Hey Hey Y Hello everybody welcome back to another episode of the male perspective I am your host Lana Rita and today today on this day I am so pleased I’m so excited um I have the brothers of alpha alpha Fraternity Incorporated Zeta Theta Lambda chapter out in Harrisburg Pennsylvania with me
Today and ah this has been a long time coming and I’m just I’m just so that they all made time to sit down and talk with me um and looking forward to hear more about their chapter and the work that they are doing but first and
Foremost as I always do gentlemen I take a quick moment to pause say thank you to all of you for making time for me today time is a gift once we give it we cannot get it back so I truly truly appreciate you all making time to sit down and chat
With me and with that Gentlemen of the black and the gold welcome welcome to the show thank you for having us thank you thank you so much so as we get started somebody uh just take the lead and tell me more about the history of your chapter when did you get chartered and
Uh all of that good stuff I I I’ll begin uh my name is uh brother Kenneth L mck II I’m president of zet L chapter about five Fraternity Incorporated uh seat held uh house 241 um m 12 1955 is when we were charted uh we currently are a chapter of
About 38 uh Brothers um very distinguished chapter have a nice long lineage uh of Brotherhood and service in our community uh we actually won the pack when pack stands for Pennsylvania Association of alpha chapters chapter of the Year award this year um so we’ve been doing a lot of good things in the
Community um and the brother that you see here are very integral and in our productivity in the community and what we all have achieved so um again thank thank you for having us awesome awesome so 50 what what year did I hear again 1955 all right been around for a minute
Now been around for a minute now as I was reading getting ready for today’s show I I think I read that your chapter sponsors two uh College chapters what what what does that entail you guys breaking up parties late at night and telling people to go study or what
What’s all what’s all involved with sponsoring some undergrads well um we do and I’ll actually let our chapter advisor speak to the to the bulk of this but we do have responsibility uh for uh Gamu uh Gamu is uh uh the alpha the undergraduate graduate Alpha chapter seated at Penn State University
University Park Pennsylvania uh and then o i stigma Iota stigma uh which is actually a cluster of chapters uh Millersville Shippensburg if I’m leaving if I’m leaving a couple out brothers please help me out um but those are those are the main two um that we see we have our
Chapter advisers here that can speak a little bit about our support um and the advising responsibilities chapter advisors yes so as mentioned well good evening again miss Reed thank you as already mentioned from our President mickens we are are elated that you have chosen us to be a
Part of this but as being a chapter advisor um it’s a great opportunity to be able to meet young brothers who are going through their college experience they’ve been fortunate enough to join Alpha and of course this is a lifelong journey so our responsibility is to kind
Of make that connection to provide that guidance to provide that mentorship it’s a great chance to be able to speak with them about of course what it is to be a man of Alpha and of course support them in their academic successes we don’t want to leave that out the equation so
We find oursel meeting with them on a regular basis of course they reach out to us if we can provide them any support in any way whatsoever and the encouragement is hopefully once they leave their college chapter to join a graduate chapter but we emphasize of course this is not an organization that
Focus on of course just the social aspect of things there’s also a business Lane that we want them to be aware of and to get accustomed to there’s a community to serve and we all always go back and reflect upon those values because we want them to know that this
Legacy of alpha is a huge Endeavor and we want to see them all be successful of that fortunately I’m the chapter advisor of AA Sigma and I’m GNA now pass it to my other brother uh Anthony Cox who’s the advisor of the Gamma New Chapter at Pinn
State thank you Lena for having us and uh yeah we you know brother hair has covered most of it but uh a large part of it is really making sure that we’re we’re guidance for them especially with uh both of our universities being um Prom white institutions making sure they
Have mentorship and guidance to navigate that space as well so some of it is also making sure we help them navigate this space that may be somewhat unique to them so you gentlemen are all professional men so my question um listening to the two of you talk do you
Also help uh the undergrads transition into professional careers is that some of that involved as well or or no yes that is we actually have a kind of initiative um called College to Career which is basically for just that U making sure that we help them with securing internships mentoring um I know
That we both sit down with our College Brothers when it get to their junior year and and say hey what what’s next for you after college um most of the people in the chapter IIs wanted to be engineers and so we we started how do we
