upsilon ups - february 2011

The Upsilon UpsIssue 3 • February 2011 • www.illinois-pikapps.com Pi Kappa Phi, Upsilon Chapter, University of Illinois • Est. 1921

Ten alumni ride RV to homecoming2010 had some successful events; leaves hope for a

fun and exciting 2011

By Adam NekolaAlumni Chapter Chaplain

The meeting between Illinois’ and Indiana’ football teams was more than a game to the historians.

It marked the 100th anniver-sary of the first homecoming game, played in Champaign - and a few young alumni decided to mark it with a first of their own.

Recruiting friends, Tim Quirsfeld (Y1039) and Dan Wolff (Y1048) rented an RV and hosted the first alumni-chapter sponsored tailgate in

Upsilon Chapter has lived through changing timesFellow Alumni Brothers,

Ninety years is a long time. My grandma turned ninety last May. I remember thinking about all the things she’s lived through, a list that impressed the history buff in me. The Depression, World War II, the Cold War, the turbulent sixties and Vietnam, Watergate.

I never lived through these myself, instead witnessing them from the safe distance of the History Channel on TV, something that wasn’t even a household item until the ’50s, when my grandma was in her thirties and firmly entrenched in the bustling life of a housewife with two little

See ‘President’ • Page 4

See ‘2010’ • Page 4

The flags of Pi Kappa Phi and University of Illinois fly during an autumn day in the tailgating lots of Memorial Stadium this past year.

By Adam NekolaAlumni Chapter Chaplain

CHAMPAIGN - If they could only see us now.

The founding fathers in 1921, that is.

Forget the fact that this newslet-ter is making it’s way to hundreds of alumni instantly through invis-ible signals in the air. Disregard that well over 1000 members have been initated after them.

All that’s important is that the Upsilon Chapter continues to pro-duce leaders; that with the name ‘Pi Kapp’ comes respect.

“Despite some problems over the years, Upsilon has still persevered,” said Gene Giannotta (Y1030),

alumni chapter president. “It’s a testament to the strength of the Pi Kappa Phi brotherhood and the quality of leaders that Upsilon has produced.”

To mark the occasion, the Upsi-lon Alumni Chapter is planning a reunion weekend in Champaign - only a day after the original found-ing date of May 19. It promises to be one of the largest gatherings of brothers in years.

Friday, May 20

Brothers and their guests will be welcomed to Champaign with a reception at the chapter house at 7 p.m. The house, built in the fall of 2005, has already seen 300 new members come through it.

The style follows a new trend in fraternity houses to more closely resemble an apartment. Six four-bedroom units house seven broth-ers each, in addition to a smaller first-floor unit.

Other features include a below-ground parking garage, a second-floor study room, and an elevator.

Saturday, May 21

The Orange and Blue Golf Course in Champaign has been around almost as long as the chap-ter has. Built in 1950, it’s a pillar of local golfing in Champaign. Be-ginning at 8 a.m., five tee times are currently available for alumni. Get

90Th ANNiverSAry

Marking a milestoneAlumni Chapter plans celebratory weekend

‘90th’ • Page 4

PreSideNT’S leTTer

Join other alumni in ChampaignWe’ll be setting up online registration through the national office and sending out formal invitations; but until them email the alumni chapter at [email protected] to express your interest in coming!

Issue 3 • February 2011 • www.illinois-pikapps.com Pi Kappa Phi, Upsilon Chapter, University of Illinois • Est. 1921

Champions and leadersUpsilon stands above the rest

The Upsilon Chapter’s hard work has not gone unnoticed in the past year. At Supreme Chap-ter this past summer, we received an award for ‘Champion Master Chapter’ with specific acknowledgement to our academic achievement and our commit-ment to service. We also received the ‘Commitment to Continued Growth Award.’

Locally in Champaign-U r b a n a , we received ‘Friend of the Year’ from CUSR (Cham-paign Urbana Special Recreation) which is a program we volunteer for on a weekly basis. The chapter is very proud of these achieve-ments and looks to im-prove upon them.

Over this past semes-ter, we initiated 22 new brothers and had a 100 percent retention rate. We look for these new brothers to continue the Upsilon Chapter’s hard work.

