Speaking as an alumnus, it is great to be reached out to. I just graduated on May 17th, but already the Delta chapter is organizing a reunion in early June. I'm from Utah and don't have many of my larger items in the DC area, where I am now working and living, but several actives have offered me the use of their golf clubs, apartments to stay in, and asked to buy me dinner when I get into town. I'm really looking forward to it!

This semester the Zeta Kappa chapter used the Spring recruitment period to shift its focus to older students. We are pleased to say that we recurited and retained all 5 members. These members are already involved in other organizations such as: Wrestling Club, SIFE, Student Government, C.O.R.E, and Swimming Club. The GPA for this pledge class was also very good with a pledge class GPA of 3.23. These members also had the honor of being initiated on the 50th Anniversary of Alpha Tau Omega at West Texas A&M and had Wynn Smiley presiding over the initiation.

On Saturday, over a dozen brothers went to the ARC house to do some landscaping. The ARC house is home to underprivileged mentally handicapped elders. They are taken in from homes that were under resourced or where they were mistreated. It is a privately owned undertaking that started just 25 years ago and relies solely on community involvement and private funding. While there, we just helped make the place look nicer in general. Jody, the man in charge at the time, was very grateful for our work, saying that he hates to see the yard get so messy, but he has too much to do while he is there to focus on it. We also helped clear a walkway from the driveway to the backdoor, which Jody said is particularly helpful because many of the residents have very poor vision and it would be easy for them to trip. I am just glad to be able to support such a great cause, and I'm thankful for Brother Harper for setting up the event.

This upcoming weekend, the Beta Omega chapter will be helping out with the National Bone Marrow Registry program. The cause hit home to me a couple of months ago when attending church back in my hometown of Cleveland, when a woman told the story of a freshman at my alma mater (St. Ignatius) is battling Leukemia, but none of his family is a match. They said that there are thousands of unfortunate cases like this and the more who register with the NBMR helps increase the chances that they may find a match -- and a cure. By volunteering at this registry drive, we hope to get a number of Ohio State students to register for this cause and hopefully it can end up saving somebody's life!

I am the mother of Zach Sparks, a current member of ATO at Ohio State. I was not able to come up to Ohio State for the Mother's Weekend that they held, but I instead gathered up a group of St. Xavier High School moms that I knew. There are quite a few St. Xavier boys in ATO so we ended up having a large crew head to Columbus. All of our sons were in ATO and we set up a road trip for this past weekend. I really did not know what to expect and definitely did not expect or want my son in a fraternity. Other moms that I went with and talked to felt the same way about fraternities. Taking this roadtrip to Ohio State was my first glimpse of what ATO was all about. I put my son at St. Xavier High School because I believed it was about being much more than just a student and I was very worried he would lose this at a very big school like Ohio State. I know after visiting that ATO is about my son and the brothers being and doing something bigger than themselves and doing good in the community, etc. I feel as if ATO gives Zach and the other brothers the opportunity to really excel as a well rounded person. I am so proud of what ATO is all about, it completely changed my view on what a fraternity can do for a student. It was amazing how much ATO impressed all the moms and the whole way home we could not stop talking about the brotherhood that these boys are sharing. I am proud to say that my son is an ATO at Ohio State.

This upcomming weekend, UVA will be having a renunion for all past graduating classes whose years ended in either a four or a nine ('64, '69, '74, etc). Depsite being all the way in China and on summer break, brother Peter Elbaor has still been working hard to organize a reception for the Delta alumni at the house. I'm sure that his good work ethic will result in a great weekend for both alumni and any actives who are there.

On behalf of the Inter-Fraternity Council, I'd like to commend ATO on the outstanding accomplishments of their chapter this year. They did a great job just about all around, and we're very happy they've become more involved with IFC proceedings. We hope to have their active membership continue in the years to come.

I recently accepted a summer job as a reading tutor for a struggling seventh grader living in my area. It's one thing to achieve academic success yourself. It's quite another to inspire another child to realize his or her own potential to achieve it. I'll be working toward the latter goal all summer long.

I was able to obtain an internship this summer in New York City with a leading pharmaceutical company as well as a full time job for the fall with a leading accounting firm in Northern Virginia. As a graduate out of the University of Virginia and during my stay as a brother of Alpha Tau Omega Delta chapter, I was able to take many of the skills of brotherhood, leadership, trust, and dedication and apply it to my career (despite the shaky economy). I want to thank the Delta chapter and ATO for helping me with my career and building me into a better individual. Ruh, Rah, Rega!