Get there so there is a large part of that as well helping them transition into the professional world as well okay okay College to Career I had heard about uh the other programs Alpha has initiative Nationwide what what is it school college help me out now I’m my 53
Now come on now what we uh go school go to college there you go I heard but I didn’t hear about the uh college to Career One okay that’s awesome all right like the corporate life I believe corporate y College okay all right okay loving y’all y’all be doing this stuff
Y’all be doing the stuff well I want to um I have a short amount of time and I I want to talk about some of the community work that you gentlemen are doing in the Harrisburg area and it’s just so much of it I wrote down a few of them as I was
Roaming around your uh website and social media so I picked a few um and I’m going to just ask you guys to explain expound on what you do now the first thing I saw is you recently were involved in an HBCU HBCU college fair
Did you um take the kids to an HBCU or was it at an event or how did all of that play out so um you spoke about one of our national initiatives go to high school to college and in order to kind of help Implement that and put into practice we
Held in HBCU college fair what we did is we partnered with Big Brother Big Sister who’s one of our national Partners but we partnered with Big Brother Big Sister Capital Region and what we did is we um it’s kind of broken into three prongs prong one was um to allow them to kind
Of see um meet some of the different College Representatives some of the College of represent by um admissions counselors and some of the colleges represented by Alum we have two Alum that were on here brother brother mck the second represented Hampton and brother Harris represented buoy state so
They got a chance to kind of see HBCU life from the admissions counsel perspective and the alumni counsel perspective um some of the students actually were admitted to college on the spot uh and received scholarships the second part was kind of to get the chance to see what college life was like
So they got and then we also got a chance for them to kind of have what we called a signing day for like the better words where they got to choose school they wanted to commit to and things of that nature so it was a really good time
So we didn’t take them to to college that’s kind of The Next Step uh in this program okay okay and one of the underlying elements that definitely we realized that day that we kind of talked about behind the scenes is we wanted the students to be exposed to know that they
Can be successful that they can go to college that the opportunity of a higher education opportunity is there because of course a lot of individuals or a lot of students May have that defeated mindset but we wanted to kind of give them that growth mindset to say you know
What these schools are out here and they’re looking for wonderful students like you and it doesn’t always require the Theo the school’s validator or salutatorian and speaking with the representative they actually you know provided that warming environment but us as brothers kind of was walking around Whispering their ear letting them know
That hey I can see you being that individual walking around the campus of Hampton I can see you being that individual walking around the campus of Lincoln University fortunately the state of Pennsylvania has two HBCU Lincoln and Cheney and Lincoln was represented there and brother Saunders is actually a
Graduate of Lincoln University so we were able to kind of share with them the possibility of them being able to see themselves and create that vision of being a college student okay great U Lincoln and Shany that’s a uh which came first the chicken or the egg egg
HBCU uh battle there is it am I just remembering correctly Yes sounds about usually sorry brother Co I cut you off you have the first that was established and the third first that was accredited I think that’s usually the battle between the two yeah I I’ve run to a couple it’s a
It’s a fierce little battle but you know I’m one of those ones that went to a uh predominantly white but it’s always it’s always interesting to hear that now um when it comes to education and getting to college one of the things is we need
The money we need the money to go to college and one of the things that Alphas do across the board you guys come up with some phenomenal scholarships to help the kids go to school and your particular chapter has two I believe right is there um could you explain like
What they are and what are the requirements and when are they handed out yeah we have the uh Andrew and Bradley scholarship is a probably the first one when you’re you’re referencing and the James Port Loot and uh generally um the requirements are normally we’re looking for college I mean excuse me
High school one of them is the port lock is for a student looking to attend HBCU the other you can be looking to attend anywhere and that was one of the things that we tried to push at the HBCU college fair so we normally um do give
Out one or a couple scholarships per year and follow the students to make sure that we’re keeping up with them while they’re in college as well you keep you keep up with the the students when they’re in college so they okay yes try to and some of them end up
Going on to become Alphas I think the the the one of the last Andrew and Bradley scholarship recipients went on and become an alpha so it’s always good to kind of see us sewing to them and then those them take that step in Alpha and SE into someone else okay I all
