Cold Snap

Brothers explored campus in the snow with their friends. Even finding Buzz while going to look at Tech Tower in the snow.

This semester is off to a cold start, Georgia Tech has already had three days of classes moved to modified operations due to snowfall. Brothers have taken this opportunity to explore snow in Atlanta for the first time in years. When asked what they thought about the snowfall one brother said, “It’s the greatest thing ever.” While this snowfall was expected to grind the campus and the city to a halt it instead brought people out of their dorms and their apartments to play in the frigid conditions. On Friday January 10, students could be seen skiing, snowboarding, and sledding down Ferst Dr. Looking out the windows of the house, snow blanketed the streets as passersby created snowballs and hurled them at our porch. In response to the weather, some brothers took to the sidelot and created a fire to keep them warm. Others took to the campus and explored the stadium or played football on Tech Green. While students enjoyed the snow, there were some concerned about how multiple days of online school might affect student engagement and understanding. However, Scholarship Chair Sasha Callaway is not worried, remarking, “While in person operations are certainly preferred by the majority of the brotherhood, the three days of modified operation have had little impact on brotherhood scholarship.” Sasha insisted that the professor's virtual alternatives to in person lectures mitigate the consequences of cancelled classes and that he “appreciated the institute’s safety first approach”. We are certainly excited to get back into in-person classes, but these days off from school were greatly appreciated across campus.

Christmas Came Early This Year

Sam Walls, Brett Lowry, & Amogh Rajagopal drove to a state park to go fishing.

Over the weekend of February 21 brothers and pledges took a trip to a Christmas wonderland in Blairsville, GA. This getaway allowed brothers to bond with associate members in a relaxed setting, far from the demands of school. The weekend was packed with activities that helped everyone get to know each other better, including a brotherhood movie night, fishing trips, and plenty of basketball games. A special highlight of the retreat was our tug practice, a longstanding tradition that unites the Brotherhood. With Greek Week on the horizon, brothers were eager to get back into action and defend our three-year winning streak in tug. This practice boasted the largest attendance yet, and allowed this tradition to reach out further among the Brotherhood. As Jagat Sachdeva put it, “I really enjoyed tug practice—it’s a great way to bond with brothers and learn from those with more experience.” We’re excited to keep up the momentum and continue building on this tradition. Many brothers simply enjoyed exploring the house and the property, with Brandon Wang sharing, “I really liked the basement game room and the theater downstairs.” With a pool table, shuffleboard, and an array of board games, there was no shortage of things to do.

A Weekend of Learning

For some brothers February 7-9 was spent learning how to better lead the brotherhood. Brock Brito, Brett Lowry, Krish Mittal, Zach Allgoever, Jagat Sachdeva, John Nesbit, Vinay Govindaraju, and Charles Fucile spent the weekend at the Southern Regional Leadership Academy learning how to lead our chapter and communicating with other chapters in the Southeast about our best practices. This academy was a massive help for learning how to manage our Loss Prevention Policy, increase social event attendance, and continue to make an impact in Atlanta through brotherhood service. Vice President of Recruitment Jagat Sachdeva said that his biggest takeaway from RLA was that he needs to get more brothers involved in recruitment and commit to a long term year round system. This sentiment was mirrored by the other chapters present at the conference who helped to give us advice on how we might improve our chapter as we discussed with them policies they might implement which we have. Examples include our J-Board policies, work task policies, and our budgeting methods.

Mountain Weekend

Saturday morning Sasha (left), Mushy (middle), and Keene (right), hiked the Rainbow Falls Trail early in the morning.

Many brothers spent the weekend of January 24 - 26 in the Smoky Mountains. They spent their weekend exploring the nearby town of Gatlinburg and hiking through the surrounding wilderness. Our house was close to Smoky Mountain National Park, so on the morning of the 25th, many brothers headed out for hikes in the forest. Other brothers spent their afternoon going to arcades and shopping at the local stores. Associate members RJ Hunnewell and CJ Bonner discovered a gem in Pigeon Forge, Fantasy Golf, they loved seeing the dinosaur animatronics and playing mini golf. After golfing they went to an old fashioned diner, The Sunliner Diner, CJ’s favorite part of the meal was his tickle me milkshake. Brothers had a blast exploring the neighboring town and hiking through the wilderness, Leo Santamarina said, “I found the break from classes really refreshing. Being able to walk through the woods and spend time with brothers was a welcome change.” Many brothers find mountain weekend to be their favorite events because of this peacefulness and the time for getting to know one another and exploring new places together.

Building Brotherhood

After pinning brothers and pledges took a photo on the stairs to the porch

This spring rush ran a little differently, Vice President of Member Recruitment Jagat Sachdeva and Rush Chair Spencer Hopkins spearheaded a shift in how the brotherhood connects with potential new members. Rather than traditional rush the brothers got involved with potential new members in more casual settings–watching football games or sitting around a fire. Associate Member Educator Ricky Pham appreciated the new dynamic saying, “I feel like rush stations were a big success, it was a lot nicer to get to know someone in a more casual setting.” This new approach garnered a great response from pledges as well, the brotherhood managed a 100% conversion rate of bids to pledges. The chapter’s 9 new pledges are excited to become involved with the brotherhood. They are involved in a wide breadth of campus activities, including but not limited to the MILL, YJSP, ANS, and RoboJackets. As they prepare for their pledge semester one brother shared, “I’m really happy with the guys we recruited, I think they’re exactly the type of people we want in DU.” Ricky Pham is also looking to modify the pledge experience and improve the thought that goes behind big/little pairings, “My approach to pledge ed is to let these guys shine and encourage them to come around more because I think they’ll initiate no problem as long as they put in the time and effort.” This semester’s big/little pairings were an exciting affair, associate member CJ Bonner was very excited to learn who his big was saying that he wanted to get to know his new big and have someone to serve as a connection to the brotherhood. After Big/Little reveal the associate members received many gifts and advice from their new bigs about how to handle the pledge process.

Serving Atlanta Together

Brothers volunteering to go out and deliver food to people around Atlanta.

On February 15th, brothers and sisters of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority worked together to provide food and sort clothing for the unhoused population of Atlanta. Philanthropy Chair Krish Mittal organized the service day with the local Atlanta charity, Food 4 Lives. Brothers worked to create sandwiches for the unhoused population of Atlanta, and after the sandwiches were made, they went out and distributed them across the city. Many brothers enjoyed this opportunity to support our community as well as work with other members of the Greek sector at Georgia Tech. Brother William Schulman shared that he enjoyed the service day, specifically because it allowed him to work with other brothers in a setting that he doesn't experience on a day-to-day basis. Service days are always helpful because they allow brothers to get to know each other better while also engaging in activities that help improve our community. This service day was unique because of how we were able to bundle together so many beneficial actions: providing food, offering clothing, and allowing brothers to actually see the impact we’re having on the communities we are part of. Brothers are hopeful for future service days and are excited about the possibility of engaging in more large-scale service in the future.