March 2021 Newsletter
New Rho-Omega Website
Rho-Omega is proud to announce the introduction of our new website! A special shoutout goes to Brother Vincenzo Susi (Spring '19), our current Webmaster, for all his hard work on this project. Some highlights include chapter history, events, leadership, and specific awards and achievements over the years. Check out our new website here we hope you enjoy!
9th Annual Founder’s Day Celebration
On Saturday, January 30th over 65 alumni and undergraduates came together on Zoom to celebrate nine years since the founding of the Rho-Omega chapter of Kappa Sigma. The day peacefully kicked off at noon with an hour of virtual yoga. We then moved on to a family tree meetup from 1 to 2 where recent undergrads finally got to meet the founders and alumni that brought their family line to them. The next hour of the day was slotted out for pledge classes to reconvene and catch up. During both events, smaller pledge classes and family lines could be found bouncing around and getting “adopted” by the larger ones. 3 to 4 was allotted for a variety of games including Jackbox, Among Us, and Skribbl.io, followed by a cooking class teaching our brothers how to make potato gnocchi. Finally, around 5:15 the brothers reconvened for a presentation by the Alumni Association on the current housing initiative followed up by a round of Good of the Order. As is tradition, the evening was capped with the playing of Thunderstruck.
Thank you again to everyone who turned out and once again proved that Kappa Sigma is for life. A huge shoutout to this Year's Founder Day Celebration Committee of Greg McNeil, Gerard Cardinale, Kyle Bernades, Patrick Catanzaro, Julian Gallo, Rob Mikesh, and Will Herwig for orchestrating this event. Also, keep an eye out for updates regarding next year’s 10-year celebration - Julian has already made promises for a boat!
A Pledge Class That Pushes Boundaries
As another successful recruitment season comes to a close, Rho-Omega is happy to introduce its newest Tau class! On February 19th, 19 new pledges embarked on their journey toward becoming brothers. Ambitious to achieve this milestone, these young men embody a pledge class that shows brotherhood can not be quarantined amidst the challenging restrictions online communications present.
Their path will be guided with the help of Conductor Daniel Rosenberger (Fall ‘17) and Assistant Conductor Paul Gurman (Spring ‘20). With aid from their Conductors, our pledges have learned the structure of our organization, and will soon begin learning the importance of our four pillars, using the Bononia Docet as their guide. In time, our pledges will gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a Kappa Sigma within our own chapter, on campus, and worldwide.
A special acknowledgement goes to Brother Nikolas Aslanian (Spring ‘20), our current Champions Quest Chair. Brother Aslanian worked diligently planning virtual events, and kept communications open with our potential new members, which allowed for a truly remarkable pledge class to come into view. This was the largest pledge class in the district, and on campus here at Stevens this semester.
While times are still challenging with the current pandemic, we are happy to see our chapter thrive and grow to new heights. We look forward to seeing our pledges become brothers, and have high hopes an in person semester may be just around the corner!
Stephen Alonzo Jackson Weekend of Giving
This past weekend, March 5th to March 7th, was Stephen Alonzo Jackson Weekend of Giving. The weekend is meant to commemorate all that Stephen Alonzo Jackson gave to our great fraternity that brought it to where we are today. This event gives the current brothers, alumni, friends and family the same opportunity to give back to our undergraduates in the form of scholarships.
This year, even in the midst of a pandemic, we set a chapter record by raising a total of $7,796.25 for scholarships for our undergraduate brothers! This is just short of double of what we raised last year at $3,904.00. Even more impressive is that this total brought us to the 21st chapter in the nation for dollars raised, despite still being such a new chapter. Our undergraduate ambassador, Ryan Ludemann (Spring ‘19) finished 8th nationally for undergraduate ambassadors. Chapter involvement was also incredibly high with 167 of our 260 total initiates making donations this year.
Our chapter would like to give a sincere thank you to everyone who donated to our endowment fund and for helping prove that our Rho-Omega chapter of Kappa Sigma is truly one of the top in the nation. Finally, our top donor leaderboard can be found in the appendix at the end of this newsletter and on our newly revamped website here.
Doug Chi Undergraduate Spotlight
Doug Chi is wasting no time getting involved in Rho Omega, at Stevens and in his community. A recent addition from Rho Class (Spring 2020), Doug was the former assistant grand treasurer and is currently the "A Greater Cause" chairman. The son of two Korean immigrants, Doug grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey and attended Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest. Doug is currently a sophomore mechanical engineering student and is strongly considering pursuing a master’s degree at Stevens.
In the past several years, Doug has been inspired by Jonny Kim - a fellow Korean American - who is a Harvard educated doctor, US Navy seal, and current NASA astronaut. Like his role model, Doug has expanded his extracurricular interest into the medical field by recently becoming an EMT. The interest in becoming an EMT came about with the start of COVID-19 and the associated pressure it put on the medical community. "I was just looking for a way to help my town out" says Doug who also feels strongly about serving his country. Accordingly, Doug plans on enrolling in the ROTC program and may join the Air Force after graduation. When not serving his community or his country, he is helping his family as a waiter in his Mom's Flushing, Queens restaurant. Regarding his parents, Doug “owes a lot and really respects their hustle. They gave so much so my two siblings and I could have a great life in the US".
