The Sword and the Heart - Fall 2012

Fall 2012

the sword& the heart

The Sword and the Heart was created to keep alumni and parents of NY Phi updated on the incredible accomplishments of our brothers past and present. This initiative, which began in the spring of 2011, looks to ensure higher connectivity between those that are still in the chapter, their parents, and brothers who have graduated. We welcome suggestions and comments on how to im-prove this newsletter, updates on where life has taken you, and any memories you would like to share. We hope you decide to remain active in the chapter even after your under-graduate years at Columbia. If you would like to submit to The Sword and the Heart,

please send an email to [email protected].

We hope that you have a great year and look forward to sharing with you the

accomplishments of our brothers.

what’s inside

2 the sword & the heart

pg. 3 Letter from the President

pg. 4 Brothers in Politics

pg. 5 SigEps in the Sciences Special Honors Campus Involvement

pg. 6 Sound Body •Lightweightrowing •Squash

pg. 7 Balanced Man Fellowship Philanthropy Review

pg. 8 Alumni Updates

Letter from the PresidentIncoming headman Justin Feit talks leadership, Ruck Institute, future of NewYork Phi chapter

This past July, I was selected to attend the Ruck Leadership Institute at the University of Richmond with 150 other SigEp leaders from around the country. Ruck is an intense, five-day event focused on developing personal leadership skills and solidifying the Sigma Phi Epsilon values. Using the guidelines set by Barry Posner (UCSB ’70) in his “The Leadership Chal-lenge”, each brother was able to create a vision statement to bring home to their chapter and better their SigEp experience.

The five-day event was a good mix of intense Sound Body activities along with numerous character-building work-outs. Ruck pushed each brother to his personal limit and challenged all of us to become better brothers. We were broken into eight groups of about 18-20 brothers at the beginning of Ruck, and in these groups, we were able to bond with each other and share our experiences and ideas with each other to bring back to our home chapters.

My experience has led to become even more passionate about Sigma Phi Epsilon and about our NY Phi Chapter. There are so many great things that SigEp has to offer, and I could not have been more pleased with my experience at Ruck and my opportunity to implement what I learned at the Insitute during my tenure as NY Phi’s president.

Sincerely,

Justin FeitNY Phi President, CC’14

3the sword & the heart


As Director of Public Relations for the College Republicans, brother John Ken-ney (CC’13) was able to participate in de-bates against the College Democrats on issues such as healthcare reform. He also penned CUCR's official endorsement of Mitt Romney in the Columbia Spectator.

“While the election didn't turn out how I may have hoped I look forward to con-tinuing to participate in campus discus-sions on political theory and philosophy,” Kenney said.

In the Spring of 2012, I was elected by Columbia College to serve as one of its four University Senators (three students plus Dean Val-entini). The campaign was an exciting and challenging endeavor, spanning four weeks; hundreds of emails; and thousands of doors knocked on. I owe particular gratitude and thanks to the brothers who supported me by updating their Facebook to support my cam-paign; knocking on doors on my behalf; and turning out the vote during the voting period (especially the Class of 2015).

The Senate is the University's governing and legislative body, with representation from faculty, staff, and students. In my particular role, I help represent the 27,000 students of the University as a member of the Senate's Executive Committee. The Senate's Executive Com-mittee is a twelve member body composed of the President, the Pro-vost, seven faculty members, and three students, including myself. Top issues on the Senate's agenda for the 2012-2013 school year include online education and Columbia's global initiatives strategy.

I am focused on developing a campus wide sustainability strategy: this project is a large undertaking to raise the level of awareness and debate regarding campus sustainability. I've received invalu-able support from brothers Felix Schadeck (CC’15) and Alex Fels-berg (CC’15) on this project; I look forward to seeing more brothers continue our chapter's rich tradition of involvement with University governance and leadership.

Last summer, brother John Peng (CC’14) had the opportunity to intern at Senator Charles "Chuck" Schumer's Long Island office. Senator Schumer is the senior senator of New York and the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate.

“Through the experience, I was exposed to both the daily operations of a political office - such as answering constituents' concerns, researching local issues, and corresponding with other political offic-es,” Peng said. “I also got to help out in the ceremonial interactions between the Senator and local constituents - such as planning events for the Senator to attend and ensuring the Senator's participation at these events go smoothly.”

Peng believes the internship was valu-able to me because it gave him insight into a field of interest.

“I am a junior majoring in History and am currently planning to apply to law school upon graduation,” Peng said. “Public and political service is a field that I could see myself being active in.”

The 2012 Election Season provided a great opportunity for political groups on campus to take advan-tage of the attention paid to the Presidential race and use it to spur discussions on specific policies. Several brothers were active in politics last year at various levels:

NY Phi brothers in politics

Kenney speaks for CU Republicans

Peng learns from stint with Schumer

Brother elected to term onUniversity-wide legislature, thanks SigEps for help

by Richard Sun, CC’13


Last summer, Justin Feit (CC’14) worked as a research assistant in the Intensive Care Unit at New York Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia, studying predictability of post-operative blood clotting in high-risk patients.

