SigEp Scroll The Alumni Newsletter of the Nebraska Gamma Chapter

Lemon Fresh Day Returns for Concert

in the Courtyard

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Nebraska Gamma’s annual Concert in the Courtyard featuring Lemon Fresh Day returned this fall in support of a new cause: Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBS).

For over 100 years, BBBS has provided children facing adversity with strong and supportive “Bigs” in order to improve their confidence, avoid risky behavior, and encourage educational success.

At the 2013 Grand Chapter Conclave, BBBS was made SigEp’s single

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national philanthropy. This year, the men of Nebraska Gamma officially incorporated this organization into their philanthropic calendar. Senior and past-president Joshua Lallman was elected to lead a charge to increase fundraising and attendance at the event. Similar to last year, SigEp was awarded the LoperNites grant, which provided $2,500 to help compensate Lemon Fresh Day for the show. However, because

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Contributed by Josh Lallman

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The spring 2016 GPA was much better than we had anticipated. As we came in to the semester, we were hoping to have an all-member GPA of 3.2 and we ended up seeing the highest GPA in a long time with a 3.47 all-member GPA.

It just shows how hard our men have worked, how much time we invest in our studies, and how much we care about our grades. With a GPA like that, we were fortunate enough to once again be awarded the Nester Cup, as our GPA was the highest of any fraternity.

With Sigma Phi Epsilon doing

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things like weekly monitored study hours and grade checks each semester, we give our members all the resources they need to get help in their classes. Our members utilized that this semester and we had 44 men above a 3.5 GPA and even had 15 members with a perfect 4.0. As a chapter, we were well above the all-male average at UNK.

I believe the non-fraternity males on campus averaged below a 3.0 for a GPA as a whole this semester. We pride ourselves on our academic success and we hope to continue with this momentum and ultimately win another Nester Cup in the spring this year.

Nester Cup Update; SigEp Dominates All-Fraternity Grades

AUGIE SAVE THE DATE

When: April 22nd

When: TBD

Where: Meadowlark Hills Golf Course

Registration: Online and via Paypal

Keep checking UNKSigep.org for details

Contributed by Jachob Wiedeburg

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2016 New Member Class

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Julian Ancona Omaha, NE Gavyn Angerman Omaha, NE Zach Ashley Holdrege, NE Brendan Blackburn Beatrice, NE Juan Cayax Grand Island, NE Tyrell Cerveny Omaha, NE Austin Chitty North Platte, NE Gabriel Crocker Kearney, NE Trevin Derr Omaha, NE Jade Fagot Lexington, NE Joseph Heredia Grand Island, NE Jared Hunke Holdrege, NE Ramsay Hunt Wilcox, NE Austin Jacobsen Sidney, NE Corey Johnson Kearney, NE Marshall Makowski Central City, NE

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Cody Mueller Mitchell, NE Jose Ortega Lexington, NE Jerad Paup Central City, NE Bryson Pavlik Blair, NE Ethan Pruitt Millers Creek, NC Tom Roach Doniphan, NE Samuel Rosenau Blair, NE Agustin Ruvalcaba Shelby, NE Kyle Schultz Wood River, NE Tanner Spenceri Columbus, NE Adam Starr Mullen, NE Christian Thompson Wood River, NE Tyler Toelle Cedar Bluffs, NE Marcos Tovar Gibbon, NE Tanner Traphagan Kearney, NE Jared Washa Ogallala, NE

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the grant prohibits the Chapter from charging students admission, Lallman needed to incorporate creativity in fundraising. This year, the Chapter supplemented concert t-shirt sales with a raffle featuring a high-definition television, sound bar, and Blu-ray player, among other smaller prizes. With this innovative direction, the Chapter raised nearly $3,000, which more than tripled the 2015 fundraising efforts.

Nebraska Gamma also improved attendance numbers to a total of nearly 200 participants. The increase in attendance is partially due to the recent following that Lemon Fresh Day has generated within the Kearney community.