Right all right now another thing I saw you um gentleman did and let me shift a little bit is um this past Thanksgiving you did a um Feast with the Pharaohs she did her research I’m I’m a lady you know I’m scrolling around on the social media yeah I did my
Research yeah I did my research so tell me about that event and and what what what that was all about brother Cox put that together you on hold on let me pause you thought I was just gonna come on here and just you know no I wasn’t I wasn’t
Underestimating you I’m just impressed um yeah see a f with the phoh so we we we try to um under under under our um our leadership we tried to do this we tried to pick community service initiatives that were theme when my theme Thanksgiving time we know there’s
A lot of people who don’t have homes they they can eat at um we know that there’s always shelters and things of that nature we wanted to provide some of the people in Harrisburg that may not have some of the same opportunities we have with an opportunity to have a
Homecook Thanksgiving meal so we had about uh eight S eight families that we we sponsored we brought them out we um had a homecooked meal that we we fed to them and we fellowship with them and uh ended up kind of what we consider them
We adopted them as our own so it was a good time to kind of we called a feast with the Pharaohs tried to make it Alpha theme and we had a homecook meal with them and it was really a good time for us to sew into their lives awesome I
Love it and I’m and I’m truly hoping your research also showed that the relationship didn’t end right there because during the month of December we had the fortune and opportunity to be able to reach out to some of those families and we had a toy drive which
Was a tremendous success and even though the temperature was ice cold but we are accustomed to that we were still going around knocking on doors uh walking in the homes getting a chance to uh give those families some toys kind of almost a surprise basis but they were
Absolutely elated and we’ve been already talking behind the scenes of what more can we do to continue the relationship with them but we’re definitely encouraged about being able to provide that support it it truly was a rewarding event awesome I love it you know a lot
Of times when it comes to Black Greek fraternities there’s a stigma that it’s all about party it’s all about party but I think people don’t realize um there’s a lot of community service that goes on in there and there’s a lot of pouring back into the areas that you guys are in
And I think really people need to to understand that more a lot of people see you guys out there they see the letters they see the colors they’re like hey what are those guys doing and they’re doing a lot they’re kind of keeping uh your communities afloat and people don’t
Realize that um so it’s it’s very important and I’m glad you’re here explaining that now I do have um a little bone to pick with you gentlemen um and as whoever mentioned that I did my research I I was doing my research and what I was doing as I Was preparing
For today’s show I was kind of going through the social media and I came across a post I said well let me listen to it and I was multitasking on the computer but you guys were in the process of giving away a uh raffle and
It’s two of you on here that were doing this particular video and I was listening and I heard something and I said oh me and ztl might not be friends for too long um you guys were giving away some tickets for a football game I happen to be a Saints
Fan okay sorry about that yes so sorry about that yes I’m a Saints I’m a Saints fan also so um you know I was like oh um and I really don’t understand you know my Saints Alphas Black Gold I thought maybe like on the bylaws page 35 paragraph three you guys all
Automatically had to be Saints fans but you guys were giving away this other team but I was like okay well you know I’ll local it’s a local team I’ll get past that had a local connection line that’s All but anyways for those of us who you know might want to support you still financially because it takes a lot of uh money to do the community service work that you guys do um and you need fundraisers I think I saw you guys were were having a black and gold campaign is
That your fundraiser thing besides the football tickets correct uh black and gold uh campaign um started I believe back in 2013 um with the end goal of rais uh funds uh to acquire a headquarters which we which we have acquired um I believe we acquired this back in early
2020 I want to say um fully renovated um the house into a commercial space uh I believe up to up to date um we’ve we’ve raised over $100,000 for sure um I believe the mark may be around 110 something something of that nature um but yes uh in conjunction with our
Our black and go Foundation our charitable arm our black and go campaign uh was founded to to raise funds and um yes we we do take um charitable donations to that fund and we also Brothers also pledge a certain dollar amount every year uh to our black and
Gold campaign that helps for different for different functions of the house different expenses if we have to fix a roof or do some Plumbing work or help with you know utilities um luckily uh we were blessed to purchase this home outright um so we do not have a mortgage