“My paper titled Hypercoagulability Detected with Rotational Thromboelas-tometry after Ventricular Assist Device Implantation will be presented at the In-ternational Anesthesia Research Society in San Diego this upcoming May,” Feit said.

Palmer Greene (CC’13) continued his work at the Project A.L.S. Laboratory, working with a stem cell model of the neurodegenerative disease Giant Axonal Neuropathy that has been the subject of his research since Summer 2011.

“Working closely with a graduate mentor, I worked to determine interacting partners of the mutated protein that causes the disease,” Greene said.

He also contributed to a project developing stem cell reporter lines that ex-press fluorescent proteins when they have fully differ- entiated into lower motor neurons.

Brian Marcus (CC’12) is now a first year student at the Yale School of Medicine, and he is enjoying every minute of it.

“Medical school for me started this past summer through an inten-sive research program here at Yale, where I studied lung changes in the elderly,” Marcus said. “Though that research is still ongoing, my research from Columbia just got published!”

Marcus feels that the first semester of medical school is a large change from undergraduate life, but maintains that it has been a great experience so far. He has even found a new interest in the field.

“I’ve found the ethical side of medicine as interesting as medicine itself. This summer I plan to take an eight week course in bioethics with 55 international students from all walks of life,” Marcus said. “As part of the course, lecturers are coming in from all over the world and we have small-group debates and semi-nars.”

Marcus now wants to give back SigEp however he can.

“Everything I have now I owe directly to Columbia and to NY Phi. SigEp was such a large part of my life and to ensure it stays that way I’ve joined Yale’s Alumni Advisory Committee,” Marcus said. “I truly feel that the ideals that SigEp teaches its members are more valuable than anything one can learn in a classroom.”

sigepsin the

sciencesFeit, Greene making advancements in their research; Marcus gives back at Yale Medical

Kelly Zhang was inducted into the Engineering Honor Society Tau Beta Pi based on academic achievement.

•••••Sidd Bhatt led a United States

delegation to China through the Ivy Council. The delegation participated

in a weeklong conference that brought together students from different parts of the world and

focused on student leadership on campuses around the world.

•••••Nine out of the forty-three members of Order of Omega, the Greek Honor Society, are SigEp brothers. They are: Blake Pinell, Ben Basche, Will Stamatis, John Zucchi, Perry Nickerson, and Palmer Greene from the Class of 2013 and Sidd Bhatt, Max Segall, and Justin Feit from the Class of 2014.

•••••Felix Schadeck was part

of the team that organized TEDxColumbiaCollege.

special honors

• Jonathan Dean – Inter Greek Council Director of PR

• Alexander Felsberg – incoming IFC VP of Administration

• Justin Feit – outgoing IFC VP of Administration

• Ben Basche – president of Order of Omega (Greek Honor Society)

• Sidd Bhatt – Engineering Student Council VP of Finance

• Andrew Gonzalez – ESC Liason to CCSC

• Michael Abraham – Columbia University Judicial Board

• Chris Canales - Dining Advisory Board

campusinvolvement

The ideals SigEp teaches its members

are more valuable than anything one can learn

in a classroom.•NY Phi alum Brian Marcus


Among the myriad of activities the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon partici-pate in, Lightweight Rowing has a particularly strong presence within the fraternity. The sport requires an immense commitment of time and effort. While the primary focus of the team is Spring racing, the fall and winter are essential for building a strong base of training. The Fall season consists of exhibition style time trials against competition that the Lions will face later in the year.

After weeks of preparation and selection, the Lions sent eight of the top oarsmen to represent the team at the Head of the Charles regatta in Cam-bridge, Massachusetts. Among those competing were brothers John Zucchi and Roger Stone. The team placed ninth out of eighteen after a somewhat lackluster performance.

Concluding the season at the Princeton Chase, the team split up boat-ing according to class. The senior-sophomore lineup consisting of brothers Blake Pinnel, John Zucchi, Fredrik Aasaaren, and Griffin Whitlock, pro-duced a strong showing finishing in sixth out of twenty four. The junior lineup, plagued by some last minute line-up changes, finished in twenty second. The boat made up of brothers James Murphy Winford, Roger Stone, Connor Dougherty and Lane Brokaw was missing key members in fellow brothers Anders Smedsrud, Max Segall, and Steve Boyle, who were plagued by injuries.

During the winter, the team conducts long sessions on the rowing ma-chine and weights. While working towards top physical shape, they also make two trips to Florida to fine-tune the technical aspects of being on the water. Bolstered by a strong class of freshmen, the Lightweights are excited to test their speed this spring.

