Name: Oliver Thornton
Year: Senior
Major: Business Management
From: Hollywood, CA
Current tour guides on Cal Lutheran’s campus tell prospective students there are no fraternities on campus, however with the help of his fellow co-founders, Oliver Thor is changing the future of Cal Lu.
Previously a student at the University of Arizona, Oliver was a part of the social fraternity Delta Chi. He was able to broaden his social scene and meet new people saying “it was an eye opening experience.” Being a part of a social fraternity became too much and Oliver soon realized he needed to leave the school.
He came back to Los Angeles, and began studying for his real estate license which is when he had an epiphany. The “logical decision” for him was to transfer to Cal Lu. It was close to home, they had good academics, and his family and friends were locals. Oliver reconnected with the Cal Lu tennis coach, who was trying to recruit him straight out of high school. He contacted him and the coach was more than happy to have him on the team for Oliver’s junior year.
Coming to Cal Lutheran was a complete shock because it is the polar opposite of the University of Arizona. U of A is a great school for the social scene but not so much for academics. One very evident difference was the lack of presence of students on Cal Lu’s campus unless they are in class. This was one of the reasons he wanted to create DSP. He wanted the fraternity to create a sense of unity and have students have an incentive to participate in the beneficial workshops on campus.
One day, fellow co-founders, Ian Slater, Nick Sanzana, and Lauren Dudley came up to Oliver and asked him if he wanted to create a finance club with them. He wasn’t intrigued by the finance club but it gave him the idea of starting a business fraternity at school. He was familiar with Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity at U of A. So initially he reached out to them about starting a branch at Cal Lu but they said the school was too small. Then he reached out to their rival, Delta Sigma Pi, and they were more than happy to help start up a branch on campus.
What is the purpose of Delta Sigma Pi (DSP)? This is exactly from their mission statement. “At Delta Sigma Pi, we believe that our purpose is to foster and support a lifelong commitment to excellence in both our personal and professional lives as we seek to make a difference in business, our communities, and the world at large.”
Anyone is free to join the fraternity as there will be standard and premium members. Standard members are free to come to meetings but do not have to participate in events. Whereas, premium members will have to attend a minimum amount of events. What is required now is a GPA of 2.5 or higher, but that will increase in the near-future.
Oliver’s goal for the fraternity is for it to be notoriously known. He would love for every business student to join DSP but realistically he just wants every business student to at least know the club exists. Oliver does however hope for sustainability, he wants the students who do participate to be committed and put forth effort. Another one of the main goals is to increase the attendance of students in the business school, entrepreneurship, and DSP events.
His personal goals involve continuing to be a Luxury Residential Real Estate Agent at Keller Williams Beverly Hills as well as going off to graduate school and obtaining his law degree as well as his brokers license.
If you want to learn more about DSP or attend their events visit their website cludsp.com