We have been very in-volved with Push Ameri-ca this past year and look forward to expand on this in the future. This past summer, Tommy Carrato and Alex Stezs-kal rode in Journey of Hope and Mike Yam

rode in Gear Up Florida. This upcoming sum-mer, Jay Chae will be on the crew for Journey of Hope. This fall dur-ing our Fourth Annual Camp Out on the Quad, we raised $5,500 in one week. In the spring, we are planning to hold a

War of the Roses, which may consist

of events such as an empathy dinner, a Miss Push America Pageant, and Pi

Kapture the Flag.

Our name continues to grow

on campus; last semester, we had football block with Alpha Omicron Pi. During Block, we buy tickets with a sorority and sit with them dur-ing the home football games. As far as intra-mural sports go, we had great runs into the play-offs in soccer, men’s foot-ball, and co-rec football.

I was very proud to win my first champion-ship as Athletic Director in the Dodge Ball Tour-nament.

The Upsilon Chapter looks forward to con-tinuing all of its hard work and commitment to this Fraternity.

In Pi Kappa Phi,Eric LangenfeldY1122

ArchoN’S rePorT

‘The summer of a lifetime’Carrato, Stezskal raise $13,810 in order to ride Journey of Hope

By dan WolffAlumni Chapter Vice-President

Two recent graduates spent their final summer of freedom biking across America as part of the Journey of Hope.

Alex Stezskal (Y 1055) and Tommy Carrato (Y1056) represented Upsilon last sum-mer in the annual Push Amer-ica event.

Alumni Chapter Vice-Pres-ident Dan Wolff talked with Carrato about the experience.

What preparation is need-ed for the Journey; how did you get ready?

There’s no good way to pre-pare yourself for 75 miles of cycling everyday. To get ready for the ride we tried to get on the bike as much as possible in the months leading up to the Journey of Hope.

That being said, the ter-rain in Illinois is so flat that regardless of how much riding you do before the trip you’re going to struggle in the Si-erra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains so the goal is to be in good enough shape to be able to handle that initial shock and be able to grow

stronger throughout the trip.

So how did the trip start off for you?

Meeting the team in San Francisco was an incredible experience. Both the North and South routes as well as the Push America staff arrived at the University of San Francis-co a few days before the start of the ride for orientation.

After getting to know the guys on our route I knew I was surrounded by leaders and I was about to have the summer of a lifetime.

Did any moments along the way stand out to you?

The most memorable city we visited on the trip was

Milwaukee because of the in-credible programming we had there. We spent three days working with the people of Independence 1st, an organi-zation that serves people with disabilities in the Milwaukee area, and had the opportunity to play wheelchair basketball, beep baseball, and help kids with disabilities ride bikes for the first time.

My favorite memory of the trip was our second day in Milwaukee when we took some young girls on “dates” at the local mall. I had the plea-sure of hanging out with a 9 year old girl named Cate who had Cerebral palsy. We took

Upsilon alumni Alex Stezskal and Tommy Carrato lift their bikes at the end of the Journey of Hope on the lawn of the Capitol Building on Washington D.C. The two rode the route the sum-mer after their senior year before joining the working world.

‘JOH’ • Page 4

connect onlineVisit our website at www.illinois-pikapps.com

to register; get in touch with other alumni, view our calendar and see photos from events.


Your Alumni Chapter officers are here to help. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact them.

PresidentGene Giannotta(630) [email protected]

Vice-PresidentDan Wolff(847) [email protected]

TreasurerNick Stoczanyn(847) [email protected]

SecretaryKevin Spitz(847) [email protected]

ChaplainAdam Nekola(630) [email protected]

Housing Corp. PresidentJames Nelson(630) [email protected]

• Mike Hua (Y1010) and Rosalyn Nguyen are en-gaged. Last year, Hua also took a new job with Booz & Company in Chicago.

• Rick Barritt (Y1014) and Angela Simpson will be mar-ried on June 11,2011.

• Kevin Spitz (Y1020) became engaged to Casey Roth. Their wedding is set for Oct. 29, 2011.

• Sky Opila (Y1037) pro-posed to Lauren Etmekjian, who he met through the fraternity his freshman year of college. They’ll be married on Sept. 10, 2011.

