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Philanthropy & Leadership
Introduction
25 Attendees | 150 Service Hours
This was my first event of the year, and it enabled me to establish relationship skills with the director of the NFCF Foundation, as well as coordination skills amongst our chapter. I learned how to be patient, because with events like these, there are always factors that are bound to change and you are often unable to predict them. Patience was a lesson learned early that applied to all of the events
throughout the year. If you can plan to have things change in advance, managing stress and anxiety becomes a lot easier. I found this out at the NFCF 5K Run because I had to manage getting our brothers to and from the event, assigning volunteer responsibilities, and maintaining a friendly and helpful relationship with the NFCF team. I know now that patience will be a value that will help me get through any stressful or chaotic situation, whether that be at work, during school, or in any situation in general. The event was very fun and we helped the foundation raise thousands of dollars for chiari research.
PIKE SPIKE 2015
250 Attendees | $5,366 Raised
Pike Spike is one of our chapter’s favorite philanthropy events – an outdoor sand volleyball tournament. This year, I planned and coordinated all event details and logistics, and successfully raised over $5,000. This event was a lesson in management – people, logistics, time, risk, you name it. I had to learn quickly how to balance multiple priorities at once. With so many moving parts, and many other people relying on my leadership to host the successful event, the pressure can sometimes add up and leave me overwhelmed. At the end of the day this event gave me the confidence to know that I can handle difficult situations and get through them without failing. Not every part of the event went well, but when I surveyed all participants at the end of the day, the vast majority said they loved the event and had a great time.
Coney-Eating Contest
280 Attendees | $1,000 Raised
Perhaps one of the greatest lessons I learned in planning and executing this event was that the impact we can have on certain families affected can be enormous. This was a fairly simple event to plan – set up some tables, manage the food donation relationships with the donor, and plan the event during a tailgate so that lots of people will show up. However, the real learning came to me when I met the family that would be affected by our event. By raising money to have students participate in this contest, we were able to send two families with mothers who are living with breast cancer on vacations. This did not seem like much when we were talking about it before the event, but had a much larger impact when we met the families at the contest. Not only that, but they sent us pictures from their vacation afterward and thanked us tremendously. This was one of my biggest motivators for running for this position in the first place – it is truly fulfilling to do good work and serve others. By sending these families on vacations, we enabled them to create memories and a stronger relationship with their mothers, who are battling breast cancer and have unpredictable futures. It gave me a stronger sense of pride in our work and acknowledgement that making a commitment to philanthropy and service is the right thing to do.
Casino Night
150 Attendees | $3,000 Raised
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. I love this quote because it is so true – many people have a misperception about the meaning of humility. Casino Night teaches us about humility. The funds raised throughout the night all go to us buying holiday gifts for the children at Clark Montessori middle school in Pleasant Ridge. Our chapter actually spends money and incorporates it into our budget to fund this cause every year, and this year was no exception. Although the Casino Night was fun, it represented something much greater than any of the individual participants. It represented a team effort to give the gift of friendship and toys to other children in much greater need than we are. When we dropped off all of the toys to the children after school one day, I felt a strong sense of humility because we were thinking of other people over ourselves during the holiday season. This lesson can be applied to every aspect of my life, not just in philanthropic or service events. By being humble and
giving more of your time and talent to other people, I am able to learn about humility.
Relay for Life
84 Attendees | $6,900 Raised
I did not believe that being the first place team and raising $7,000 would be possible at the beginning of this year through Relay for Life. In fact, I did not believe we would be able to achieve a lot of what we did as a philanthropic chapter this year. I learned to believe. If you believe in something wholeheartedly and pursue it to no end, you can and will accomplish it. There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “If you can, you can. If you can’t, you can’t.” The message is that if you feel like you can and believe that you are able to do something, you will push yourself to do it. But if you give up early or tell yourself something’s not possible, you probably won’t accomplish it (because you lacked the ambition and drive to do so). Believing sounds simple, but so few people actually believe they can accomplish more than they have in the past. This is why the extremely successful people around the world are so recognized and rewarded – because so few people actually believe they can do more than they have in the past and actually make it happen. Believing is a critical life skill that will take me to new heights and enable to me achieve my potential. I leaned on others to help me believe that we could take Relay for Life to a new level this year, and sure enough, we did.
