As Ohio Iota Chapter President, Jordan Jones, states,
“For those that I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Jordan Jones and I am the Current President of Ohio Iota. Following in the great footsteps of guys like Jacob Smith, Pat Ryan, Todd Klewer, and countless other men that I have idolized throughout my SigEp experience has truly been an honor, and I am beyond proud to share with you all the accomplishments of our chapter and the extraordinary individuals within it tonight.
Over the last year, we had tremendous development opportunities as individuals, as brother John Fetchet attended the Tragos Quest to Greece, and Austin Fisher and myself were lucky enough to attend Ruck Leadership Institute in Richmond. This summer, brother Jacob Flom will be attending the Ruck Leadership Institute, and we are all beyond excited to see how his leadership grows and is imparted on our chapter and campus through this opportunity.
We hit the ground running to start the Fall Semester strong. We recruited a class of 44 men after a very strong Balanced Man Scholarship Campaign. This gave us not only the largest new member class in the IFC, but also the highest New Member GPA. We followed this with a recruitment class of 10 men this spring. These men quickly acclimated to our culture, and pushed our membership to again achieve the top GPA in the IFC. While we are proud of our continued academic achievement, we pushed to further this achievement by revising our incentivized Academic mentoring system and even throwing in a fun competition with the lovely Ladies of Delta Delta Delta for a higher chapter GPA. VPP Yogesh Kumaran, Chaplain Josh Schott, and Academic Chair Reece Kendall have done a phenomenal job overseeing this process.
For the yearly Homecoming parade, we were paired with Pi Beta Phi and built the winning homecoming float. This is our 3rd consecutive victory in the float building competition, and we are very excited to defend that crown with Delta Delta Delta next fall. We hope to see all of you and more there to celebrate with us!
In the fall, we also enjoyed our second annual Fall Festival, collaborating with COBI professor Barbara Brotsky. At this event, we raised coats and gloves for inner city Toledo children and families, and also put on a festival type event for them with walking tacos, smores, bounce houses, and several other attractions. This event earned us Service Event of the year at the Greek Life Awards Banquet.
Brother Jose Viloria emceed Songfest this year, representing Mortar Board Senior Honor Society. Our performance was directed by Brothers Michael Martin and Preston Ewald, and they put together a remarkable arrangement and earned second place.
Along with this excellence in our operations, there were many many accomplishments that we have to be proud of. At Carlson Leadership Academy, we were awarded with the Talent Power Award for our recruitment and retention efforts this last year. We hadn’t won this award in several years, so it was very satisfying to be recognized for an area of our chapter that we focus so much energy in. Brother David Green was awarded as District 13’s Volunteer of the year, and our Alumni & Volunteer Corporation won the operational excellence award at CLA as well, both very well deserved awards. We were awarded IFC Fraternity of The Year here at the University of Toledo. Although that is a great achievement for us, the affirmation and solidifying of our presence here at UT just further motivates us to provide the premier Fraternity experience not only in comparison to those on our campus, but for fraternities nationwide.
It is no coincidence that along with all of this chapter achievement, the individuals within our chapter are achieving at a very high level. This last year, brothers Jose Viloria and Jovan Sanson had the honor and opportunity of membership in Blue Key National Honor Society. This year at Songfest, Austin Fisher and myself were selected for this prestigious organization. Along with Jose and Jovan, Sean Halloran and I were members of Mortar Board this last school year, and Jacob Flom will be a member next year. Sean currently serves as the President of the Interfraternity council, and Jacob serves as IFC Vice President of Recruitment, and Sean will also serve as the VP of Membership for Presidential Ambassadors. Chaitanya Koli, Logan Perlaky, and Preston Ewald joined the Presidential Ambassadors this year, after Preston was President of Lambda Sigma Sophomore Honor Society. Doryin Thames has recently taken over as Pi Sigma Epsilon President, after founding College Mentors for kids this year! Alumni Brother Brant Weiss was also signed recently to the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL! Many of our current and alumni brothers are doing amazing things that I could go on for hours and hours explaining, and it must be said that without the support of our brothers both young and old, a lot of this would be hardly possible.
There’s not enough time in one night to properly express enough gratitude for the unending support of you all, our alumni. You paved the way for your own successes in your 4 years here, and continue to do so for us as our chapter grows in any and every way. Your support whether it be monetary, in affirmative words and encouragement, or simply with your presence, never goes unnoticed or unappreciated, I promise you all. You are an essential piece to our continued success, and we hope that our hard work and dedication to the culture of excellence that you all established is received as a token of thanks.
Always Strive, Never Settle.
Thank you and congratulations to all of our seniors that have graduated. We wish nothing but the best for you in your future endeavors.
Onward and upward… Sigma Phi Epsilon”.