• Former Archon Alex Stezskal (Y1055) popped the question to Christle Kiely while still an undergrad.

• Do you have any news to report? A new job? A baby on the way? Send us your news - we’d love to fill up this column!

ANNoUNceMeNTS

coNTAcT iNForMATioN

Deep under the ground in Nevada, the rumble of trucks and blast of explosives are commonplace. Recent alum Andrew Ostendorf works in a mining operation in this environment, which he calls ‘amazing.’

Student turned gold-diggerWorking in a mine digging for gold turns out to be a blast

By dan WolffAlumni Chapter Vice-President

A recent Upsilon alumnus is go-ing for gold in the literal sense. He is actually trying to mine it out of the earth.

Andrew Ostendorf (Y1068) was recently hired by Newmont Mining as a production geologist at the company’s Leeville Underground Mine op-eration in northeastern Nevada.

“My job varies from week to week,” said Os-tendorf, a 2010 gradu-ate. “I am either working underground ore control, logging geologic core for engineering and strati-graphic data, or computer modeling in order to determine the location of potential ore.”

For the last 30 years, the town of Nevada has long been a host for gold mining. The world’s three largest gold companies all own large strip mines and underground mines in the area.

“Working underground is an en-tirely new and different experience than I previously expected and it takes time to become accustomed to it,” he said. “My duties underground are to inspect headings and measure the advances post-blasting, check underground drill rigs which drill for core, and map geologic features

that are in the area.“You must learn to do

this in an environment that is very dark, very dirty, and very noisy. It is also necessary to always be aware of the dangers of the mine which are numer-ous.”

But being underground is not completely gruel-ing, he said, and it is quite interesting to watch the

heavy equipment move around. The engineering it takes to operate a mine 1500 feet below the surface is an amazing feat. One of the most in-teresting experiences is underground blasting.

“You hear a loud boom and, de-pending how close you are, you can

feel the ground vibrate, feel the rush of air race past you, and it can throw dust everywhere,” Ostendorf said.

In all, with the price of gold at an all-time high, the industry is boom-ing. New mines are coming online - or continuing to expand their opera-tions - around the globe; with major mines in the United States, Ghana, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and parts of Africa. n

UPSiloN AlUMNi ProFile

Andrew Ostendorf

A view of the surface drill at Osten-dorf’s mining operation in Leeville.

Suggest the next alumni profile! E-mail editor Adam Nekola at [email protected] with the name and pin number of an interesting alumni you know. Tell us his story and get us a way to contact him - or suggest yourself!


Cate to Build-a-Bear and got ice cream and she was nothing but smiles the entire time.

What part was the toughest? Most rewarding or meaningful?

Riding through Nevada was probably the tough-est part of the entire Journey of Hope. Despite the common perception that Nevada is all desert it is actually the most mountainous state in the coun-try. We spent six days on US 50 averaging about 90

miles a day and traversing up to mountain passes. While our climbs in Utah and Colorado were

steeper, the never ending high desert landscape was more mentally draining than anything else on the trip. The most rewarding part of the trip was all of the friendship visits we had. Overall we visited over 50 organizations that serve people with disabilities across the country. Our visits ranged from dances, to playing sports, to just hanging out and talking with our friends and each of us learned invaluable lessons about people with disabilities and the strug-gles they deal with every day. n

a group of four together or be randomly assigned to a group. Or, for those unfamil-iar with changes on campus, the under-graduates will offer campus tours.

At noon, alumni and guests will be in-vited to return to the chapter house for a luncheon. Following lunch, the under-grads will host a model Ritual of Initia-tion.

The evening will end with a banquet at the Hawthorn Suites hotel in Champaign.

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Hawthorn Suites at a rate of $109 a night. Brunch will be served on Sunday morning. n

90th from page 1

girls. Back then, “I Love Lucy” was must-see TV, phones were stuck in their place, and Ray Kroc had just come across a prime franchise opportunity in a California burger joint named “McDonald’s.”

Before all that, back in the late 1940s, when he was safely back home from the Pacific, my grandpa went to work on a brand-new house for his growing family. He built it all himself – a challenging proj-ect that required creating something tangible from nothing more than an idea.

