File - Sigma Phi Epsilon

The SigEp Times The
Issue #2, February 2014 SigEp Times
Onwards… To New and Better Beginnings! The SigEp Times A Message from Our President Danny Wolf ‘15
Dear Alumni & Friends, With finals week fast approaching, it is time to look back upon an eventful year for MD Beta. Allow me to share with you some achievements from the past two semesters. The chapter started off strong in January, with brothers volunteering for several organizations in the northern New Jersey area to help rebuild communities still recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Brothers logged over 200 hours performing tasks such as clearing debris, installing drywall, and painting. We continued our emphasis on service learning with a summer trip to the Delaware shore in order to assist the Fish & Wildlife Service in Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts. MD Beta’s commitment to academics was illustrated by our cumulative GPA, which remained above the all-­‐fraternity and all-­‐
campus averages both semesters. Our fall 2013 GPA was announced at 3.36, second highest of all fraternities on campus, and our new member GPA was announced at an incredible 3.56, best of all fraternities and an all-­‐time high for MD Beta. Our spring 2014 GPA remained a strong 3.27, tied for fourth among all fraternities. This year also saw continued success in recruitment. While initially struggling with the new two-­‐week rush process mandated by IFC, we were able to successfully recruit 15 new brothers in the spring, making SigEp the 2nd largest fraternity on campus. In the fall, we brought an additional 9 brothers into the Issue #2, February 2014 fraternity to help supplement the loss of a large senior class. All those recruited have already demonstrated that they are outstanding young men who will surely benefit the fraternity for years to come. In March, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of our current charter and the 65th anniversary of SigEp at Maryland with a formal banquet at the Riggs Alumni Center. Featuring a cocktail hour, catered dinner, and awards reception, the evening was a great occasion for brothers young and old to celebrate the history of our chapter. Thanks to the incredible generosity of our alumni, we were able to raise over $20,000 for our scholarship fund. Our 2nd annual Powderpuff Tournament was a great success, bringing in over $2,000 for the University of Maryland Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and drawing over 800 members of the Greek Community to Frat Row on a beautiful Friday afternoon. Since the 2 The SigEp Times Issue #2, February 2014 event, we have formally committed to raising $25,000 for the NICU by 2018. We came closer to this goal in October with our first annual SigEp B1G Car Smash, which was cohosted by the UMD Athletics Department. The event was attended by hundreds of students and the Maryland Men’s Basketball Team, and was nationally televised by ESPN during the Ohio State game. Fall semester saw our 2nd annual Trick-­‐
or-­‐Treat Around the Row event, in which we teamed up with the Alpha Xi Delta sorority to host children from the UMD Developmental Clinic for an afternoon of fun. Children with a wide variety of developmental disorders trick-­‐or-­‐treated at all the fraternity houses around the row before heading to the chapter house for arts and crafts, sports, and face painting. This year was host to a lot of great programming. Brotherhood events included a camping trip, paintballing, Oriole’s game, and weekly Game of Thrones viewing sessions. Greek Week saw us win overall Best Region, and Homecoming had us matched up with the lovely ladies of Alpha Phi. Dateds were held at Power Plant Live! and Paparazzi in Baltimore, while our semesters wrapped up with away weekends in Ocean City, MD, and Lansing, West Virginia. Looking back, I can say that it has been an absolute privilege to lead these fine men, and I am already looking forward to what we can accomplish in the year to come. As you read through the rest of this newsletter, I hope that you enjoy catching up on what the brothers of MD Beta have been up to. Fraternally, Danny Wolf, Chapter President
The SigEp Times Brothers, Issue #2, February 2014 A Message On Recruitment Jake Brintzenhofe ‘15
Recruitment this semester was a
massive success, and I’m excited to announce
that we put 15 new members through the Phi
Right of Passage after they completed the
Sigma Challenge. In the past several
semesters, the chapter has become one of the
most important names in Greek life at
Maryland. This transition has led us to new
recruitment territory; we’ve had the privilege
of being extremely selective in which
candidates are given bids. This semester, our
15 new members ranged from engineers, to
business school students, to financial experts.
Some were involved in varsity sports; others
are important leaders on campus. This
fraternity preaches the signing of balanced
men; these 15 new members have taken that
to another level by working together to form a
balanced class of balanced men. I’ll be thrilled
to watch them grow and continue to improve
Maryland Beta.
As we continue to recruit new
brothers, our greatest challenge is to
stay selective while meeting such a
massive amount of new people.
Recruitment is about finding good
people who have something to give and
who are willing to learn. This is no easy
goal though, the rush slate and the rest
of the chapter work tirelessly to find
those who will be the best
representatives of Sigma Phi Epsilon.
As I step into my second semester as
Vice President of Recruitment, I know
that our current brothers will not lose
sight of the type of people we need to
recruit, and will continue to find the
best men from every corner of campus.