On this home um but of course you know we do our brothers have still have skill in the game and they help support uh the campaign by you know pledging a certain dollar amount so yes it’s been it’s been very successful thus far okay so the property that you uh purchase it’s
Available for people to have events and stuff like that is it one of those situations or setups people we we can uh we can have events there we haven’t uh we’ve had events there ourselves we not necessarily have had other organizations hold their own events there as of yet um
We still um have a development piece that we want to uh still renovate we have another piece of the property um that we’re looking to raise additional funds for so we can kind of revamp that uh portion of the property into more of a community Civic engagement Community mentorship for youth space
Um so so yes so once we get completely uh completely done with the project we’ll have a lot more things um that we can offer in services for the community okay awesome um you mentioned something mentorship for Youth and I forgot something I wanted to ask you I I saw um
You gentlemen I think it was past January you had a uh you went to a school you were partnershi with uh you partnered with a school and you had a PR program and I said wow that’s amazing I think that should be in a lot of schools you you talked about relationships and
Toxic masculinity how did that go over with the kids it went over well one of our other National program we have it’s called project Alpha and and the goal of that is to really address some of those tough topics that we have to have on young men
And it went really well um the the children were very open we got a chance to talk about um what is it like being the the oldest child if you come from a family where you come from a single mother household and You’re expect to
Step into a a a a male Ro or father Ro in some circumstances or the opposite you know you come from a a very strong developed family and you’re expected to live up to these certain expectations so this if students were really open with us and it was a really great just kind
Of one-on-one conversation I think that really got to the Crux of what project Alpha is about okay some future Alphas in the making there I’m assuming absolutely absolutely okay well let me let me shift gears here a little bit and and get a little little nosy personally with some
Of you um as human beings we’re supposed to evolve hopefully we’re supposed to evolve and we’re supposed to grow and we all go through seasons in life um I’m not sure how many of you that I have with me pledged undergrad uh but if you you okay so
Reflecting back like as the years pass in meaning in purpose being a man of alpha how is that grown for you how’s it changed for you uh being a man of Alpha from being an undergrad to what it is for you now well brother saers raised his hand
But I I can start um it was I I felt very fortunate number one in stepping my freshman year at alorn State University back in Mississippi um he yes you’re back there brother and and having a chance of just kind of seeing these guys from afar and then of course having the
Opportunity to join the organization uh again very fortunate um I wasn’t the party guy I was the guy kind of trying to find myself and in joining the organization I was really seeking a which you’ve heard this word before Brotherhood to try to build a relationship with uh a group of
Individuals after leaving school it continued within as far as you know seeking uh to have a relationship with other guys to be able to find like-mindedness to be able to find guys who maybe had some additional aspirations that met in line with what my career goal was about fortunately in
My journey uh family came about and I had to step away and come back and step away because that’s just sometime how this thing called life goes but all along there was a gravitational pull to be able to uh have an fortunate opportunity to meeting good gentlemen
Within the organization and to find them motivational to find them encouraging in to find a shoulder to lean on someone to be able to talk to my Line brothers that I met back at alorn and so through the development and through of course over the years it’s always been a continual
Thing of having interest in some of the core values of alpha the community service aspect the mentoring aspect uh being able to do things like that in church but also being able to do things like that in the organization so over the past 31 years it’s been absolutely
Rewarding to be able to say that I was fortunate enough to joined this great organization and to be able to carry along its Mission and still have that uh Brotherhood aspiration that Brotherhood mindset to meet like gentlemen of these uh that’s in this uh meeting with me
Right now and that is always been truly intimate and personal throughout my journey now I’ll jump in if you could hear me um I pledge in 1984 so I’m going on 40 years and um you know I’ve traveled from you know here in Pennsylvania Pleasent Lincoln out to Arizona uh to
California and now back here and in all those stops I connected with the brothers in the local chapter much of what brother Harris said in regards to having people having other brothers that supported you pushed you held you accountable you know it was all about community service and doing the best by
By the community and their families I’m always striving to move forward it’s been a um very positive part of my my life my my son is also in Alpha um he pledged in California so do your gentlemen come from a family line of Alphas or are you the first in your or
