and Will Devinney to help recruit and colonize Kappa. Kappa Alumni supported Preston and Will in several events for recruitment and over 30 alumni supported them for the initial recruitment meeting, and then followed up by sponsoring a BBQ Smoker. At the end of the 2018 recruitment, Preston and Will gave out 25 bids, all of which were accepted. The journey to re-charter was then in full force. Through their journey as a colony, they have raised over $50,000 through various philanthropic activities. The candidates have worked very hard in other areas as well, and many times under some trying circumstances. Under the leadership of Commander Stephen Briggs, they will accomplish their goal and re-charter Kappa Chapter around May, 2018.
The Kappa Alumni Association has been very active during this time as well. They have participated in many of their charity fund raisers, attended and participated in colony meetings and smokers, and supported them financially when needed. Their advisor was even able to coordinate getting the colony a recording band to play at their Sigma Stock charity event (a takeoff on Woodstock). Tommy Folger, the alumni commander, attended and provided counsel for almost all of the colony meetings in 2018. Later in 2018, the alumni chapter donated a grill to the colony to further help them in their outdoor recruiting activities. Recently, they also secured a venue for their upcoming re-charter and pinning ceremony. The over 70 alumni that have worked hand-in-hand with the colonists have really enjoyed witnessing the candidates mature and grow as leaders through this journey.
Kappa Alumni have been active on their own projects as well, including the annual Snakebite Golf Tournament. Almost $15,000 was raised for charity from this year’s tournament. The proceeds were donated to 3 scholarships that benefit UNG students, the South Enota Child Advocacy Center, and to the Armed Forces Mission (focuses on suicide awareness, intervention and prevention. This was a very rewarding experience for all Kappa Alumni that participated! As the alumni work toward the September, 2019 tournament, we hope that some from Sigma Nu Headquarters will participate. Contact Tommy Folger at 3tfolger@gmail.com for more information.
Finally, the Alumni Chapter has set a date of May 18, 2019 for the first alumni formal. This first formal has been in the works for the last few years. This event will lead us to our annual planning session and meeting. We look forward to representatives from Sigma Nu Headquarters joining us for the formal as well.
Sigma Nu’s Kappa Chapter re-charter will be good for North Georgia, Sigma Nu, and the Dahlonega, GA community. Throughout history, Kappa Chapter brothers and alumni have made a significant contribution back to their beloved alma mater, fraternity and the local community. They all look forward to seeing the re-charter realized later this spring!
Oklahoma
The Brothers of Delta Epsilon had a very successful initiation ceremony this winter. They added over 20 men to the brotherhood.
RIT
During the fall 2018 semester, the Mu Zeta Chapter initiated seven new brothers from the Pi candidate class: Spencer Chang, Kevin Dale, Nathan Murray, Sahand Nowshiravani, Patrick Pocztarski, Andrew Sollenberger, and Matthew Welstad. The chapter is proud of them and looking forward to their journey as Sigma Nu Knights.
Brother James Trusock III completed his last academic semester in the fall as undergraduate student at RIT, we wish them nothing but the best with their future endeavors.
The start of 2019, means a change to the Executive Board. Our newly elected Eminent Commander is Aaron Kellogg; Lieutenant Commander is Marshall Hurst; Treasurer is Christian Flemming; Recorder is Michael Hokanson; Marshal is Colton Bailiff; Recruitment Chairman is Matthew Welstad; LEAD Chairman is Mark Shepard.
The Mu Zeta Alumni Association (MZAA), is excited for a new year with new goals to achieve. MZAA would like to share that they are at all time high with number of Gold members at 54 and would love to reach 60 by the end of 2019. Please contact us at contact@mzaa.org for more information. They have several big goals to achieve in 2019, one of them being to complete Vernon W. Davis Memorial / Mu Zeta Chapter of Sigma Nu Fraternity Endowed Scholarship endowment requirement of $25,000 before May 31, 2019. More information on endowment scholarships can be found at www.mzscholarship.org In 2019, MZAA want to expand its regional event program to four events.
Stevens Institute of Technology
Gamma Delta Brother Matthew Fiebel was an applicant among the 575+ chapters across the United States and Canada to be awarded an Order of Omega annual undergraduate scholarship. Due to his hard work and dedication to the ideals of the fraternal movement he received the Patrick W. Halloran Scholarship.
Tennessee
Brother Luke McConnell was awarded IFC President of the Year at the Greek Awards Banquet early this spring. During the banquet the Outgoing IFC President James Eun received the IFC Councilman of the Year.
West Virginia
The Brothers Gamma Pi spent an afternoon cleaning up their community after a party that took place during one of the snow days in West Virginia this winter. They saw all the trash that was spread out along the road the next morning and knew they had to play their part in cleaning it up. They swept trash, broken glass and shoveled snow all the way up. WVU’s Director of Greek Life Matthew Richardson explained “the reaction of the men of Sigma Nu shows the commitment to our university-affiliated members of the Interfraternity Council have to our campus and community.”
Alumnus Brian Westfall was recently named District Deputy Grand Exalted Ruler for the West District of the MD, DE, DC Elks Association. The District Deputy is the representative of the Grand Exalted Ruler to the Lodges in a District. Brian highly recommends joining the Elks as a way to keep alive or rekindle the fraternal spirit developed in Sigma Nu.