Former Delta Chi president and 2018 Homecoming King, Andre McIntyre, had the opportunity to be a part of the Fraternal Government Relations Coalition’s (FGRC) Capital Hill visit April 23-25th in Washington D.C. Andre was one of a handful of students presented with this opportunity to visit the nation’s capital through direct interaction in legislative process currently impacting fraternity and sorority life across the country. While there, he was able to represent Delta Chi Fraternity, Fraternity and Sorority Life members and Missouri State University. Andre said, “My team consisted of myself and Emily Bauer, a Delta Phi Epsilon from Truman State, and we visited the offices of Congressional leaders to discuss the benefits of FSL, why students’ freedom of association should be protected, and three pieces of legislation… The legislation protects our freedom of association, and the other two were anti-hazing policies that add transparency to acts of hazing on campus.”
When asked what made him want to go he said the following, “when I was presented with the opportunity, I had the chance to research the issue. Reflecting on my fraternity experience, being a part of a single-sex organization has added so much to my overall university and has provided incredible opportunity for growth and leadership development. I found the issue very relevant to me and something that I am passionate about.”
To hear more about Andre’s experience and the pieces of legislature, check out this video, from Ozark First!
Andre is certainly a leader in letters, making his Missouri Statement. We are lucky to have students who fight for not only for their collegiate experiences, but for the future of others as well.
“[Being in charge of philanthropy] allowed me the privilege to take head on planning the Sigma Chi Food Drive benefiting Bear Pantry! When the new exec board was elected, we knew that we wanted to improve our philanthropic donations and become more invested with philanthropic events around campus. After constructing a new philanthropy committee, we took the time to organize this event. I heard about the new Bear Pantry on campus and I felt that it would be a perfect opportunity to help jump start the Bear Pantry and give Sigma Chi an opportunity to fulfill Missouri State’s Public Affairs Mission by being engaged in the community in order to collect donations for the pantry. I know that there are so many students and families that suffer from food insecurity and I felt that this would be a perfect opportunity to help them overcome the obstacle of food insecurity in any way possible… As we were planning the food drive, I never really thought of a specific goal in mind in regards to how many donations we would receive, but we definitely exceeded any expectations that I could have had. After three days of collecting donations, we ended up collecting 1,150 items, totaling at 475.9 pounds of items. Along with food, we were also collecting toiletries, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, etc. and I was very happy to see some of those items donated as well. Not only did we want to collect food for the Bear Pantry, but we wanted to help spread information about the Bear Pantry to the students in hope that if someone ever finds themselves struggling, they now know they have somewhere to turn to for help. Everyone in the chapter, especially myself, was thrilled with the outcome of our food drive, and we are definitely looking forward to working with the Bear Pantry a lot more in the future. Lastly, Sigma Chi would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who donated to our food drive because without your generous donations we wouldn’t have been as successful as we were!”
Aside from the NPHC steppers, there were other performances as well. NPHC’s President, Brittany Buchannon said, “my favorite part was definitely Essence of Hip Hop and the ASA performance. I think they captured the audience well and their performances were along the lines of stepping as well. It all flowed so nicely together.”
Many of the NPHC executive members and step show committee members spoke of the success of the show and their excitement for next years to be done even bigger and better! Committee Member Jayveon Harris said, “The attendance we expected was surpassed extensively. All the teams that we had participate were crisp and clean…The feedback I have been receiving from outside spectators has been widely positive. So all in all I believe that we did a good job giving the campus the show they’ve been longing for. We just look forward to looking back to see how we can improve the show even more for next year!”