Was this something you I was the first you were the first what was it that was impressionable to you about it because because you had you on first on campus freshman year on on on campus there was some other people probably toggling it you know it was just a thing
Of noticing their demeanor yeah um they were known to be scholastically gifted gentlemen who of course uh always had this look of Deon Aire about themselves and me being kind of the nerdy guy I was like you know what this may be something that I uh want to express a little
Interest in now of course you had all your other organizations but in seeing some of the things that they were doing not knocking them by no means but those things just were not in line with my personality or in line with what I wanted to see myself develop into I had
Some um gentlemen from my hometown who were Alpha and I looked at them as being a very well-respected gentleman in the community and so I had one uh gentleman who kind of was like a older brother to me and I didn’t know until after a certain period of time that he actually
Was a man man of Alpha and so I really felt as though you know what maybe if I can actually express interest and be fortunate enough to be a part of this maybe I can continue carrying that on that Legacy on in my hometown and of course to be able to evolve myself
Personally and professionally now I’m going to pick on you um quasy because you have been quiet this whole time why did you choose to pursue Alpha by Alpha Fraternity in cores um that’s a great question I think uh for me it’s it’s different because I joined as um through the alumni chapter
But I also joined I guess I will say at a more later age at the age of 38 so I’m actually going on two years now being part of the fraternity but for me in particular um I was being in living in the area of Harrisburg for some time
Always trying to connect with like-minded um professionals uh men for that matter black men for that matter who are actually looking and doing work and engaging within the community community and it wasn’t a matter of that there weren’t other organizations doing it but it’s a matter of doing it in the
Way that I see myself doing it yes that’s what I recognize about Z ATA chapter as far as the work that they do here in Harrisburg whether it be through the different programs of go to high school go to college and hopeless uh voteless people as a hopeless people and
Other aspects that that we do uh within the community just kind of seeing myself and seeing how they do it is probably what caught my attention the most um it did not hurt that my sister is a an AKA of Philadelphia so that was also that
Part as well too um but just kind of seeing the community that at meeting these gentlemen um both younger and older than me and just how they connected and how they kind of um supported each other in the advancement of doing things in central Pennsylvania
I I was all in once I saw that so that was kind of my purpose behind joining and I’m glad I did because I see it come to fruition after being on the other side uh and being part of the work that we do here in the Harrisburg Area
Awesome amazing now you mentioned something um you know we go through these seasons in life and and the reality is a a young guy 18 19 20 while he’s in college he might say you know fraternity life is not for me but once he gets out late 20s 30s he might say
This is something that I want to belong to so what requirements how does that go how does that transpire for a man to join the organization later in life versus in college what’s required so I I’ll speak for um and if others want jump in that’s fine too as
Well but I know that for the I guess the criteria for um alumni chapter the the first thing is you have to be a college graduate from a four-year institution um that’s number one and then from there it’s more or less kind of recognizing kind of the I guess not to say your
Professional status but some of the things you do that you’re involved in um kind of what work are you doing before you joined Alpha that makes you I guess a representative or a better representative of being a part of the organization for that matter too um
There are things Rel to you know um your background check so there are certain things that you can’t have in your criminal background that would um kind of put a damper on being a part of fraternity like alile Fraternity Incorporated uh and there’s other pieces well too from an alumni standpoint um
But from an undergrad standpoint I’d have to have le one of the other brothers to speak to that as far as um those details okay okay because it is a brand you know we have we have a a group philosophy we have to uphold so yeah I guess I’ll address the
Undergrad from the undergrad standpoint you have to have a 2.5 GPA and be a um have completed your first semester you have to be a second semester freshman um obviously some schools have different specific rules some schools still can override that and say hey you can’t join
As a as a freshman but at least overarching Alpha you look for a 2.5 GPA obviously commitment to scholarship commitment to community work um and that’s kind of the start to the journey from there okay Community work I forgot got to mention you also have to be a
Registered voter so you do have to be a okay correct correct being obviously us uh championing Champion championing um voter registration voter education um you can’t not be a registered voter and still be doing that so we have to be whatever party you choose is your party
