Alex and Nick Sheehan are closer than most brothers. Growing up, the two were homeschooled, meaning they spend nearly every hour of every day together until older brother, Nick, went to a public high school. While most would leave their little brother to fend for themselves after transitioning to a new school, Nick and his friends had a different approach with Alex.
“He kind of became everyone’s little brother. A lot of my friends were younger siblings. They didn’t have younger brothers and that is what drove a lot of that.” They shared almost everything throughout their lives, but the time came for Nick to go to Ohio State for college. Arriving in 2013, he did not have immediate connections, no clear vision of what he wanted to do in college and no desire to join a fraternity. But one thing was certain: he wanted to make an impact on other people. One day on campus, he ran into someone with an opportunity he could not pass up. “I was walking to class one day and I met someone who was talking about Phi Sig,” he said. “They said they were doing this fraternity and mentioned the things the fraternity stood for. I really liked the opportunity he was describing and the chance to do something a little more meaningful than probably the average college student would be able to do.”
OHIO STATE’S RECHARTERING (2014) His journey to build something bigger than himself began. Looking back, Nick is proud of his accomplishments with Pi Deuteron. The impact he and his fellow founding fathers made with the chapter stretches beyond his time as an undergraduate. “When I think of my Phi Sig experience, a lot of words come to my mind. But the big one is humility,” he said. “Everyone thinks that to change the world you have to come out here and have these crazy ideas and build huge companies. That really isn’t the case. That’s not really the right message. You change the world by doing the little things right. I am incredibly proud of the men we are developing. I am proud of my other founding fathers and what they have gone on to do. They truly are changing the world. I think being a part of that makes me grateful and humbled.”
Nick met some of the guys and was hooked immediately.
“I fell in love with the idea of creating something that was truly going to last longer than my time at Ohio State. I really felt like this would make a difference at a school like Ohio State. It made such a big school smaller.” THE SIGNET
SPRING 2019
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