This weekend the Rho chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon opened its doors to alumni for Homecoming weekend.  The weekend featured a reception prior to the Marquis Founders dinner, the annual brothers meeting, a tailgate prior to the football game, as well as cocktails at the house after the game.  Attendance was spectacular and brothers, young and old, reconnected and bonded over their shared experiences as members of Delta Kappa Epsilon.  To top off the weekend Lafayette came out victorious over the Holy Cross Crusaders! We look forward to continuing this tradition next year!

Marquis Founders Reception

Cocktails after the game!

Last week Brother William Leonard and Brother Robert Howe attended the 168th DKE Convention.  Reflecting on his experience Brother Leonard writes:

Recently, Brother Howe and I attended the 168th DKE convention, hosted by the Psi Chapter, at the University of Alabama. Despite excruciatingly long delays, missed connecting flights, and a night spent at the airport in Atlanta, we finally arrived in Tuscaloosa on Thursday morning. Unfortunately, we missed the welcome dinner and tour of the legendary Bryant-Denny Stadium, home of the Alabama Crimson Tide football team.

Throughout the course of the convention, we attended various seminars that covered topics such as recruitment, risk management, new member education, dekeunited website management, and ritual. Brother Howe and I especially enjoyed executive director of DKE International, Doug Laphner’s presentation on DKE HQ’s finances. It was interesting to see what our international dues have been funding and how they will help DKE International’s future plans of expansion. Hopefully some of the techniques we learned at the convention will help the Rho chapter achieve excellence in all of its future endeavors.

There was an informal presentation made for the delegates during every lunch and  dinner. In my opinion, these were by far the most interesting and informative sessions of the convention. The speakers included  Nick Pence, Sigma Kappa ’99 (Army Ranger, member of unit that brought Ayman al-Zawihiri to justice), Bill Kavan, Theta Upsilon ’92 (Director of Development at Arizona State University), John McCardell (President Emeritus of Middlebury, Vice-Chancellor of Sewanee: The University of the South, leader of a coalition of college presidents that are in favor of lowering the drinking age back to 18), Robert Witt (Chancellor of the University of Alabama), and Terry Stewart, Phi Chi ’69 (President of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and former Chairman of the Board of Marvel Comics).

Although the seminars and presentations were interesting, Brother Howe and I agreed that the most valuable experience from the convention was the opportunity to meet and interact with other Dekes from across North America. Although chapters differ from school to school, it was quite evident that all the delegates truly were gentlemen, scholars, and jolly-good fellows. We have all kept in touch through Facebook, and I think it’s safe to say that we made friendships that will last a lifetime. The convention showed us that our motto “friends from the heart forever” applies not only to the brothers of our chapter, but to every Deke across North America, regardless of what school they attended and what year they graduated.

Brother Leonard and Brother Howe at the 2012 DKE Convention

This summer Brother Billy Greene is working at Oppenheimer Funds, a premier mutual fund company with a focus on emerging markets.  Brother Greene, who has been employed at Oppenheimer Funds for the past three summers, is working in the integrated markets department.  Billy has previously worked on the Global Equity team, as well as the Global Equity Project Management team.  Increasingly impressive is the fact that Brother Greene has been named “captain” of his intern competition team for the second year in a row.  This year the “Intern Competition” encourages each team to develop educational tools to provide to advisors and program sponsors in order to help participants adopt a global perspective when it comes to retirement.  Brother Greene’s vast knowledge and experience within many cadres of investment management and financial services is sure to benefit him as he continues pursuing his career goals.

Stewart “Chip” Morel, Jr. is a Capital Markets Intern for

StormHarbour, a boutique investment bank. The Capital Markets team

maintains in-depth relationships with investment grade, high yield,

and emerging markets clients across industries and sectors in order to

implement origination and liability management solutions. Brother

Morel will be working out of their New York City office.

Here is a look at what some Rho DKE brothers are up to this summer:

William Leonard:

Brother Leonard is working for UBS Wealth Management in Weehawken, NJ. UBS is the second largest wealth management firm in the world. Brother Leonard is interning with the business manager of Alternative Investments, Mutual Funds, Retirement Services, Insurance, and Corporate Employee Financial Services.

Daniel Toutoungi:

Brother Toutoungi is working at the Royal Bank of Scotland in the markets division. Within markets Dan is rotating between credit sales, senior relationship management, and treasury sales and trading.  Brother Toutoungi says he is on the trading floor often and is “learning quite a lot.”

Kevin McGuigan:

Brother McGuigan is working for Fitch Ratings.  Fitch is one of the “Big Three” credit rating agencies in the world, with Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s.  Brother McGuigan’s job coincides with a very volatile time, in terms of the United States’ and several European countries’ credit ratings, which certainly adds to the educational and interest level of his work.

This summer Brother Andrew O’Brien, DKE Rho’s President, is doing EXCEL research with an economics professor on campus. As such, Brother O’Brien is modeling the United States phone market using an agent based modeling program called NetLogo. The model investigates how technological changes and product differentiation are affected by entry costs into the market. The purpose of the model is to explore the environmental implications of cell phone batteries. The model is used to investigate how deposit fees and nuisance costs affect the number of phones recycled by consumers.

This summer Brothers John Burke and David Eckelmann both have internships with members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation.  Brother Eckelmann is currently working for Congressman Rush Holt, a Democrat representing New Jersey’s 12^th district.  Meanwhile, Brother Burke is interning for Congressman Scott Garrett, a Republican representing New Jersey’s 5^th district.

Both John and Dave are interning in their Congressman’s respective district offices, as opposed to their Washington D.C. offices.  As such, their jobs entail a great deal of constituent services and community outreach.

The summer months of 2012 have been politically tumultuous thus far, to say the least.  With the campaign heating up and recent Supreme Court decisions, John and Dave have received intimate insight into the responsibilities of members of the United States House of Representatives.

Rho DKE Brothers Jon Simmons and William Brandt are attending the Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute (UIFI) at the University of Indiana.  UIFI is a five-day experience that brings together fraternity men and sorority women from across the United States to create opportunities to explore, define, and enhance their leadership skills, personal awareness and commitment to their fraternity or sorority.

Jon Simmons and Will Brandt enjoy some downtime at the UIFI 

UIFI is interactive, fun and challenging experience. Attendees partake in hands-on interaction, experiential activities, in depth discussion, and personal reflection time. UIFI focuses on the positive aspects of fraternities and sororities in addition to important issues that threaten their future.

 Brother Simmons and his UIFI Brigade

As representatives from the Rho chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon Brother Simmons and Brother Brandt will return to Lafayette better prepared to manage the challenges facing Fraternities and Sororities.

Brother Simmons Serving the Community

Brothers Jared Piette ’12 and Scott Gordon ’12, both graduating with B.S. Mechanical Engineering degrees, recently became employed with FLSmidth, Inc. Both are working for the pneumatic transport department in Bethlehem, PA. Brother Piette has taken on a sales engineering role in which he will work with power plants to design equipment that will mitigate poisonous mercury emissions. Brother Gordon will be in project engineering, where he will design and execute solutions for the bulk movement of granulated solids like cement and minerals.