The Bridge Builder Fall 2023

THE BRIDGE BUILDER

CONNECTING WITH ALUMNI, FAMILY, AND FRIENDS OF THE ETA EPSILON CHAPTER OF BETA THETA PI AT JOHN CARROLL UNIVERSITY

Eta Epsilon Families

The Eta Epsilon families are being recorded again. The Brothers did their research and pieced together the past and present family trees. Out of the initial ten families only five still remain alive today.

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16 Years at John Carroll University

Chapter Counselor and Initiated Brother of two Beta Chapters, Benjamin Lupica, writes about his time here with the Eta Epsilon Chapter, and recent awards that the Chapter has achieved.

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THE BRIDGE BUILDER

A Letter From the President

Ryan Beranek ‘25

Hello brothers and friends,

My name is Ryan Beranek and I had the pleasure of serving as chapter President of the Eta Epsilon chapter of Beta Theta Pi in 2023. My time within Beta has been nothing short of spectacular. Coming to John Carroll by myself and looking for a fresh start, Beta Theta Pi was able to do that for me. I was able to join a brotherhood with people that I can call my brothers for life. These brothers have also played large roles in creating friends, skills, and memories that will last a lifetime.

When I first joined the chapter, I had no desire to run for any sort of leadership. However, my first semester I ended up serving as the V.P. of finance. This was an opportunity I was unsure about, but looking back, could not have been happier. Being able to work alongside a great executive board and being able to help a fraternity that was crushed by the pandemic get back to its full potential was super rewarding. Fast forward one year, I was able to serve as chapter President.

Being President was again something I would have never expected, but the support of those near me propelled me to do it. At the start of my term of President, I visioned myself trying to introduce new things to the chapter, as the chapter continued to grow. My first big event that I planned and executed, with the help of fellow brother Trey Weunski, was a parent’s weekend. I felt that for as big of a role parents play in the dynamic of a fraternity; they were not valued enough. In spring 23, we held a Parent’s Weekend which consisted of them being able to watch our lip sync performance, a brunch the following morning, and a golf outing (unfortunately was cancelled due to weather). I think this weekend was a huge success as parents were able to put names to faces of stories they hear, as well as make new relationships amongst brother’s parents. Another highlight of my term was being able to attend Beta’s 184th general convention, where we were honored to receive the highest award a Beta chapter can receive, the Knox Award, alongside several other awards. To see the hard work done by the chapter being recognized was truly remarkable. This award was a kickstart to the chapter and it was only up from there. Our fall recruitment class was one of the biggest of all time, initiating 14 new brothers into our chapter. This class put the chapter to over 30 members, a goal that I wanted to achieve during my time as presidency. This past semester has truly been remarkable. Having brotherhood events such as attending a Cleveland Guardians game, going to sky zone, broomball, turkey bowls, and several other events highlighted the fall semester.

Looking back on these past years, I am truly thankful for all the opportunities Beta Theta Pi, and especially the Eta Epsilon chapter has provided for me. Beta has molded me into the person that I am today, and I hope that my actions in a leadership role will help shape the future of the chapter for years to come.

Yours in _kai_, Ryan Beranek #206

Semester Kickoff

Beta started off the semester strong with their involvement on Campus. Multiple Brothers were able to get the SWAT Leader position, where they helped the incoming freshman class move into their dorms, lead groups though numerous activities during Streak Week, and continued to help make sure the freshmen had a smooth first semester. Other Brothers got jobs as tour guides to show how involved Beta is on campus and how we live our values every day. The Brothers also came out to the FSL cookout at the beginning of the semester to talk to the new freshmen about our core values while grilling and playing yard games on the quad. During the fall semester, the Chapter made a great impact on campus while spreading the name of Beta Theta Pi.

Largest Recent Pledge Class

This semester as a Chapter we initiated 14 new members. This was the largest pledge class since 2018 when the Chapter initiated 18 new members. With the 14 new members we were able to double the chapter in size after 8 seniors graduated last semester. We are incredibly happy to have these new brothers and cannot wait to see how many more join the brotherhood in the coming years. Next year we plan to head down to Oxford, Ohio for our initiation and hope to have an even larger pledge class.

THE BRIDGE BUILDER

A Semester of Fun

Below are the highlights to some of our favorite moments during the semester

Up to Date Beta Families

The Beta Big/Little families are up to date with the most recent pledge class of Fall 2023

Patty Taylor Service Day

The Brothers spent a fall morning cleaning up and servicing Patty Taylor's yard. The Brothers get the opportunity to help out an old John Carroll employee once each semester. During the morning and into the afternoon, the Brothers helped rake up leaves, pick up large branches and sticks, and put in new bushes. Each semester Patty Taylor loves seeing all the Brothers come out to help her even if she only has small tasks that need to be done. The Chapter hopes to keep up the tradition going forward and helping Patty Taylor out as much as we can.

