“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”
-John F. Kennedy
Sigma Phi Epsilon is a fraternity built on a foundation of brotherly love. We, as brothers, strive to strengthen and build upon this foundation every day through serving and supporting each other, as well as our campus and community. One group of brothers who exemplify the meaning of brotherly love is our Executive Board. These eight brothers have taken on the responsibility of serving their brothers as leaders and role models over their year of service, and we are extremely grateful for their commitment to growing this chapter and fraternity. This January, several of our Executive Board members took time out of their busy schedules to travel to Atlanta, Georgia to attend one of the 2022 Carlson Leadership Academies. This article will provide commentary from some of these members regarding their personal experiences, what they learned, and how they plan to bring that back to the chapter!
Carlson Leadership Academies give rising chapter leaders the opportunity to network with successful SigEp alumni and learn about identifying areas of interest within the chapter, setting goals and executing plans. In addition to their alumni mentors, chapter officers get to work with their counterparts from different chapters across the nation to discuss how they fulfill their office’s role within their own chapters. This year’s in-person events focused on five of the eight officer positions within SigEp and provided similar virtual programming for the other three positions. In this article, you will hear from our Chapter President, Jake Williams (’22), and our Chaplain, Bailey Harrison (’24).
Jake Williams is the 2021-2022 MS Beta Chapter President and a senior Aerospace Engineering major from Madison, MS. When asked what he learned at Carlson, Williams mentioned a few of the most impactful things he was taught. “Three of my biggest takeaways were the difference between motivation and management, when to use each method, and how to effectively set goals for the chapter. A quote that stuck out to me was ‘When something good happens, we did it. When something great happens, you did it. When something bad happens, I did it.'” During the remainder of his term, Williams plans to continue implementing what he has learned about motivation, management, and goal setting for the betterment of his chapter. “One way I thought of to motivate my brothers was to start a Brother of the Month program, where someone can nominate a brother they see is going above and beyond in upholding our core principles.” In addition to the Brother of the Month program, Jake has worked with his Exec Board to formulate a goal for the entire chapter: a 3.35 semester GPA. Professional development aside, Williams says that Carlson was an opportunity for him to “drop the ego” and learn lessons from those who have been in his shoes.
Bailey Harrison is the 2021-2022 MS Beta Chaplain and a sophomore Kinesiology major from Toney, Alabama. For Harrison, Carlson was all about being different. “I learned about how to keep our fraternity ‘different’, as our founders intended for it to be, and how wanting to be different means needing to act differently. I also learned new ways to connect with members during Standards Board trials.” Like Williams, Harrison is planning several ways to implement what he learned here at MS Beta, starting with his Standards Board. The efficiency and effectiveness of grade check-ins and everyday tasks of the Board have already been improved using knowledge from Carlson. When asked about his favorite part of his experience, Harrison says that “meeting with other Chaplains and networking with them was really useful. The mentors for my group were awesome and getting to sit down with them was one of my favorite SigEp experiences I’ve had.” Since he is just a sophomore, Bailey has several more years to serve his chapter and is excited to see how far it will go.
The Carlson Leadership Academies are something our chapter officers look forward to ever year, as they allow brothers to better their ability to better others. Just as the opening quote says, learning and leadership are two things that are absolutely necessary to the functioning of any organization, regardless of size. This sentiment is true for a chapter just as much as it is for a whole country.