While Doug has yet to experience the quintessential Rho Omega events, such as Mountain and Brother Weekend, he has received enjoyment out of the annual Steak and Waffles dinner. "It was really awesome that the chapter would put something like that together for us [the pledge class]…definitely an experience I'll remember forever". Doug also attended his first Founders Day celebration and, while virtual, he enjoyed it! “I really liked meeting members of my [Dombrowski] family”. Doug is looking forward to meeting and connecting with more alumni during the upcoming 10 Year Founders Day Celebration (set to take place from 1/28-1/30).
Outside of his career aspirations, Doug is an avid reader of philosophy and enjoys the Roman philosopher, Marcus Aurelius. In his interest in philosophy, he connected with his Big, Dylan Moon and Grand Big, Bobby Scully. He also enjoys playing tennis and while he is "not the best", he remains enthusiastic about the game.
With inspiring brothers like Doug Chi, the future of Rho Omega - specifically the GT position - is in great hands!
Will Herwig Alumni Spotlight
This month’s alumni spotlight features the current Vice President of the Alumni Association, Will Herwig. Will graduated in the spring of 2020 with a degree in Business and Technology. He now lives in Hoboken, NJ, and recently started a new position with EY Consulting.
Prior to his involvement with the chapter, Will had no familiarity with the idea of pledging, bids, or even the concept of rushing … all of this would change no less than a semester later following Lambda Class’s pledge process. To this day, Will vividly recalls Brother Andrew Yager (Fall '17) persuading him to finally attend one of the so-called “rush events.” Although he might have at first mistaken the end of pledging to be the preferred dinner, Will would soon realize that the qualities of Kappa Sigma were definitely marks he wanted to be distinguished by. What Will did not realize at the time was the mark he would be leaving on the chapter just four years later.
As an undergrad, Will fulfilled the responsibilities of the Webmaster position, essentially served as chapter videographer at major and minor functions, and assisted dozens of brothers in advertising Rho Omega’s events to the Stevens community through logos and posters. But Will’s crowning accomplishment as an undergraduate brother was his time as Rush Chair. Taking on a larger role of event planning and facilitating brother-potential relations during the recruitment of Mu, Nu, and Xi Classes, a sizable percent of the chapter today recounts that Will Herwig was a face well remembered from their first rush event. “It was always a pleasure to meet and talk with new people,” said Will. “Meeting the future of the chapter was everything.”
Today, Will kills it with his position as an FSO Technology Consultant at EY. His main responsibilities currently include assisting his corporate clients in reviewing large transactions, trades and hedges they entered into. Outside Will’s work, he also serves as the Vice President of our Alumni Association and is currently trying to run a side hustle on Amazon MTurk. Will also enjoys running, skiing, and putting his faith in the stock market (this includes coercing other brothers to hop on the Tesla-investing bandwagon).
As a word of advice to undergraduate brothers, Will advised not to take anything in life for granted, especially our places as members of such a tightly knit fraternity. Amidst Covid-19, Will urges us all to live every moment forward as if another pandemic is lurking around the corner, and to never be afraid of having too much fun. He looks forward to seeing you in the next “Roaring 20’s.”
Rho-Omega in Academia
In addition to our traditional Alumni Spotlight article, this newsletter is also bringing something new: “Rho-Omega in Academia!” This issue features Brother Thomas Tritt (Founder) who was recently published in the Winter 2021 edition of Precision: The Physicians’ Quarterly Newsletter of the Stamford Health Department of Surgery. He has already earned his undergraduate Biomedical Engineering degree and Master’s degree in radiation research and is currently serving as a surgical resident at Stamford Hospital. Dr. Tritt’s work was presented at the Connecticut Chapter of the American College of Surgeons Meeting 2020 and was accepted for presentation to the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) Meeting 2020. The full article on “Analysis of Transient Hyperbilirubinemia Following Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy” from Precision can be found on page three of the attached pdf. Also, keep an eye out for another appearance from Dr. Tritt as soon as his team plans on publishing a peer-reviewed article!
Appendix: SAJ Top Donor Leaderboard
Spencer Lin- $420.69
Julian Gallo- $350.68
Sawyer Coleman- $319.03
Keith Monteiro- $250.34
Paul Pavlich- $250.00
Anonymous, In honor of Paul Ivo Pavlich- $250.00
Price Hu- $200.69
Jonathan Alarcon- $200.68
Matthew Goczalk- $150.34
Justin Hansen- $150.34
David Johnston- $150.34
Jesse Weaver- $150.34
Brandon Leung- $134.00
Julian Gallo’s Dad- $125.00
David Coleman- $105.34
Ryan Ludemann- $105.34
Matthew Neuteboom- $100.34
Logan Koester- $100.00
Thank you again everyone!
A E K Δ B
Not for a day, or an hour, or a college term only, but for life.
