Name: Jacob Altstadt
Year: Freshman
Hometown: Solon, OH
Major: Biomedical engineering
Birthday: November 22, 1995
Tell us about your philanthropy this Tuesday, the 25. The event is called Delta Tag Delta (a little word play with our name) and the proceeds go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a charity that looks to cure type 1 diabetes. For $5 in advance and $7 at the door, you get to play laser tag in the house, watch the laser tag episodes of How I Met Your Mother and eat some snacks. It’s going to be awesome!
Why should people come to your event? What’s the best part about it?When was the last time you or anyone else played laser tag? I know it’s been years for me. Plus, it’s right on campus, at the Delt house, and it’s for a great cause.
What are some of your responsibilities as Philanthropy Chair?As the Philanthropy Chair of Delta Tau Delta, it’s my job to design and organize fun public events with the goal to raise money for charity. This involves contacting venues and vendors, getting brothers to help run the event and anything else that needs to be done in order to make sure it’s a really great event. As a part of this position, I also serve on the administration board of the fraternity. In this way, I get to play a large role in a lot of the decisions regarding the fraternity as a whole, not just the philanthropy decisions.
What are you involved in on campus?Besides Delt, I’m also in Design for America, WNUR Sports Radio, IM Sports and the NU Community Jazz Program.
How do you balance your extracurriculars and school work?I try to budget my time so that if I know I’ll have a really busy day one day, I’ll do more work the day before so I can even it out. This isn’t always possible with the quarter system though.
What’s your favorite thing to do at Northwestern?Delt has an obsession with basketball (to the point that we even made our own league called the DBA) and I really enjoy playing with the guys and staying active.
Future goals?As far as long term goes, I’d like to find a career that I’m passionate about so that I can figure out what I’m going to do once I graduate. But for now, I’d like to take full advantage of my time at Delt and make the most out of these four years.
Do you have advice for students looking to get involved in Greek life?A lot of people avoid Greek life because of all the negative stereotypes out there but what I’ve found is that those stereotypes are really more the exception than the rule. I’ve really enjoyed my short time in a fraternity and I haven’t come into contact with anything negative. And the great thing about Greek life is that you get to spend a ton of time with your closest friends on campus and build life long bonds.