Chi Eta Newsletter 2019.1

T H E

O F F I C I A L

XH

N E W S L E T T E R

O F

C H I

E T A

THE HILL IS

ALIVE

CHI CLASS | BIKE4ALZ | COMMENCEMENT WKUFIJI.COM

ISSUE 2019.1

LETTER from the EDITOR ENDINGS & BEGINNINGS

Brothers, As the Spring 2019 semester closes, summer ends, and a new academic year begins, it’s an exciting time to be a Hilltopper—and an important time to be a FIJI. This week we’ll welcome the newest pledge class, fresh faces excited to become brothers and experience college from such a perspective.

With this newsletter, I close my own personal timeline as an undergraduate brother, having graduated this May and moved on to pursue graduate studies this fall. For the first time in four years, I won’t find myself shaking hands with these newest brothers in August or even waving “hello” to my own pledge brothers on my daily walk to Cherry Hall.

In this issue, I’m compiling our spring pledge class, a record-setting Bike4Alz journey, and, in the end, I’ll take a quick look back at Chi Eta over my four years— and I’ll call on our current brothers to continue striving for excellence.

I look forward to the 2019-2020 academic year with a new home, a new perspective, and a hope to see brothers maintaining a spirit of tradition that very few chapters (like Chi Eta) can do so well.

Your editor,

THOMAS DEATON Publications Chair

P!

2

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

WKU GRADUATING SENIORS WAVE RED TOWELS AT THE BEGINNING OF WKU’S 2019 COMMENCEMENT CEREMONIES AT LT SMITH STADIUM.

3

CONTENTS in this issue

12

A RECORD-SETTING BIKE4ALZ JOURNEY

6 HEY THERE, CHI CLASS Welcoming the Spring 2019 class to Chi Eta, Van Meter style.

12 GOING FOR GOLD: BIKE4ALZ SETS RECORD YEAR Reflecting on the most sucessful ride to-date.

20 AT THE END OF THE DAY: REFLECTING ON FOUR YEARS Looking back on a collegiate experience defined by FIJI.

4

6

CHI CLASS, STAGE LEFT

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

SAVE THE DATE

2019 HOMECOMING OCTOBER 19, 2019

5

WE’RE SAYING “HELLO” TO THIS SPRING’S INTRODUCTION OF 10 NEW BROTHERS FEATURING BID DAY IMAGES BY TREVOR WHEEKER

6

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

7

RYAN BILBREY

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? Accounting

WHY FIJI? I wanted to be part of a group of guys that could have a positive impact on my life, provide advice for me throughout my college journey, and provide a future outlet to hopefully leave a positive impact on younger guys within FIJI. COLLEGE ACTIVITIES: FIJI, Christian Student Fellowship (CSF) and the Mahurin Honors College WHAT’S THE BEST SPOT TO STUDY ON CAMPUS? The back patio at the Honors College & International Center.

SEAN DILLON

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? Business Data Analytics

WHY FIJI? I wanted to join a group of similar-minded people who could push me to be my best self.

COLLEGE ACTIVITIES: FIJI, Data Analytics Club, and the National Society of Leadership and Success.

WHAT’S THE BEST SPOT TO STUDY ON CAMPUS? The Honors College & International Center.

JOHN SLAUGHTER

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? Biology (Chemistry minor)

WHY FIJI? For a group of brothers who push you to be the best individual you can be.

COLLEGE ACTIVITIES: FIJI

WHAT’S THE BEST SPOT TO STUDY ON CAMPUS? Mass Media & Technology

8

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

JUSTIN GEILEAR

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? Business Economics

WHY FIJI? From the moment I walked into Fort Armstrong, I felt like I had found a second home.

COLLEGE ACTIVITIES: FIJI, Baptist Campus Ministries and Rock Climbing Club.

WHAT’S THE BEST SPOT TO STUDY ON CAMPUS? 9th floor of Cravens.

NATE ROBB

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? Animal Science (Concentration in PreVeterinary Medicine) WHY FIJI? To better myself as a man and to become a part of something bigger than myself.

COLLEGE ACTIVITIES: FIJI, Intramurals, and Pre-Vet club.

WHAT’S THE BEST SPOT TO STUDY ON CAMPUS? The Honors College & International Center study rooms.

JAKE YORK

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? Marketing

WHY FIJI? I had some friends in FIJI tell me about the chapter and what it stands for. I thought it would be a great way to get involved!

COLLEGE ACTIVITIES: FIJI, Club Tennis, and Journey Church WHAT’S THE BEST SPOT TO STUDY ON CAMPUS? The basement of the library!

9

10

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

11

SAM HUGULEY

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? Human Resource Management

WHY FIJI? I was enticed by the brotherhood that I saw my roommate having, and I also wanted to get more involved.