It was pretty neat to find, nestled in old boxes tucked away in my grandma’s bedroom closet, the ledger he had kept, with a detailed record of every single item that he had bought for the house, right down to the very last screw. It’s a point of pride for me to say that the house still stands today; in fact, I’m writing this from inside its old, sturdy walls.

I wonder sometimes if my grandpa ever thought that the house he built would stand for another sixty years. Did he ever imagine what the world would be like that far in the future? Did he ever think about his children, and grandchildren, growing up in that house? Did he ever think about his own part in their lives – giving them a place to call home, an example to measure themselves against?

Even as we look back fondly on a history we may never have experienced, we are living through it ourselves. As we admire the monuments others have built, we are busily constructing our own. The times may change, the people come and go, things are dif-ferent, but what remains is what is fundamental.

In a few months, there will be another 90th

birthday. It was on May 19, 1921 (the day after my grandma turned a year old, in fact) that the Upsilon chapter of Pi Kappa Phi was founded, at a Univer-sity of Illinois that was both very similar and very different than the one we ourselves experienced.

In the same way I think about my grandpa, I wonder about those first initiates of Upsilon. Could their minds have ever conceived of a legacy that stretched ninety years and grew to include over elev-en hundred brothers?

The house my grandfather built still stands strong, both physically and in my grandma’s heart. Even though age makes living alone impossible, and she may never again be in that house, it remains her home. The foundation on which it and its memories are built remains as sturdy as can be.

Our own personal Upsilon chapter might be dif-ferent than the one we see today when we visit our alma mater, or even the one seen in the faces of our old friends, brothers who have stood with us for years, through thick and thin. The passage of time ensures that we will never again be in that particular house.

But it also reminds us that, even as things change, the basics remain – the desire for lasting friendship and the yearning to lead and create. In short, the things that led us to Upsilon in the beginning.

And so, for ninety years, the foundation on which it was built and on which so many of our memo-ries rest has endured. And while our own house may have passed into history, our home still stands, sturdy as can be.

– Gene Giannotta, Alumni Chapter President

Joh from page 2

Thank You, Alumni!

We couldn’t put out this mailing or plan events without our generous alum-ni. The board thanks all alums that do-nated to the chapter in 2010:

Ronald Arrighy (Y621)David Bein (Y762)

Michael Brzoska (Y671)Terry Burke (Y482)Jon Cisek (Y1043)

David Camacho (Y832)Brad Fawcett (Y607)James Fowler (Y518)Dan French (Y929)

Gene Giannotta (Y1030)Frank Giampoli (Y574)Edwin Hamilton (Y473)John Hankus (Y1009)Lawrence Inglis (Y445)Joseph Johnson (Y321)

Richard Mulcahey (Y820)Robert Murphy (Y826)Adam Nekola (Y1007)James Nelson (Y1002)Robert Newlin (Y412)Gary Poleskey (Y551)

James Pottenger (Y352)John Rawot (Y591)

Michael Reedy (Y868)John Roeser (Y328)

Anthony Saccomano (Y533)James Schalin (Y537)John Shustitzky (Y595)

Kevin Spitz (Y1020)Nick Stoczanyn (Y1011)John Stroehlein (Y488)Frank Stromberg (Y577)Gilman Thrane (Y332)Stephen Trahey (Y568)George Walker (Y378)

If we inadvertently left out your name, we apologize. Please let us know by e-mailing [email protected].

President from page 1

the lots surrounding Memorial Stadium.Over a dozen alumni attended the tail-

gate with their guests before and after the game for food, drinking and pigskin.

Also in 2010, alumni and undergradu-ates celebrated the fifth anniversary of the refounding of Upsilon Chapter; Feb. 19 will mark six years since a charter returned to campus.

In July, the second-annual “Pi Kapp Day at the Races” was held at Arlington Park in Arlington Heights. Nearly 30 alumni braved the rain to bet on the hors-es and share brotherhood. This year’s event is scheduled for Aug. 6. n

2010 from page 1

Parallel-parking the RV on Euclid may sound insane to some, but Tim Quirsfeld proved his driving prowess as he aligned the vehicle in front of the Delta Upsilon house (formerly Tau Kappa Epsilon).

upsilon ups - february 2011

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