Meet Our Newest Members

New Members in front of their Big Brothers at the Big Little Ceremony

We are very proud to welcome our 14 new brothers into the Eta Epsilon Chapter, from left to right:

Connor Kissling ‘27

Ryan Giti ‘27

Anthony McFarlin ‘27

Cj Lyon ‘27

Tanner Francis ‘26

Andrew Begg ‘27

Warren Eveland ‘27

Ryan Wellman ‘27

Drew Christie ‘27

Jack Stephens ‘27

Nolan LaFeir ‘27

Sean Ambrosino ‘26

Tyler Muller ‘27

Paul Levand ’27 (Not Pictured)

Reforming Member Education

Thoughts by Joshua Flesher ‘26

I established a canvas course for new members and myself to efficiently monitor everyone’s progress throughout the process and make lessonlys more accessible. I Incorporated song quizzes to have the pledges study the songs and better their knowledge of them. I had the actives take the song quizzes as well. I also held a fall brotherhood retreat to give pledges the opportunity to bond with the actives ahead of the big/little ceremony and their initiation.

16 Years of Eta Epsilon

Letter by the Fifth Chapter Counselor Benjamin Lupica

Dear fellow brothers,

As we now enter our Chapter’s sixteenth year with a new slate of officers and 2024 soon approaching upon us, it gives me time for some worthwhile reflection. This past year brought our chapter a third time reward for the most important national Beta fraternity award; the coveted John Reily Knox award, recognizing excellence in multiple areas of chapter management, recruitment, member education, and even fraternal singing.

This important award had been received at our recent national Convention held in August at Dallas, along with four additional awards focusing upon our chapter’s outstanding campus involvement, high academic achievement and effective alumni relations. Thanks are due to our chapter for this determined and consistent effort to strive and maintain its excellence upon the John Carroll University campus, with our brothers serving very active officer roles on the Inter-Fraternity Council and other campus student organizations.

Congratulations are also in order for my Chapter Advisory Board members motivated with their own resources, contacts, mentoring and direction of our undergraduate executive officers. Two fine examples of this interactive achievement are alumni and undergraduate recipients with a Beta Alumni Award for financial-alumni relations advisor, Tony Dempsey and a Beta Academic Merit Scholarship Award for Joey Iberis, VP of Recruitment. With our annual spring initiation, even I was also honored by receiving dual chapter membership generously offered by our own chapter granted along with the National Fraternity, since as chapter counselor, I gratefully hold two Beta chapter role numbers respectively for Delta Delta of Bowling Green and Eta Epsilon of John Carroll.

Another highlight was the “Man of Principle” Dinner, honoring the recruitment period, for which I had contacted founding father, Ryan Schoonmaker ‘09 (chapter roll number #1), to serve as the keynote speaker. He was very appreciative to deliver this great presentation that was valued by the new members and attendees. Most recently several of our former and new executive board members had attended a great leadership conference by the invitation of Boler business professor, Scott Allen, a former JCU Beta advisor, for keynote speaker, Joe Hart CEO of the Dale Carnegie Institute, who is a Michigan Beta. This event became an excellent opportunity to share great leadership ideas among the former and new officers as a conclusive semester event.

As a final reflection, I am especially pleased to recognize our 14 recent fall pledge class members, among whom many are enthusiastically holding new officer and chair positions, which I also had the pleasure to advise and thereby encourage for the quality of our chapter leadership. With these new members in our chapter, we all can be very assured for the continued success within our sixteenth year at John Carroll University!

Yours in __kai__, Benjamin C. Lupica

Bowling Green #214 and John Carroll #230

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Men of Principle Scholarship

The Eta Epsilon Chapter held their annual Men of Principle Scholarship Dinner to celebrate the finalists and to award Brother Connor Kissling the scholarship award. The Men of Principle Scholarship Award is awarded to those who truly exemplify what it means to be a man of principle. Connor proved himself to be the best candidate for this award through his interview with the brothers and his initial application for the scholarship. At the dinner, the keynote speaker Ryan Schoonmaker ’09 gave a very impactful speech about becoming a part of Beta and being the first role number for the Eta Epsilon Chapter. He provided insight into how he wrote the first constitution for the chapter, and showed the brothers that the values and principles of Beta Theta Pi are things to live by not just followed during the time in the chapter.

Executive Board Fall 2023

President – Ryan Beranek ‘25

V.P. of Brotherhood – Cameron Coccitti ‘23

V.P. of Programming – Tyler Siconolfi ‘23

V.P. of Risk Management – Brendan McKendry ‘26

V.P. of Recruitment – Joey Iberis ‘26

V.P. of New Member Education – Joshua Flesher ‘26

V.P. of Finance – Nicholas Brunetti ‘25

V.P. of Administration – Gabriel Smith ‘26