July 2014 Newsletter
Jeff Wray
JWray
Dear DC Gamma Alumni,
We hope this finds you doing well. The spring semester was a strong one for the DC Gamma Chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon, and we hope to share some of our experiences, developments, and achievements with you in this edition of our newsletter. Since the year’s beginning, we’ve added a strong class of new brothers, taken a chapter retreat to Gettysburg, held a number of chapter events including an end of semester boat formal, and have developed both individually and as a group. Continually striving towards our balanced man ideal, we find ourselves at a fantastic place in our chapter’s existence, yet we constantly seek improvement in all aspects of our collegiate lives.
From an academic standpoint, our chapter is stronger than it has ever been. Posting a 3.601 chapter-wide GPA, we find ourselves in the top 5 academic chapters nationally, with Yale, Stanford, and Dartmouth serving as our chief competition. We also have the highest GPA on campus for all student groups outside of the Georgetown Student Government. Brothers continue to excel in a vast array of majors, from pre-med to finance and international politics. In the coming semester, we look to improve on these successes and further develop ourselves intellectually.
Outside of our academic pursuits, we’ve become stronger members of the Georgetown community and the DC community as a whole. As the leading team for this year’s Relay for Life initiative on campus and with several service projects lined up for the fall, our chapter has taken community service seriously this year. One project that we are starting this year is an upcoming chili cook-off, during which we will have several different campus groups competing in order to raise money for a charity chosen by the winning team. In conjunction with a growing emphasis on member development that has flourished so far this semester, we have also incorporated a significant community service component and development aspects with the Sigma, Phi, and Epsilon challenges. This ultimately serves to bolster each individual brother’s awareness with the surrounding community while the development that we find to be such a vital part of our fraternity’s mission occurs.
Socially, our chapter has continued with and improved on our past trend of fun and engaging events. An ice-skating date night, a Valentines Day date party, and a trip to King’s Dominion serve as a few examples of the strong schedule that our programming board achieved. Additionally, we continued our tradition of a spring formal boat cruise on the Potomac to end the semester properly. As always, it was a pleasure to see alumni at this event, and we were glad to recognize John Sullivan as Brother of the Year and Andrew Blay with the President’s Cup with their assistance.
From an alumni standpoint, we have seen brothers graduated last year excel in a variety of fields across the globe. From working in microfinance in Kenya to Google in California, our recent graduates have made us tremendously proud, and we cherish the contact we’ve been able to keep with them and all of our alumni. With an alumni base of over 100 brothers for DC Gamma, we are at a point when the connection with them will serve to be more vital than it has ever been, as Georgetown SigEp is becoming less and less of a group confined to a hilltop in northwestern DC. First and foremost, this newsletter serves as a means for us to reconnect, and to give you a glimpse of what is going on with a brotherhood of which we are truly proud to be a part. So, please enjoy the next few pages, and, as always, keep us updated and comprised with the on goings in your lives, as you always will have a welcome place in this chapter.
Sincerely,
Colin Walls
Vice President Communications