But you have to be a registered voter to join the fraternity is well okay can’t be knocking or what is it voteless people is a hopeless people and you’re not registered to vote okay it makes sense it makes sense it makes sense all right
Well um I have I think I have one more question here unless something else pops up to mind um I um saw some of the lines that had crossed uh your in your chapter I think it was on your Instagram post and it made me think I had a
Conversation years ago with a lady um she was not black but we were watching a a line at an undergraduate chapter and she was so puzzled she was like what is going on on you know what is that and and it made me think to the person who’s not experienced in our
Culture it might look a little odd it might look a little puzzling but I was telling you there’s a lot of you know this is a um you know a lot of life lessons a lot of learning is gone in this is a very Monumental event you know
So what character traits life skills are taught in the process of pledging of fraternity that people need to understand let me jump in there that one um new chapter I would say dealing with pressure uh working as a as a as a team um time management I mean because
You’re still while you’re going through all that you’re going through you’re still you know you’re still going to school um I’ll open it up for others to add in on that yeah I’ll jump in I think a big part of it is um as brother son already mentioned for not just time management
But kind of navigating adversity because all these things that we’re learning during this process is teaching us to be better leaders and better advocators for our community so in that process you learned about you know being a team player being supportive not always being the one up front but also being the one
Able to support and collaborate as well but even that act in itself is an active leadership so the relation to community engagement and community connection uh teaching um time management uh teaching you know how to use your voice because sometimes when people are used to trying
To lead they’re not it’s not natural for them to speak out or stand against something or stand in support of something that may not be common so trying to learn that uh in the process as well as far as using your voice to Advocate certain things is is important
Too and a big part of learning in this process I would I would um also say it um it ch it challenges you but it also builds your confidence uh there are different obstacles that are placed in your in your way during one’s process where you wouldn’t think you’d be able
To clear those obstacles otherwise um and those we talk about adversity um like brother Brock broker uh stated um and you know you look back and you say wow like I did that I never thought I would be able to complete that task or um I never thought I’d be able to
Remember that amount of information or data or this was a a poem that I never thought I’d be able to recite so it’s different things that are putting your place for Life Lesson purposes to say hey everything is done has a reason for it um and once you complete that Journey
Um you realize you know those reasons were to better for the better making of men um and and it really does do that in in your process it challenges you intellectually um and it also challenges you um to you know complete certain tasks that you wouldn’t otherwise think
You could do you know without you know without the process life skills life skills now um Alpha F Alpha Fraternity Incorporated um like we said throughout our time today is heavily vested in community service um and that whole process of not only doing the uh community service preparing forward
Raising the funds that’s a lot of work you know that’s that’s that’s a lot of work on your shoulders my question to you gentlemen is as a Brotherhood how do you guys pour into each other and mentally Shore each other up and support each other and kind of keep each other
Pushing forward because you guys are carrying a lot of stuff um uh a lot of work a lot of work to be done I can jump in on on one quick aspect um so we have a program called My Brother’s Keeper and one aspect um that I’ve incorporated into that program where
We’re looking to take care of our brothers is um to focus in on health okay so we had our third Men’s Health webinar a couple of weeks ago and we talked about physical health you know about getting your screenings and exercise and and and eating right but we also talked about
Mental health as well kind of along lines of what you’re what you’re speaking to in regards to nurturing and and you know encouraging brothers and helping them deal with issues that they may be Fred with but this year also we incorporated um oral health and we
Learned about how you know you you you you need to take care of of of your teeth and and be cognizant of what’s happening in in your mouth because that can affect your overall physical health okay um there may be other you know things that other brothers want to bring up in that
Regard I’ll just add you know as alas we try to you know Main maintain an iron sharpens iron approach and part of that is you know all of us here are professionals and doing well in our profession and most of the time in most our professional spaces we don’t see