“Moving forward, we hope that our following in the community will increase support of the Concert in the Courtyard and vice versa,” lead singer Danny Garcia commented. Nebraska Gamma hopes to expand future concerts to further contribute to their national philanthropy.

Continued from Page 1 Grossnicklaus Crowned UNK King; Homecoming Recap

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Chapter President Luke Grossnicklaus represented SigEp as UNK’s homecoming king this September. In addition to being the president of Sigma Phi Epsilon, Luke is a Chancellor’s Ambassador, former member of the UNK golf team, a student diplomat, a member of the Honors Program and a member of Order of Omega.

“It was a very fun week, capped off by an exciting crowning night,” Grossnicklaus said. “I am proud to represent my fraternity and UNK.”

Homecoming week was packed with activities centered around the week’s theme, ‘Grooving through the Decades.’ Homecoming chair Jeremy Knispell led the chapter through the week. SigEp and partner sorority Alpha Xi Delta designed and built a Grease themed float for the parade, which members rode through Kearney for the annual parade.

Other festivities during the week included a lawn display, a campus-wide scavenger hunt, UNK-themed family feud (won by SigEp), and, of course, the

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lip sync. SigEp and Alpha

Xi Delta lip synced songs ranging from Footloose to Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake to match the ‘Decades’ theme. The group got third place for their work. At the end of the week, the SigEp team finished fourth for Homecoming.

On Saturday, the Loper football team put on a show to finish homecoming week. After tying the game with just 5 seconds left, the Lopers were headed to overtime against Washburn. In the third overtime, UNK kicked a field goal. Washburn answered with a touchdown to win the game. The final score was 47-44.

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By ANDREW HANSON UNK Communications

KEARNEY – Grant Holscher wants to become a pilot.

He also wants to teach history to high school students. It’s why he joined ROTC out of high school on a four-year national scholarship that allows him to pursue both.

This summer, Holscher traveled to Europe on a Holocaust-focused trip, led by the University of Nebraska at Kearney History Department.

“I always thought the Holocaust was interesting, so it was right up my alley,” said the senior history education major from North Platte. “It was one of the coolest trips I’ve been on. I got a lot of neat history background on things I never would have thought of.”

Before touring Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic in May, Holscher took a class about the Holocaust from European history scholar and trip organizer Roy Koepp, UNK assistant professor of history.

And not long after Holscher returned from Europe, he went to the West African coastal nation of Liberia with the ROTC.

“Through ROTC, there are a lot of summer opportunities you can experience that are competitive. You compete based on how well you do in school, how active you are in the community or based on your physical fitness and leadership qualities,” Holscher explained. “They take all of those factors into consideration and base your order of merit on this list.”

Initially, Holscher applied for an ROTC trip in Europe due to his affinity for history. Instead, he was placed in Liberia.

“At first I was like ‘this is going to be crazy, I don’t even know where Liberia is,’” he recalled. “I knew the ebola outbreak happened there, but I didn’t know they had

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been riddled with civil war for the last 30 years.”

Over the 21 days Holscher spent in Liberia, he and fellow cadets visited the United States Embassy, fixed up orphanages and provided English training to Liberian soldiers, helping them with grammar, reading and writing.

“As much as I want to say the Holocaust trip was sobering and enlightening, I think this trumped it tenfold just because it was currently happening in the 21st century,” Holscher said.

“I know so many great people from all over. We’re going to have some great upcoming potential leaders in the United States. It’s kind of cool to know that I’m a part of that group and that I’m friends with them.”

Holscher is currently pursuing a career in the Army’s aviation branch. After college, he’ll attend flight school for two years and become a pilot in the Army National Guard in Nebraska.

Holscher will student teach in the spring and become commissioned as a second lieutenant upon graduation in May.

Holsher Getting Most Out of ROTC Experience

Reprinted with permission from UNKNews