Setting the Standard

Our mission statement is very clear in what type of goals we want to do. We want to set the standard of whatever we are doing to the community as a whole. I feel as if we are congruent with most of the things that we want to set the standard for or at least striving to achieve our mission statement.

Pi Kappa Alpha will set the standard of integrity, intellect, and achievement for our members, host institutions, and the communities in which we live.

Our integrity of our chapter is amazing. People are honest with each other and tell each other their opinions of things. I feel as though all of our member’s morals and ethics principals aren’t challenged because we are accepting of each other’s opinions and we try to cooperate with each other to make each other happy.

Even though we aren’t near the top in fraternal rank in terms of GPA, we are striving to be better than the undergraduate GPA and the overall Greek GPA. So we are aiming towards our goal so I can say that we are trying to set the standard for that as well.

I would say that we strive to get our members to achieve all their goals. Last year we had to set goals for the quarter and we had a brother to keep track and make sure that we were achieving those goals. Also now even though it’s not written down, people voice what their goals are and some brothers help keep them on track to achieve their goals.

I feel as though we are partially achieving our goal of hosting institutions. I mean we have Zack Rubin-McCarry as president of IFC, Zac Beals as VP for Community service for IFC, Michael Farniacci for senate of USG, and Ben Nagel as the current recruitment chair for USG, and is founder of the youkali club here at OSU, just to name a few of our high positions on campus. I feel as though we can be doing more in some significant organizations on and off campus, but we are doing fine now.

Since we moved houses I feel as though we have impacted our community immensely. At first we were in Iuka which almost no one knows where the heck it is, but now that we are on 15^th people can see what we are doing and how we are affecting the fraternities and sororities around us. We are already creating a bond between different sororities because we have little get overs, like s’mores, with the sororities around us and they all get along. Also we are communicating to the people around us that Greek life actually does stuff either than drink because we try to promote our philanthropies, and we try to get a huge showing at our community service events.

R.O.A.M.

R.O.A.M. = Runners On A Mission

This organization was created through the people in my high school one year after I left it, so the beginning of my sophomore year here at OSU. It was created because a levy didn’t pass in my hometown area to let students do extracurricular activities. This organization familiar to me because I ran track and cross country with most of them in high school. Granted some of the students I ran with went to different schools because they wanted to compete in sports and transferred, but some were unfortunate and some wanted to stay because they didn’t want to lose the bond that they had created with the people they ran with over 300 days of the year, the ones that stayed behind created R.O.A.M.

I would say their values are:

Friends
Family
Health (fitness)
Integrity
Positive Change

Here is an article where you can read more about it if you are interested: http://www.milesplit.com/articles/29781. The article also features the R.E.B.E.L.S. because they were in the same school district and were facing the same problems.

ROAM was an organization that had a tremendous amount of heart, because everything was against them, and they still put up a battle, they still managed to compete in meets because the moms of the members helped get the athletes to participate in certain meets as well as purchase jerseys for everyone. They displayed their values to the public because they wouldn’t let a levy hold them back from doing what they love, they were in the news, they were on http://www.baumspage.com/ (a site where peoples times and records were posted for various sports), they were letting everyone know that they wouldn’t give up on their passion to continue running, to better themselves to compete and to win trophies.

Now the school passed the levy, and R.O.A.M. is no longer needed, but they will always have the memory of what they created, and how much they achieved by themselves, when nothing was looking good for them.

On a side note: the guys team won first place at a meet but was unable to collect their trophy or any medal because they were an unofficial team. This did not discourage them, made them sad, but didn't discourage them.



Life is Like a Cup of Coffee

I saw this a week ago stumbling, and put it on facebook, but I saw that we don't have a blog prompt yet so, I'll put this up.

I wish more people would see life in this perspective.

I can't say I do all the time, but I do most of the time.

Values/Morals/Principles

Sorry if listing bothers you but I don't feel like doing it in paragraph form, but I'll explain why in paragraph form.

I'll start off by listing how my parents wanted me to prioritize my life:

1. School
2. Family
3. Everything else

I somewhat agree with this model but I choose to do something else:

1. Family
2. Friends
3. School
4. Myself
5. Everything Else

The reason why my parents wanted me to live that way is because they didn't go to college and regret not being able to do so. I developed my list because I didn't agree with how they wanted me to organize me life. I decided my family meant everything to me because they raised me and they developed part of who I am today and that is why family is first. The reasons why my friends are second and not listed after school is because I can drop out of school and still have people that care about me and will help me out, but if I choose to leave my friends behind and concentrate on school then who will want to hang out with me when I'm done with school, and have nothing else to do either than work. School is 3rd because my family really stressed on me that education is important and I want to be able to have a good job to be able to support a family after I graduate. I consider my fraternity duties a combination of 2 and 3 that’s why I don't have a separate number for it. Then finally get to myself because I raised myself to think of others before I think of what I want. Raising myself sounds sort of weird, but I revolved my life around helping others and school before myself. But I will have to take care of necessities like showering, buying food, eating, etc. (things to live) when needed. Then everything else goes next based on priorities.

Values can be seen of how you live your life, and that’s why I did above but values can also be read of what morals/principles you have. So my morals/principles will be in list form again, but these are not in any specific order:

1. Try to never hurt a female physically or mentally on purpose
• Unless she is attacking me, then restraining is ok.
2. Help people when possible
• Even Strangers
3. Every day I should better myself or someone else, if not both
• If neither is complete, then it was a waste of a day
• Sad day if that happens...
4. Treat others how I want to be treated
• Self explanatory
5. Don't judge people based off first impression
• The first impression might not be their true selves.
6. Live Honestly
• It's easier to live truthfully instead of a lie because if you lie your whole life it, then your life is going to be a lie. 

Live Honestly