Other people that look anything like us so Alpha is a what I consider a safe space we ask how do we keep each other motivated encourage encouraging being around each other spending time together fellowshipping talking about things that may be happening at work challenges you may be encountering and and maybe one
Brother has encountered a challenge and I’m now encountering encountering excuse me my workplace so that’s a large part of it as well you know being that iron that can sharpen that iron that’s next to me and and we find ourselves doing outings together we go to dinner
Together we may go to breakfast together we may meet up at um a sporting event we we’re talking about over the summer possibly taking trips maybe going to a museum or some other uh significant places we we celebrate each other events we were fortunate enough even just on Sunday to celebrate a brother’s
Graduation so we find that when these Milestones come about in a Brother’s life we we really just jump in and and be supportive and encouraged and that’s kind of a getaway from the business of alpha but to also be able to embrace each other from a personal aspect and we
Look to establish those relationships and grow those relationships so again that support can continue going even further I guess it probably would be a good idea here it doesn’t always go smoothly there is some mediation that that’s needed sometimes there is some discussion some hard discussions that need to happen uh
From time to time but as brothers we we work it we work it through because there’s a a bigger goal that we’re trying to achieve and the the small petty stuff only gets in in in the way of that so we do the best that we can to to
Overcome uh those those aspects no go ahead no I just going to build on what brother SRA says as far as the idea of um not giving off the perception everything is perfect but everything is we’re working towards that connection and that community and that continued Brotherhood on a constant basis so I
Think when speaking for myself U the uni the unique thing about me and maybe for other people as well is when you join something like this before you join you see yourself as an individual you know and then once you’re a part of it then you’re more of a collective more of a
Brotherhood so when you have those hard conversations you know they’re coming from a place of love and a place of trust so there’s a different approach to that in those conversations whereas outside of alpha sometimes that same conversation may not be received the same way so I think that us being
Intentional and understanding how to lean in to those conversations has been a big thing that I’ve seen reflected from the brothers that are on this call tonight and other brothers I’ve seen um since my time being a part of that as well so I just want to Echo that
Sentiment as far as brother sence have mentioned a lot of that um I don’t like you right now I love you but I don’t really like what you’re doing right now so you know a lot of that going on I understand I can understand well let me
Ask you I said I had one last question but I lied I got one more question um you guys are all biased of of course we’re all biased to Alpha five alha fraternity we understand that but let’s say um one of these young gentlemen that you Mentor you have uh like little bit
Baby you’ve got them off it’s freshman year in uh college and they come and have a sit down talk with you and they say you know I’m kind of I’m kind of perplexed I’m kind of torn I’ve got these options here I’m not really sure what I should choose to pursue what
Conversation would you have with them when they’re sitting there trying to figure out if they which way they should go I guess I would say do your research look who um are members of the respective fraternities that’s one place to start I think one thing that’s pretty
Unique is that you know every every every chapter every College chapter every alumni chapter is is different it’s it’s Unique so you may be in a community that the alphas are doing one thing and and be somewhere else and they’re doing something else um and then you may be in a
Community where one organization is is out front versus another and that may direct you in a particular way um so kind of depends upon where you live what school you go to that type as well yeah I goad now go ahead brother Cox and I can
Follow I was going to add you know in addition to do your research the question I would I ask these typ of conversation is you know what which group of men exemplifies what you what you see yourself as and or what you want to be um I think I think that’s a large
Part of you know a decision- making process you know who’s where you want to be who’s what you are who represents what you your your values who carries the same values you have that’s kind of you know the type of the way I would steer that type of conversation okay my
My conversation is traditionally you know what let let’s not even try to rush into this okay it’s not a thing of you have to hurry up and join an organization let’s focus on being a successful black male student because the higher education statistics say you know we join school but we don’t
Graduate let’s focus on getting a academic system in place where you are able to be academically academically successful and then we open our mind up to of course the fraternal organizations let’s not even worry about that right now that that’s going to be there let’s focus on you being acclimated to this