-Jake Brintzenhofe
VP of Recruitment
The SigEp Times Issue #2, February 2014 MD Beta’s 65th Anniversary Banquet Michael Kreiner ‘16
On March 1st Sigma Phi Epsilon MD
Beta celebrated the 65th anniversary of its
original charter at Maryland and the 10th
anniversary of its current charter with a
banquet. Here alumni from all three charters
and our current brothers came together in the
Riggs Alumni Center to recognize our
achievements as a fraternity and to celebrate
those who have made our success possible.
The event was kicked off by hors d’oeuvres
and a cash bar and shortly transitioned into
the dinner portion of our banquet.
Following the dinner, our Alumni
Volunteer Committee President Justin Seiffert
began the ceremony by thanking everyone for
attending and introducing the speakers of the
night, Donald Weber ’50, Jason St. John ’94,
Mark Rabinowitz ’05, Mathew Ratz ’05, and
Danny Wolf ’15.
After Justin’s introduction, MD Beta
#00001 Donald Weber gave a rousing speech
on founding the University of Maryland’s
Sigma Phi Epsilon Chapter and what it was
like on campus during the late 40’s. Mr.
Weber’s speech was well received by all, and
along with telling stories about the young
chapter’s satellite pool house, he inspired the
current brothers to leave their mark on the
chapter and university.
While Jason St. John no doubt had the
hardest job of the speakers in following Mr.
Weber’s speech, he did a fantastic job of
challenging all brothers in attendance to stay
involved in the fraternity at both a local and
national level.
Next was current AVC member Mark
Rabinowitz who talked about the chapter’s
different scholarships and how brother’s
donations helped to support MD Beta’s
chapter. He also shared how much the event
had raised for the scholarship fund and
sought to encourage brothers in
attendance to make a yearly pledge.
The next speaker was another AVC
member, brother Mathew Ratz who spoke
on what it was like starting the third
charter of MD Beta and how the current
members should always remember their
roots, lest they become complacent and
lose all of the progress previous brothers
have worked so hard to achieve.
Finally was current president
Danny Wolf who shared with the alumni
the chapter’s current situation on campus
along with the brother’s goals for the
future. He also gave a sincere thank you
from all current MD Betas to the alumni
for their attendance and generous
donations to the chapter.
As the keynote speakers took their
seats, Justin Seiffert again came to the
podium and explained how alumni can
become involved in the chapter in more
ways. One of the easiest ways for an
alumnus to become more involved is to
join the Alumni Volunteer Committee.
Many of the alumni in attendance decided
to give monetary donations to one of our
four donation funds.
For pictures of the event, please
visit www.facebook.com/sigepmdbeta. If
you are interested in donating your time to
the MD Beta chapter, please contact Justin
Seiffert at justin.seiffert@gmail.com. If you
are interested in donating money to the
chapter please visit the chapter’s website
at www.sigepmaryland.org.
5 The SigEp Times Issue #2, February 2014 Service Trips Mark Haft ‘16
Over the ’13-’14 winter break 7 brothers
continued MD Beta’s commitment to helping
the victims of Hurricane Sandy on The New
Jersey Shore. During the cold January
weekend, brothers helped restore and rebuild
condemed homes. This meant spending hours
stripping down houses with severe water
damage, and putting up the wooden skeleton
for new homes. The homeowners brothers
interacted with were extremely thankful.
Brother Christopher Frye ’16 said of the
weekend “It’s an incredible experience being
able to help families finally gain a sense of
normalcy.”
Maryland Beta’s impact on the Jersey
Shore and the chapter’s focus on service was
featured in the most recent edition of the
SigEp Journal (p. 20). Make sure to check it
out!
This past August, six members
of the chapter spent a day volunteering
at the Dupont Nature Center in
Delaware’s Mispillion Harbor Reserve.
Brothers spent the day constructing
steps for a new shed, replacing sand
bags to prevent flooding, and removing
invasive plants at the center. The
Delaware Fish and Wildlife Division
said “the work [the brothers] did was
priceless!”
Ten MD Betas have already
committed to spending their 2015
spring break in Clemson, South
Carolina working for the Habitat for
Humanity Collegiate Challenge.
During the week brothers will be
constructing a home for a low-income
family. The goal for the chapter is to get
five more men to fill out the group
before the March trip.
6 The SigEp Times Issue #2, February 2014 Philanthropy Events Justin Garcia ‘16
April 5th marked Maryland Beta’s
second annual Powder Puff Tournament in
support of the University of Maryland
Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care
Unit (NICU). This year’s tournament had all
fourteen sororities on campus participate and
had a fraternity cosponser as well. In the
hopes of creating more visibility for the event
the location was changed from Cole Field
House to Fraternity Row.