COLLEGE ACTIVITIES: FIJI, Hilltoppers for Christ and Delta Sigma Pi (Business Fraternity)

WHAT’S THE BEST SPOT TO STUDY ON CAMPUS? Top floor of Cravens library.

AUSTIN “T” HARNE

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? Architecural Science (Business Management minor)

WHY FIJI? I joined FIJI to find a group of brothers who would push me to be the best version of myself. I found this and so much more!

COLLEGE ACTIVITIES: FIJI, WKU Co-Ed Cheerleader.

WHAT’S THE BEST SPOT TO STUDY ON CAMPUS? The Honors College & International Center 3rd floor lounge.

MILES NEWTON

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? Biology & Chemistry

WHY FIJI? I joined FIJI for the overwhelming amounts of brotherhood, accountability, and opportunity that the organization offers. FIJI provides its members a space to be their authentic self while pushing them to become their BEST self.

COLLEGE ACTIVITIES: FIJI, Mahurin Honors College Planning Board, Christian Student Fellowship, and Secretary of the Alpha Epsilon Delta Pre-Health Society.

WHAT’S THE BEST SPOT TO STUDY ON CAMPUS? The Honors College & International Center.

12

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

KYLE ALLEN

WHAT’S YOUR MAJOR? Mechanical Engineering

WHY FIJI? To join a brotherhood that can keep one another accountable and help me become the best version of myself.

COLLEGE ACTIVITIES: FIJI, CSF, Intramurals

WHAT’S THE BEST SPOT TO STUDY ON CAMPUS? 3rd floor of Ogden.

13

THE LESS 14

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

ROAD TRAVELED Bike4Alz 2019 as detailed by Chi Eta Corresponding Secretary & B4A VP Jack Blair 15

On

May 13th, 2019, Bike4Alz “Team 007” took off in a loaded down Tahoe and an equally-full Suburban. Almost 50 hours later, we arrived in San Francisco, California, at the UC Berkeley chapter house around five in the morning. After two days of getting our bearings and one failed trial run, we officially started ride 7 by placing our back tires in the chilly Pacific Ocean.

As was unfortunately common this summer, bad luck hit rode along on our very first stretch. After posing for pictures with the Golden Gate Bridge, we immediately received a call the car had broken down. Little did we know, this would be the first of many strokes of bad luck. But through freezing rains in California, snow in Lake Tahoe, massive hail in Nevada, and tornado warnings in Kansas, the ride’s spirit never faltered.

16

XH NEWSLETTER

We knew from the beginning this journey was going to be one of the toughest experiences we’ve faced in our lives so far. Even though our team faced many weather issues, car troubles, and trailer problems, Bike4Alz Team 007 still had the most successful ride of any previous Bike4Alz team. Before the ride even started, Team 007 had already partnered with four title sponsors pledging over $750 each, three of which were over $2,500. The team had raised more money than previous rides totals, and they hadn’t even left yet. Bike4Alz Team 007 also consisted of 14 men, the largest group ever, and a far cry from the seven-member team Bike4Alz had two years ago. Because of such a large number of members, team 007 had many connections and sponsors.

Team 007’s biggest sponsor came from headphone company AfterShokz. After stumbling across their page on Instagram and a few emails & phone calls later, we had our VOL 2019.1

17

biggest sponsor yet. The team was shipped 20 bone-conduction headphones, which allowed the riders to be safe and hear around them, while also listening to their headphones. AfterShokz also sponsored custom jerseys for the team, as well as recording a commercial featuring the Bike4Alz team and their story. The team also hosted many events throughout Kentucky and Tennessee, which were a huge success The team believes although their ride was successful, Bike4Alz still has plenty of room for growth going forward.

“We came into this summer with the goal of making Bike4Alz better than it was when our team started,” said Gabe Hitz, Bike4Alz 2019 President. “We wanted to set up for the future of Bike4Alz, as well as focus on our ride.” 70 long days and nearly 3,600 miles later, and the Bike4Alz team had set a new record of money donated, post-expenses.

Nearly $71,000 was raised, all for the Alzheimer’s Foundation. The team would 18

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

not have been able to do it without the help from the many parents, family members, friends, and supporters throughout the ride. Bike4Alz Team 007 left for San Francisco with lofty goals, and, despite all the trials they faced, still met or even exceeded those goals.

