This past Saturday the Rho chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon hosted its annual Winter Leadership Conference in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights. The focus of this conference was to recap the past semester and highlight the points we as a fraternity need to focus on, both positive and negative. This conference is used as a tool to evaluate where we stand as an organization as well as a member of the Lafayette community.

DKE welcomed back four alumni brothers for the conference, Alumni President Michael DeLisi ’03, Jared Piette ’11, Michael Rupolo ’11, and Paul McCurdy ’82. The brotherhood looks to use their ideas and insight to help guide the chapter going forward. Lafayette Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Daniel Ayala also made an appearance at the conference to formally introduce himself to the alumni and student brothers.

Brothers elected to executive positions attended a morning session, while all brothers from the chapter attended the afternoon session.

During the morning session, the newly elected brothers holding executive positions sorted through paperwork designated for each position to adequately define the boundaries for each position and prepare each new executive brother for the semester ahead.

Brothers participate in the position sorting exercise

Brother Brett Lederer ’15, the newly elected Chapter President, led the conference throughout the day, highlighting the chapter’s basic strategic goals for next semester. Shortly thereafter, other brothers presented a more in depth analysis for the goals that fell under their position’s responsibility.

Brother Brett Lederer presents during the Winter Leadership Conference

Brother Matthew Soloway ’16, the newly elected Scholarship Chairman, recapped the brotherhood on their academic performance during the fall semester. As a chapter, DKE exceeded the unaffiliated male average GPA in the fall.

Brother Matthew Soloway discusses the chapter’s academic goals

Alumni Relations Chairman brother Wiley Houldin ’15 presented the updated strategy for our ongoing 160th Capital Campaign. The focus being on enhancing our effort in reaching out to alumni brothers, and expanding the current DKE x10 program.

Brother Sam Todd ’15, the newly elected Director of Service and Philanthropy led an engaging workshop in an attempt to create additional events for our brothers and the Lafayette community to engage in both service and philanthropy programs.

It was a productive day for the Rho chapter of DKE, and the brotherhood is confident that it can adequately use the conference to its advantage in order to have yet another strong semester on the Lafayette campus.

Over the winter break brother Drew Friedman ’16 participated in an externship experience at Altitude Sports and Entertainment. Altitude Sports, a Kroenke Sports Entertainment affiliate, is the main sports network for the Rocky Mountain region and is based in Centennial, Colorado.

Friedman flew out to Colorado from his home state of New York to shadow Steve Hurlbut ’79, VP of Programming and Production at Altitude.

Friedman attended Hurlbut’s board meetings and had to opportunity to work with the production team in their on-site truck at the Pepsi Center for a Denver Nuggets basketball game and a Colorado Avalanche hockey game.

“It was a great experience,” said Friedman. “It was very unique because my extern boss treated me like I was part of their team. It gave me a rich and one of a kind experience of what they do.”

(Friedman’s view from inside the Altitude Sports production truck)

 

Over the winter break sophomore brother Tory Bingaman completed an externship with Turner Construction Company in Philadelphia. Turner is a construction management company that works as a middle man to ensure the construction project is carried out to the best extent of the architect and building owner.

Bingaman worked in the Turner office with a focus on learning calculations like cost estimates. The externship also included job site tours at various locations such as The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Temple University, and Lincoln Financial Field.

Tory, recently elected Vice President of the Rho chapter of DKE, will look to take the experiences and lessons learned from his externship in enhancing his position with the chapter.