Following the tradition set the year
before, two brothers coached each sorority
team through the tournament bracket.
Coaches set up team practices ahead of time to
prepare for the competition and to drum up
excitement for the event. The more conveinant
location encouraged friends of the sorority
woment to come and cheer them on during
the event.
After all was said and done, MD Beta
raised $2,000 for the UMMC NICU. This is
close to a 100% increase from the inaugural
tournment. Moving forward, the chapter will
be capitilazing on the popularity of the event
by obtaining more fraternity sponsers. The
goal for next year’s tournament is to involve
more of the campus and increasing the money
raised for NICU by another 100%.
To help reach the chapter’s
$25,000 goal by 2018 for UMMC NICU,
a Fall philanthropy event was started
this past semester. The new event was a
“Car Smash” where anyone could pay
five dollars for 45 seconds to beat up a
car as much as they could. The chapter
tied the event in with the upcoming
inaugural B1G football game against
Ohio State and painted the car in OSU
colors.
By communicating with the
atheletic department, the car smash
became an official “game week” event
for the university. In addition to the
event being advertised by the atheletic
department, the UMD Basketball team
cosponsered the event and sent the
entire team to take part in the
destruction. The team loved the car
smash, and they even put up a video
on their official Youtube page (search
“Maryland basketball SigEp Car
Smash”)!
MD Beta raised over $800 in the
first annual occurrence of this event
and received a lot of great press,
including a shoutout during ESPN’s
live broadcast of the game. Brothers are
excited for the future of this event, and
are already working on plans to
expand it next year. 7 The SigEp Times Issue #2, February 2014 Recent Alumni News If you are interested in being featured in the next newsletter, please contact the VP of External Affairs, Connor Bruso at crbruso@gmail.com. Jorge Salinas ‘14
“Life After College: Year 2”
As the second year of being a "real
person" begins, Connor reached out to me and
asked me to write something for the alumni
newsletter. Naturally, wanting to be able to
stay in touch with our fraternity I said yes
with minimal hesitation. I asked what I
should write about and a suggestion was how
my career is going and how I look back on my
time as an undergraduate member of Sigma
Phi Epsilon. To make it short, I'm still
employed and fondly. But it's been a whole
year since I received the cardboard tube with
my diploma and placed said tube into my
drafts mug (where it shall reside until I have
the wall space for a sweet frame), and so
much has happened.
For starters my job is going well. I say
job because as a 22 year old in the DC area
calling anything a career now may seem
premature. It's going well and it's helping me
figure out what I want to do next, which is
move into government work or the nonprofit
sector. In the year since I started working as a
government contractor I've survived 3 rounds
of layoffs, gotten some lower level security
clearances, and am now the head of my own
account (State Government and Miscellaneous
Federal Offices, for those of you that are
curious). I'm good at what I do and I'm one of
the company leaders in account profit margin
every month (shameless self promotion is
always a must). I'm not sure how much longer
I'll be doing this but I know that the
experience and work I've put in here will be
worth it and something I'll look back on
fondly.
Kind of like being in a fraternity. See
how I worked in that segue? On the surface,
my time in SigEp gave me a ton of great
stories, memories, and friends that I
proudly call my brothers. It's actually a lot
more than that. I got a ton of role models,
older ones, ones my age and even a few
younger ones. What our fraternity has
managed to do is something you don't
really see everywhere, we've got a group
of men from all walks of life that excel at
what they do. And each individual I've
met in Sigma Phi Epsilon is nothing short
of excellent.
I could go on about how we're tied
by our values, and how that's made me a
better person. And there's no doubt in my
mind that it has. So pat yourselves on the
back my brothers, being in SigEp was
awesome because each one of you is
awesome and together we made it
collectively awesome. Everybody has a
different experience with being in a
fraternity, but I can only hope that we can
all walk away from it as better men
wherever life takes us. For those of you
graduating this coming year, remember
this; it's never over, things will just be
different. And that's ok.
8 The SigEp Times Issue #2, February 2014 MD Beta has come a long way since its most recent chartering at the University of Maryland,
and even further since it was first founded on campus in 1949. This semester’s Anniversary Banquet
gave brothers the chance to come together and appreciate this progress. As a chapter we would like
to thank the AVC for the great work they did putting on the banquet, especially AVC president
Justin Seiffert. The External Affairs committee hopes by creating the Alumni Newsletter we can
build on the momentum that this fantastic event has created in the chapter and strengthen the
connection between current brothers and alumni. We encourage all brothers to stay connected to the
chapter through our webiste (www.SigEpMaryland.org), Facebook account
(www.facebook.com/sigepmdbeta), and Twitter account (@SigEp_UMD). If you have any
comments on the newsletter itself, please contact the VP of External Affairs, Connor Bruso
(crbruso@gmail.com).
VDBL and HFF,
The External Affairs Committee