Fireman's Challenge
615 Total Attendees | $3,000 Raised
The Fireman’s Challenge – a full week of events – was a great lesson learned in teamwork. All of the different events (five days total) came together through leadership in teamwork. I assigned different committee heads for each event and allowed others to take ownership and responsibility for different tasks and activities. This was just as much an event where I learned a lot as it was for others, too. I acted as much of a mentor and coach to other brothers as I did a coordinator and planner for myself. My ability to encourage others and lead other people grew tremendously as I led our “Fireman’s Challenge Team” to these successful events. I have found that leading teams such as this one is extremely rewarding. Just as the philanthropy committee was established throughout the year, teams like this one helped me to create an extraordinarily valuable experience for all involved.
Now What?
- This self-designed honors experience showcases how my student involvement and leadership positions have provided meaningful and valuable impacts in my college career. Specifically, the role of philanthropy chairman in the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is a role that involves a lot of long hours, hard work, but also high reward and fulfillment at the end of the day. In this position, I was responsible for organizing and improving all of the fraternity’s philanthropic initiatives, which include Pike Spike, Casino Night, Fire Truck Week, Cincinnati Dance Marathon, Relay for Life, Saturday Hoops, and many more smaller events throughout the year. For each of these initiatives, I was responsible for creating and maintaining the budget, setting up the logistics of each event, bringing students and community members together through advertising and marketing beforehand, teaching the chapter why each experience is meaningful and worthy, and most importantly, showing significant improvement in all of the programs versus last year.
- Through this role, I learned a lot about myself and feel that I truly developed into a better person and stronger leader. There are many lessons I learned throughout my experiences that are sure to stay with me for the rest of college and beyond. As I talk about each of these experiences, I will not only mention the events themselves, but also note the lessons learned and personal development outcomes that helped me achieve the results and grow as a person. I accomplished everything I set out to achieve in my original honors proposal. Here are the results of my efforts and the lessons learned.
25 Attendees | 150 Service Hours
This was my first event of the year, and it enabled me to establish relationship skills with the director of the NFCF Foundation, as well as coordination skills amongst our chapter. I learned how to be patient, because with events like these, there are always factors that are bound to change and you are often unable to predict them. Patience was a lesson learned early that applied to all of the events
throughout the year. If you can plan to have things change in advance, managing stress and anxiety becomes a lot easier. I found this out at the NFCF 5K Run because I had to manage getting our brothers to and from the event, assigning volunteer responsibilities, and maintaining a friendly and helpful relationship with the NFCF team. I know now that patience will be a value that will help me get through any stressful or chaotic situation, whether that be at work, during school, or in any situation in general. The event was very fun and we helped the foundation raise thousands of dollars for chiari research.
PIKE SPIKE 2015
250 Attendees | $5,366 Raised
Pike Spike is one of our chapter’s favorite philanthropy events – an outdoor sand volleyball tournament. This year, I planned and coordinated all event details and logistics, and successfully raised over $5,000. This event was a lesson in management – people, logistics, time, risk, you name it. I had to learn quickly how to balance multiple priorities at once. With so many moving parts, and many other people relying on my leadership to host the successful event, the pressure can sometimes add up and leave me overwhelmed. At the end of the day this event gave me the confidence to know that I can handle difficult situations and get through them without failing. Not every part of the event went well, but when I surveyed all participants at the end of the day, the vast majority said they loved the event and had a great time.
Coney-Eating Contest
280 Attendees | $1,000 Raised
Perhaps one of the greatest lessons I learned in planning and executing this event was that the impact we can have on certain families affected can be enormous. This was a fairly simple event to plan – set up some tables, manage the food donation relationships with the donor, and plan the event during a tailgate so that lots of people will show up. However, the real learning came to me when I met the family that would be affected by our event. By raising money to have students participate in this contest, we were able to send two families with mothers who are living with breast cancer on vacations. This did not seem like much when we were talking about it before the event, but had a much larger impact when we met the families at the contest. Not only that, but they sent us pictures from their vacation afterward and thanked us tremendously. This was one of my biggest motivators for running for this position in the first place – it is truly fulfilling to do good work and serve others. By sending these families on vacations, we enabled them to create memories and a stronger relationship with their mothers, who are battling breast cancer and have unpredictable futures. It gave me a stronger sense of pride in our work and acknowledgement that making a commitment to philanthropy and service is the right thing to do.