Eleven brothers compete on Lightweight rowing team

In just its third season as a varsity program, the Men’s Squash team has already risen to the top 10 in the nation. Three SigEps are currently on the team, Theo Buchsbaum (CC’14), Alec Goldburg (CC’14), and Kyle Rhee (CC’15) All are in the top nine and thus are starters. “We are confident that we will strengthen our Ivy League performance this year and we are looking to move ahead of Penn and Dartmouth by the end of the season,” Goldgurg said. “It has been great to be part of something so new at Columbia and see such immediate success.”

Squash in top 10

Theo Buschbaum (CC’14)soun

d bod

y


Helping others isn’t always limited to our immediate area. Eric Bohn (SEAS ‘14) is the Project Team Lead for Engi-neers Without Borders’ Morocco proj-ect.

“I oversee all technical aspects of building a 225 ft suspended footbridge in rural Morocco, and am going to trav-el to Morocco this winter to help work on this bridge and to survey locales for a second bridge,” Bohn said. “We started the project this summer and I am looking forward to its completion.”

The bridge will be essential to eco-nomically benefit the rural region where it is located in Morocco.

“Having the opportunity to lead the team responsible for this project has been a great experience,” Bohn said.

In the aftermath of hurricane San-dy, Columbia University and the area directly surrounding Morningside Heights remained almost completely unscathed, but this was not the case for everyone in NYC.

Brother Matt Arceniega (CC ‘14) or-ganized a group of brothers to volun-teer in some of the harder hit areas.

“Some of us from SigEp decided to get out and do our part,” Arceniega said. “One night, about 12 of us went down to help at a local shelter that was housing citizens displaced by the storm.”

The evening shift ended, but NY Phi’s brothers were not done yet.

“After midnight, the organization said they really needed volunteers to work the night shifts and our contin-gent offered to stay and make up the entirety of the overnight team,” Arce-niega said. “It was a great experience and I could not be more proud of my brothers for taking time out to stop and help the community around us.”

Bohn leads bridge engineering project in rural Morocco

SigEps pull double duty inHurricane Sandy relief effort

The last several years for our chapter have been ones of excep-tional growth, academic achievement and campus leadership. The chapter has doubled in size from 39 in 2008 to 84 as of Spring 2012. Its GPA stands at 3.5— better than the all campus average of 3.42. Our chapter members sit on the board of Order of Omega, Student Government and various other campus organizations. In short, our chapter is thriving.

With that in mind, the chapter recently proposed an idea that has the potential to push NY Phi to a new level on campus and within SigEp. We hope that you will decide to support our efforts, whether that be via word-of-mouth, attendance, or through a donation.The idea is new and unique to Columbia. Instead of providing a simple scholarship, the chapter has decided to award a grant of $3,500 to a deserving undergraduate Columbia student to fund the implementa-tion of a philanthropic project that supports the cardinal principles of both our fraternity and Columbia University. You can review the details on the chapter’s website at columbiasigep.org. Just click on the Balanced Man Fellowship tab.

In order to award this grant, we would like to ask for your help. The chapter is so committed to this effort we they have decided to match the first $2,500 of your donations for the Balanced Man Fel-lowship.

As we move into the new year and closer to the February 15th award ceremony for the Balanced Man Fellowship, we hope that you will contribute to this worthy cause as each of us have decided to. You can do so with a tax deductible contribution to the chapter's scholarship fund through the SigEp Educational Foundation via the instructions below:

Step 1: Visit the donation page on the Foundation website at http://bit.ly/DonateBMF

Step 2: Select the “New York Phi – Direct Balanced Man Scholarship” from the drop down menu.

Step 3: Complete the related billing information.

It has been a pleasure working with all of the individuals respon-sible for this project, especially the Balanced Man Fellowship coor-dinator Will Krasnoff (CC’ 14), and we hope that everyone will join us on February 15th to celebrate NY Phi's success and our Balanced Man Fellowship award winner.

Balanced Man FellowshipContribute to new chapter initiative

•••••••••••

alumniupdates

Due to a writing job, my wife Sara and I are

relocating to Los Angeles in January. I am ex-

cited about the job, the weather, and the chance

to reconnect with some brothers - Dave Jelenko

(‘04), Rick Thompson (‘02),

and Nigel Pretty (‘02).

stevehofstetter

austinhwangI got married recently in March 2012 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic to Maura Dunfey. Currently, I am a 3rd year Gastroenterology fellow at

Lankenau Hospitalin Philadelphia, PA.

filipbortkiewiczI got engaged to Emily Donaldson(Barnard '07, Columbia MPH '09) in April after six years of dating and I proposed on the Steps of Low Library with some secret paparazzo skills from brotherAndrew Gallagher (CC'08).

chrissmith

I wrote a book.

http://www.americabutbetter.com

Send in your updates to:

communications@

newyorkphi.com


Documents

The Sword and the Heart - Fall 2012