SigEps hiring SigEps
About a dozen SigEps at financial services company By TREY W YDYSH, Richmond ’07
“It’s all about who you know.” College seniors and recent graduates hear this phrase often as they prepare to enter the work force. It’s not meant to diminish the importance of experience and job skills, but to acknowledge the need to take advantage of the benefits of networking during the job hunt. And, even though skills, experience and accomplishments are very important to employers, networking can be a crucial first step to get one’s foot in the door when starting a career. Just ask Greg Keller, Missouri-Columbia ’86, Steve Gordon, Missouri-Columbia ’88, and David Baumann, Nebraska ’91, three SigEps who work at Renaissance Financial, a company started by Keller in 1994. Keller says as many as 12 SigEps work for Renaissance Financial, a planning firm started to help businesses and individuals reach their financial goals through customized solutions. One way Keller says he connects with so many SigEps is through his continued involvement with the Missouri-Columbia Chapter. Each summer, Renaissance Financial, founded in St. Louis, sponsors a trip to a St. Louis Cardinals game during formal rush. Though the event serves as a major recruitment opportunity for the Missouri Alpha Chapter, Keller says that an obvious bonus
is that the rushes get introduced to Renaissance Greg Keller, left, and Steve Gordon, right, at a St. Louis Cardinals game with friends, Financial. lived across the hall from each other at Missouri-Columbia. They can often find employAnd while Keller ees through SigEp. said Renaissance doesn’t specifically “Many of the same ideals that were instilled through look to recruit from the Fraternity are similar to our work culture.” the ranks of SigEp, he noted that some SigEps naturally find their business. “It’s much more similar to a business than you realize,” he said. way to the company. “Once you have a group Baumann, who works at Renaissance’s in, they naturally become beacons for others,” Omaha office, added, “We have a great he said. “It just feeds on itself.” Both Keller and Gordon—who lived across culture established at Renaissance, and so in a way, it is like a mini fraternity. Many of the the hall from one another at the SigEp same ideals that were instilled through the house during their college days—add that Fraternity are similar to our work culture.” any fraternity experience in general puts Another workplace benefit of the SigEp potential employees at the top of the heap. “I understand people stand out a little bit ahead network that Gordon and Baumann are quick to point out is the connection with potential of the curve if they come out of a fraternity,” new clients. Gordon says that a strong client Keller said. base can be established through SigEp, pointGordon—who was originally hired by ing out that many of his friends and former Keller at AXA Equitable, and helped to start brothers come to him for financial advice. Renaissance in 1994—told the Journal that “The SigEp network has provided a great the strong social component of fraternities resource of contacts,” Baumann added. “There (building bonds between brothers, running a campus organization) says a lot about a poten- are many successful SigEps in the work force along with business owners that we deal with.” tial employee’s ability to work with others. “I’m way better off professionally because of “It tells us a lot about who we’re dealmy Fraternity experience,” Gordon said. ing with,” he said, adding that a fraternity provides a good training ground for running a
Rider graduate gets 25 brothers to take A.J.’s Polar Plunge By TYLER MANOUKIAN, Massachusetts ’13
Frank Romano Jr., Rider ’10, doesn’t think chapter’s involvement, first froze on February twice about jumping into the icy Atlantic Ocean 3, 2007, coincidentally his 19th birthday. He in the middle of winter. That’s because his brother describes the Freezin’ for a Reason campaign Michael, lost his life to cancer in 2005. as a life-changing feeling, where he risks Every year, he and his chapter at Rider take freezing for a cause. In 2009, only one brother part in A.J.’s Polar Plunge, a Camp Sunshine took the plunge with him, but by 2010, 15 event benefiting children with cancer and brothers joined him in what has become a their families. A.J.’s parents are full-time chapter-wide event. This year, over 25 brothdoctors at the camp, ers participated. and he organizes this In three years, plunge as part of a Rider has raised over series of polar dives $3,000 to support held each year. At the Camp Sunshine. camp, children enjoy Romano and his boating, rock-climbing chapter dorm storm, and snow tubing in sit by collection the winter, where a jars and vacuum full medical facility dorm rooms for $5, operates year-round. advertising their Romano, the drivpre-Freezin’ event, This year, over 25 brothers participated in Freezin’ for a ing force behind his Reason campaign.
Cleanin’ for a Reason. “I thankfully had great support systems through [Michael’s] ordeal with cancer, including after his death; the brothers knew how much Freezin’ meant to me and would tell me how awesome it was that I was able to talk about my brother and advocate for this cause,” he said. As a man who struggled after the death of his younger brother, Romano, a resident assistant at the beginning of his sophomore year, was hesitant to join SigEp, but the Balanced Man Program and camaraderie changed his mind. His chapter models the way, acting as the support system he needed when it mattered most. “Without SigEp,” he said, “I would be a lesslearned person with a more closed mind, and not as willing to take the calculated risks in life that are necessary to bring oneself to new levels of living.”
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