CSU Sig Eps Win Top Honor

CSU awards outstanding Greeks
Cece Wildeman

The Presidential Greek Vision award, among others, was presented to members of Greek Life Sunday night at the Greek Night Out Awards.

Lambda Theta Nu Sorority Inc. and Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity won the award for the 2008-2009 school year.

The Greek Night Out Awards serve as a way to recognize fraternities and sororities for living up to chapter values, said Mike Rager, president of the Inter-Fraternity Council.

The Presidential Greek Vision award was the highlighted award of the evening. The award is a $5,000 grant from President Larry Penley to one fraternity and one sorority to host a program that will benefit the community.

"We think that (sororities and fraternities) can be great members of our community and this award is the way administration shows our support," said Blanche Hughes, vice president of Student Affairs.

Hughes said this is the second year the award has been given, and the past philanthropies were very successful.

Lambda Theta Nu will use the $5,000 to put on a youth leadership conference for high school girls. The conference will focus on educating girls about college life and helping them apply for colleges and financial aid.

"I am so excited," said Marisa Lucero, president of the sorority. "This has been a goal of ours for a while, but with something like this, we know we can do it." The sorority has held the conference for middle school girls in the past, and Lucero stressed the importance of reaching out to high school girls since they are closer to entering college.

Sigma Phi Epsilon's program will give free CPR training to the Fort Collins community.Brian Walker, the vice president of programming for the fraternity has been planning a program in which they will attempt to teach CPR to 5,000 people in the Fort Collins community.

"If one person knows CPR, there's countless lives that could be saved," he said.

In order to win the Presidential Greek Vision Award, each fraternity and sorority had to meet a seal of approval in areas such as risk management and scholarship, among others. They are then eligible to apply for the award and present their proposed program to President Penley.This year, 23 chapters met the seal of approval and applied for the award.

Chapters won other awards in areas such as chapter conduct, neighborhood civility and risk management. Individual awards were also given as well as highlight awards.Nancy GiGiorgio, a member of Pi Beta Phi Sorority said the Greek Night Out Awards serve as motivation to work hard throughout the year."We worked really hard and used the awards to set our goals and really come together as a chapter," she said.

Senior Reporter Cece Wildeman can be reached at news@collegian.com.