Sophomore Francesca Filandro has created the new business fraternity Colony of Delta Sigma Pi at Elon University this academic year.
Since November 2015, the fraternity has quickly grown in popularity, with 50 current members and 25 more students interested in joining.
Delta Sigma Pi is one of 15 established business-focused organizations on campus. While such a number may appear to be high, these 15 organizations are needed to meet the demands of the 1,854 business majors accounting for 28 percent of the
student population.
To gain a deeper understanding of the emergence and popularity of Delta Sigma Pi, it is important to first examine the business fraternity landscape.
Many business students dream of joining Alpha Kappa Psi — the most popular business fraternity on campus. But because of its prestige and reputable history at Elon, it isn’t the easiest organization to be admitted into, especially for freshman without high grades or an impressive resume.
Junior Tierney McDonnell is involved in a different business organization, but recognizes some of the benefits of being in Alpha Kappa Psi. She said a need exists for increased expansion.
“As a business student, I have many friends and classmates who are members of Alpha Kappa Psi and absolutely love it,” McDonnell said. “I’ve really enjoyed the camaraderie from my sorority and would love to further expand that.”
While McDonnell was able to find a group she is happy with, others were not so fortunate. This is where Filandro’s
story begins.
Recognizing the need for more variety and feeling dissatisfied with the existing options, Filandro came up with the idea of starting a new business fraternity during fall 2015.
She had previous experience starting an organization from scratch when she created a business club in high school and developed an impressive resume, propelling her to become an Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellow at Elon.
Filandro knew she could lead a business-focused organization on campus and conducted further research about business fraternities. It was in that moment she discovered Delta Sigma Pi.
“I read up on them, emailed Nationals asking for approval to start a colony and got a reply confirming my approval the next morning,” Filandro said.
With the organization approved, Filandro has worked to secure interest from business students. Today, dozens of students
are members.
But the success in recruitment is not the end of Filandro’s long list of goals.
Filandro is coordinating plans this semester to host events and speakers for each meeting. She is also working to develop workshops and lead community
service projects.
She emphasized the need to have prominent business leaders come in to speak to Elon students to offer advice rather than gloat about their achievements.
“Instead of having a VP from Goldman Sachs come in and talk about his great job, we want him to teach us about time management and how to balance a busy job with everything else in life,” Filandro said. “All of these amazing speakers that come in are great, but unless they’re giving us a job right then and there, what are we taking away from that presentation?”
Mark Courtright, instructor in management, is advising Delta Sigma Pi and helping mentor Filandro and sophomore vice president H.B. Homer.
With the emergence of the newest co-ed business fraternity, Delta Sigma Pi, those interested in joining a professional business fraternity can widen their options.
“Our goal is to create an environment for members to experience real-world scenarios and be prepared to tackle them head on,” Homer said.
Because there is no rush process in place for students interested in being a part of Delta Sigma Pi, any business or sport and event management major can join by
paying $20.