Casino Night
150 Attendees | $3,000 Raised
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. I love this quote because it is so true – many people have a misperception about the meaning of humility. Casino Night teaches us about humility. The funds raised throughout the night all go to us buying holiday gifts for the children at Clark Montessori middle school in Pleasant Ridge. Our chapter actually spends money and incorporates it into our budget to fund this cause every year, and this year was no exception. Although the Casino Night was fun, it represented something much greater than any of the individual participants. It represented a team effort to give the gift of friendship and toys to other children in much greater need than we are. When we dropped off all of the toys to the children after school one day, I felt a strong sense of humility because we were thinking of other people over ourselves during the holiday season. This lesson can be applied to every aspect of my life, not just in philanthropic or service events. By being humble and
giving more of your time and talent to other people, I am able to learn about humility.
Relay for Life
84 Attendees | $6,900 Raised
I did not believe that being the first place team and raising $7,000 would be possible at the beginning of this year through Relay for Life. In fact, I did not believe we would be able to achieve a lot of what we did as a philanthropic chapter this year. I learned to believe. If you believe in something wholeheartedly and pursue it to no end, you can and will accomplish it. There’s an old saying that goes something like this: “If you can, you can. If you can’t, you can’t.” The message is that if you feel like you can and believe that you are able to do something, you will push yourself to do it. But if you give up early or tell yourself something’s not possible, you probably won’t accomplish it (because you lacked the ambition and drive to do so). Believing sounds simple, but so few people actually believe they can accomplish more than they have in the past. This is why the extremely successful people around the world are so recognized and rewarded – because so few people actually believe they can do more than they have in the past and actually make it happen. Believing is a critical life skill that will take me to new heights and enable to me achieve my potential. I leaned on others to help me believe that we could take Relay for Life to a new level this year, and sure enough, we did.
Fireman's Challenge
615 Total Attendees | $3,000 Raised
The Fireman’s Challenge – a full week of events – was a great lesson learned in teamwork. All of the different events (five days total) came together through leadership in teamwork. I assigned different committee heads for each event and allowed others to take ownership and responsibility for different tasks and activities. This was just as much an event where I learned a lot as it was for others, too. I acted as much of a mentor and coach to other brothers as I did a coordinator and planner for myself. My ability to encourage others and lead other people grew tremendously as I led our “Fireman’s Challenge Team” to these successful events. I have found that leading teams such as this one is extremely rewarding. Just as the philanthropy committee was established throughout the year, teams like this one helped me to create an extraordinarily valuable experience for all involved.
Now What?
- I accomplished my goals for the year – raising over $20,000 for philanthropic causes and organizations – but it was not easy. I had to learn how to balance priorities in order to most effectively lead the teams of people that put all of these events together. I had to leverage multiple communication platforms in order to get critical messages and timing across, including email, GroupMe, phone calls, and of course, mostly in person meetings, both with our chapter, other chapters, and partner organizations. I have achieved these results and hosted these events, and now it is time to implement these lessons learned as I move forward in my college career and after.
- The next steps for me will be to support my successor, who chose to be in this position after seeing the reward and fulfillment we received this past year. I presented on all of the benefits and lessons learned from this past year, and am now energized by the idea that I can transition into a mentoring position. I will continue to stay involved in my chapter and in other campus events, and provide elements of leadership and teamwork in all areas that I can. I am looking forward to implementing some of these lessons on the university honors retreat in August. Values such as patience, management, impact, humility, believing, and teamwork will all serve me well as I approach new situations and experiences in life. I hope to utilize all of these skills as I learn more about myself and develop as a stronger leader and person.