In high school, community service is widespread and it is often required. During our college years, however, it is easy to forget about community service with everything else going on. Where do you even go to do community service? Sure, your house throws events every so often and if you are a part of Greek life, you support a philanthropy. But is there an organization for more regular service? During her first year, Emily Siegel wondered the same thing. She stepped out her house culture and took a step towards community service. She joined a co-ed service fraternity on campus called Alpha Phi Omega and has been making a name for community service since.
A fourth year, Emily Sigel is majoring in Public Policy with a minor in Human Rights. Emily pledged Alpha Phi Omega, also known as APO, as a way to be more involved in community service and meet new people. This organization is a co-ed community service fraternity that has chapters in colleges across the nation. The fraternity was found under the principles of leadership, friendship, and service, all of which Emily brings to the University of Chicago chapter through her role as President. Members of APO volunteer weekly at places such as Hyde Park Neighborhood Club and the KLEO Community Learning Center where they work with the youth. Weekend service opportunities range from helping at a community garden to cooking and serving breakfast for the homeless. Service is obviously a focus for the members but these “frat bros” also know how to have a good time. Emily describes fellowships as “ movie nights, dinners out, trips downtown, potluck dinners, or even rock climbing trips for our brothers”. The board that supports Emily is composed of fifteen members that help organize the service and fellowship for over sixty members.
Filling out her resume, Emily is also a tour guide for the University of Chicago Admissions Office and an Intern at Chicago Public Schools Office of Career and Technical Education. Keeping up an active membership with APO is hard enough but Emily knew she wanted to lead. As APO is a growing organization, Emily wanted to get the word out about APO as it has added so much to her own college experience.
“ It’s provided me with some great friends, leadership skills and memories and I wanted to make sure that other students on campus were able to have that same experience.”
In addition to putting APO’s name out, Emily had the passion and drive to handle the role of president. As the president, one of the hardest parts has been dividing tasks among the brothers. The urge to take on all the responsibility of the projects is tempting but Emily has learned that what is healthiest and most beneficial is to rely on her board and let them support her. Her leadership role has provided her with the opportunity to see her ideas for the fraternity take form and see the brothers benefit as well. School work is heavy for everyone but Emily has learned to prioritize and balance her work load. Leaving no time to waste, she works on her APO responsibilities in between classes. However, she knows school is on the top of the list.
“School-work comes first though, and if I can’t finish a certain APO responsibility in time, I’m okay with reaching out to my board to see if somebody else can step in for me.”
But presidency hasn’t been all work. Emily is rewarded from her experience as president with the growth of the fraternity. From her first year which had a pledge class of just four students of which Emily is the only remaining member to a pledge class this fall of thirty, Emily has enjoyed seeing the progress over these three years. In the past year alone, APO grew from fifteen active members to fifty. Emily took charge by implementing new recruiting methods. She also set up stricter guidelines for the brothers to make the fraternity more organized and substantial.
Next year Emily would like to stay in Chicago and after her work with education reform, she desires a job within education policy. As she says, “Nothing like Chicago Public Schools for education reform!”
Emily hopes to see the fraternity continue to increase it’s presence on campus and in the community. First step, getting people to stop confusing APO with AOPi.