YE QUAKER THE BETA CHAPTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA FIJI IN THIS ISSUE: Pig Dinner Recap Letter from the Graduate Chapter President Letter from the Undergraduate Chapter President Welcome Omicron Class Summer Jobs Update Pig Dinner Recap Spring 2018 We hosted the annual Frank Norris Pig Dinner on Friday, April 13 at the chapter house. Nearly 50 graduate brothers attended — a new attendance record — with almost half of them being graduates of the class of 1991 or earlier. The crowd spanned many generations of Fijis (our eldest graduate brother, Tony Jannetta (1956), kissed the snout while our youngest brother, Jesse Xu (2021) kissed the tail end) and even spanned multiple generations of the same family (the Jannetta, Shoemaker, Swikart, and Schlein Families). A special thank you goes out to our guest speaker, Ted Schlein (1986). Ted recounted his own stories from what seemed to be a simpler time in the Fraternity. He touched on his own career as a tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist. From there, he spoke of his related hesitations on how to use technology responsibly and morally to benefit the lives of each other. But the final takeaway was how we treat each other within the Fraternity and the friendships we make within the Fraternity. In the face of the impressive diversity we now have within FIJI, we should be confident in our own beliefs, but should also be cognizant and respectful of the perspectives of others. Through this we should cherish the people we have gotten to know through FIJI. We should constantly work at respecting and improving the friendships we make with the incredibly wide array of people we otherwise would have never met, but now call family. Everyone shared many laughs throughout the dinner as various stories were recounted. Following the dinner, graduate and undergraduate brothers paid a visit to the local watering hole, Smokey Joe’s, to continue the celebration. As a reminder, if you haven’t had a chance to donate to help offset the cost of this record-breaking Pig Dinner, you can always donate via Venmo to @upennfiji, or by mailing a check to made out to “Beta Fiji Chapter” to Mark Grenader, 3619 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Suggested donation is $75, but a donation in any amount is greatly appreciated! \r\nLetter from President of the Graduate Chapter For those who returned this past weekend to the chapter house, if you ventured downstairs you witnessed firsthand the horrendous condition of the FIJI kitchen (see photos). The board felt that an investment to upgrade the kitchen was long overdue and would engender a huge return toward the undergraduates’ health, happiness and experience of being a Fiji brother. You received a letter two weeks ago outlining the need and the $450,000 expense of the project to renovate and upgrade the commercial kitchen for our building. We have already received lead gifts totaling $200,000 to the project. Penn has agreed to allow us to proceed with renovation this summer subject with a guarantee from the board of the $250,000 balance being paid within six months of completion of the work. We are asking for a one-time, tax-deductible contribution payable to the “Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania” and mailed to our treasurer: Gary Giegerich, 512 East Gravers Lane, Wyndmoor, PA 19038. In the memo section write our gift account name and number: Phi Gamma Delta #601777. We are asking everyone to remember the lifelong friendships that have endured from joining the brotherhood and please reach deep and support the chapter’s continued strength and values. The board will memorialize on a plaque all donors at all levels. “Snowy White Owl” “Black Diamond” “Beta Star” “Royal Purple” “3619er” Donor $50,000+ $25,000+ $10,000+ $5,000+ $1,000+ $1+ Perge! Terry Spahr (1988) \r\nLetter from the President of the Undergraduate Chapter I’d like to start by welcoming the Omicron Class. With the 20 new members, we are now one of the largest fraternities on campus and the biggest that we have been since recolonization. Being so large, we have been able to achieve some great things. • With our size, we’ve been able to bring back the meal plan and have a chef five days a week with over 50% chapter participation. We now have enough interest to continue to push for a full kitchen renovation to make this experience better for all brothers. • We also recently applied for alcohol exemption for our chapter house for the first time in a few years and given our good standing with the University, we hope for this application to go through. • We’ve increased our philanthropy and community service efforts this year, with three events alone this spring semester. Partnering with sororities around campus, we’ve raised over $8,000 dollars. • We’ve placed an emphasis on campus outreach and educating all of our brothers about some serious issues around campus. We have had talks with Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault (MARS) and the Office of Alcohol and Other Drugs to make sure that we are Fiji gentlemen both within the house and around campus. • We’re proud to announce that our Chapter G.P.A. has gone up from 3.23 to 3.48 over the course of the fall semester placing us 11th of 27 chapters and beating the overall and all Interfraternity Council averages. I look forward to leading us through this next semester as we transition over to calendar year Cabinet terms. As always, feel free to reach out to me with any hesitations or recommendations. Sincerely, Noah Gelles (2019) and the new Cabinet President: Noah Gelles (2019) - gellesnoah@gmail.com Treasurer: Jake Friedman (2019) - jake.cincy@gmail.com Recording Secretary: Matt Gilbertson (2020) - mbgilbertson5@gmail.com Corresponding Secretary: Bill Kalish (2020) - billykalish@gmail.com Historian: Shaheel Mitra (2021) - shaheel.mitra@gmail.com Welcome Omicron Class Earlier this month, the Beta Chapter initiated a tremendous 20-man pledge class. These freshmen hail from all over the world: from Puerto Rico to London and the Philippines to California. Across the class, we have music producers, video bloggers and wrestlers. Instruction of the Purple Pilgrim and the brotherhood interview process all went extraordinarily well. As a pledge class, over 400 one-on-one conversations happened between pledges and brothers. All 20 young men traveled to New York right before Saint Patrick’s Day to hang out with our graduate brothers in what is always one of the most enjoyable events of the year. These gentlemen were recently placed into their new lineages. Look out for a text from the newest member of your lineage introducing themselves! \r\nPHI GAMMA DELTA The University of Pennsylvania Nonprofit Org US Postage Paid Lexington, KY Permit # 540 Beta Chapter Summer Jobs Update Many of our fellow Fijis will be employed this summer and following this semester. Find a FIJI near you! Giancarlo Marconi (2019) Carlos Martinez (2021) Noah Gelles (2019) Brendan Broviak (2018) Ravi Patel (2021) Joe Novak (2019) Connor Wen (2018) Michael Pearson (2018) Jake Friedman (2019) Carl-Oscar Gustafson (2018) Luke Sylvestri (2021) Mickey Sandrin (2019) Zach Falber (2020) Charlie Nickerson (2018) William DiFelice (2021) Pete Hopkinson (2018) Brad Benton (2021) Jack Talley (2020) Bain & Co. UBS Financial Services American Express Anheuser-Busch Keel Barclays LionTree Advisors Deloitte Cobalt Labs AMR International CognitiveScale Wawa Technoserve Susquehanna Int’l Group Emerson Hospital A.T. Kearney Charles Perry Construction Fuccillo Neuroscience Lab Associate Consultant Intern Financial Advisors’ Assistant Financial Analyst GMT Rotational Program Programming Investment banking Investment Banking Analyst Business Technology Analyst Business Dev. & Security Ops Strategic Consultant Intern Internal consulting Strategic Initiatives Intern Assistant Trader Financial Dept. Intern Management consulting Intern Data analysis New York, NY San Juan, Puerto Rico New York, NY Rotating (TBD) Boston, MA New York, NY New York, NY San Francisco, CA San Francisco, CA New York, NY Austin, TX Philadelphia, PA New York, NY Philadelphia, PA Concord, MA New York, NY Gainesville, FL Philadelphia, PA Please email any news updates you would like us to print to Terry Spahr (1988) at tspahr1@gmail.com.