Bike4Alz will always hold a special place in XH’s heart as well as the thousands of people it affects every year— and Team 007 will go down as the most successful ride to-date. • 19

at the end of the day A moment of reflection by Thomas Deaton

20

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

21

As

I sat back with friends this past semester at several senior celebrations and recounted stories of our time together, I began thinking in depth about the material I spent the last four years studying, and it kept boiling down to one word: change. Much of my college curriculum has centered around this concept, and our college environment has demonstrated it dynamically. In the classroom, I studied changes and differences in the use of language and in styles of communication; I studied changes in climate and the growing differences in how we should care about the planet. But if there’s one thing I didn’t see coming, it was how college would shift my understandings of change beyond the textbooks I read, the literature I studied, or the climate data I analyzed.

Prior to college, life was decently linear, routine. But college life seems almost centered around a model that works in complete opposition to this concept, instead set up for making the most out of possibility, of opportunity, and of moments where we choose courage. And after four years of the Class of 2019 having participated in a wide spectrum of programs and applied for new opportunities all over the globe, we could easily tell you: choosing courage is what, at the end of the day, accomplishes the toughest of goals and overcomes the moments of greatest fear.

Since our collective arrival at WKU in the fall of 2015, we’ve done just that.

22

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

23

Flashback to May of 2016. I sat at a chapter meeting, having just made it through my first full year in FIJI, laying the groundwork for a fraternity that had come to define my understanding of college in almost every way but my academic work. It had given me my closest friends—you know who you are, new and old—and moments of amazing laughter and true joy.

And it made me think back to my Cherry Presidential application, specifically one essay I submitted. I detailed how, at that point, almost every night, for as long as I can remember, my family had enjoyed dinner together around the same table.

The surface of the dining room table was jacketed with school projects and recent grades and crumbs from an afternoon snack eaten hastily before this practice or that appointment, the busy calendar of an involved high school student to which I’m sure many of you can relate. My dad’s newspaper, maybe even a day or two old, would sit wrinkled, scribbled on and coffee stained beside a pen for taking notes from the occasional work call. That table is battered and scratched by daily life, but, according to my mom, it’s “perfectly imperfect.”

24

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

That dining table, and the family that inherently surrounds it, was a staple of daily life, of the environment that had, up to that point, continually pushed my curiosity and encouraged me to aim high. Wrapping up that first year in the FIJI and admiring the capstone projects, activities, and awards of the graduating seniors from three years ago, I saw in this chapter a demonstration of an environment that duplicated the one from home I so highly valued, but with each person’s own, unique, brotherly twist. Despite my best efforts to cling to this narrative, though, a louder one echoed through: a story of change and adaptation and movement.

Out of that environment, and as this graduating class made our way up and down the Hill more than a few times together, we saw each other tackle the difference and the change of college life and this University headstrong,

25

serving in such cool roles and accepting honors like Scholars of the College, foreign service internships, student government leaders, and presidents of clubs that create environments wholeheartedly centered on success in our upcoming careers. And we engaged in these opportunities, both individually and collectively, as members of a WKU class that has witnessed four very different years, both individually and collectively, from that which we thought we knew before, a deviation from the familiarity or expectation with which we entered.

Above all, we’ve continued to care, to strive, and to share our voice and be vulnerable as a student class that has lived on a very active and stirring campus. The world of our four years, on campus and in the far reaches of the globe that we’ve traversed, has been that of a perpetually changing dynamic, one that has encouraged student feedback and student participation and led to so many outlets for highlighting the successes and the resilience of our class. Bottom line: we’ve stayed engaged, we’ve spoken up, and we’ve created change.

26

XH NEWSLETTER

VOL 2019.1

I couldn’t conclude this reflection without credit for so much of its inspiration to Mrs. Dixie Mahurin. We are all familiar with Mrs. Mahurin, the woman who, along with her husband, has given selfless support to this University with the sole purpose of crafting a sustained environment for student innovation, creativity, and academic courage. A few months ago now, I had the opportunity to hear her speak at an event we hosted at work, and she told a story that fit so well to how one might feel about FIJI as he reaches the conclusion of his undergraduate career.

She detailed how her grandmother had built up and maintained a massive garden and arboretum over her lifetime. Her property was full of many beautiful trees that she had planted over many years, and, even in the last years of her life, she had never stopped adding to it. One day, as she was planting another tree, a neighbor of hers remarked that she would never live to see it grown. From what I recall, she said that her grandmother quickly replied, “The world wasn’t empty when I got here, and I’m leaving it better than I found it.”

As my time with FIJI and an entire era comes to a close, I might wonder (or cause others to wonder) why I should care about its future when I’ll never see out what I started? But that’s just it: this fraternity was already a wonderful place when we got here, and all I want to do is leave it better than I found it.

I happily joined my fellow graduates in such a cause this past May as we moved out to change the world.

Thanks, brothers, and Go Tops.•

27

XH

WORDS TO LIVE BY

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

From Theodore Roosevelt’s “Citizenship In A Republic,” delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, on 23 April, 1910.