Institution finding your place in regard to a major and what you want to find yourself your end goal being as far as uh graduating and advancing in a career career we can always come back to the conversation of fraternity but let’s first and foremost focus on why you’re
Here and that is to of course find yourself participating in a graduation at some particular period of time awesome awesome good tips yeah because you know where you’re located focusing on school um all of that comes to play I know when I I my freshman year in
College uh at the college I was at UCLA there were sororities that I didn’t even like Sigma gamaro I I think that’s like that was EAS Coast thing so I didn’t even know that that was a thing until probably like junior year and they they
Were not around on the west coast and so it’s what’s there it’s what you know you need to be focusing on it’s a lot of good tips there and yeah well sers I um I have taken up more of your time oh I’m sorry I’ve
Taken up more of your time than I was supposed to today my true true apologies um I’m going to ask you my random question and then I’m going to ask you how we get in touch touch with you for donations if we don’t want to buy those
Yellow black and red tickets uh football tickets and um do you have any uh social functions coming up I I saw somewhere down the line you had a golf tournament uh some years back but any other events coming up yes we do have some events coming up
We’re going to be having an alpha week coming up in the summer we know the weather is getting ready to get good and we we spent the Fraternal year uh contribut to the community we’re going to have social events that are not just open to people in the Harrisburg Area um
At doing some brunch functions um to to raise some money for scholarships and just Fellowship we’re going to be looking at um doing a poetry night a karaoke night Paint and Sip just a lot of different series of things that are coming so we will definitely have those
Events broadcasted on our social media as well some cultured Brothers some Paint and Sip okay okay okay y go how far is Harrisburg from um Philly about two hours I would say oh oh yeah okay hour 45 minutes if you were Drive hour and a half yeah hour and a
Half so the closest Alum the the next Alpha alumni chapter to you is how far away probably yeah Philly Montgomery County so about about an hour and 30 minutes away or even even Baltimore CH might be closest that’s true Baltimore is actually closer than distance okay that’s
True okay so I’m gonna ask my I’m G pull my random question and then you know whoever wants to take it can take it if you don’t like it then I’ll pull another one for the next few gentlemen because I’m not used to having this many on the
Show so let’s see what we not not that one not not that one I just joking when it comes to toilet paper is it over or under over who said over oh okay okay all right next you want another another one what you SM Mr that was an easy one I
Thought you want another one I was Wai for one that said under so I could judge them appropriately but nobody said under so we got no no they’re just they’re just laughing they’re not saying anything so we don’t really know yet hold on a second these might not be your brothers after tonight
Hold on a second let me see what is it over or under oh over for me I that was over yes yes I’m ask I’m ask one more question y’all a little suspect there like hold on let me see what he says and then I’m G say what he
Said what is one thing you always procrastinate on I’ll be honest for me it’s getting up I I probably hit my snooze button about 15 to 20 times a morning so I’ll be transparent on that anybody else filling my gas tank I’ll say I’ll let that thing get to right above that golden
E I’m right I’m I’m right there with you on I know exactly how many miles I can go when it hits eat and I I squeeze it in we we have we have fraternity we have a fraternity brother who will remain nameless who routinely runs out of gas
But he that’s what he has you guys for that’s why I don’t I don’t need Triple A I have my brothers it’s clearly part of his life routine is running out of gas so is he is he I mean you know he’s Nam he’s nameless but is he on the the zoom
Call perhaps no no he’s not oh okay okay I was gonna pick one of y’all figuring out who who what not me gas up in Harrisburg is $2 and something we wish oh wish oh man come on let us know your connection if you got2 gas really $3 for real yeah we’re
Well depending on where you go you know you could pay either way from $340 cents to 30 $380 to 90 you go yeah doing our and doing our homework about you are you in California I’m in La yeah we did we did do a little we did do a little did a
Little little something on me too okay so we all doing the back and forth research yeah you know no so it’s it’s $4 and some change here but you know but see me being biased for California everybody else has to be $2 I mean everybody else’s $2 but not okay all
Right learning something new every day I have I have never even passed through I don’t think in all my travels I don’t think I’ve ever passed through Harrisburg I might have to got got to come on yeah I might I might have to come through and see y’all
Five brothers right here yeah I might have to come through and see y’all if and and give some of some my donations that your fundraising and stuff like that and uh I’m I’mma bring a whole bunch of saints to jerseys just because just because we’d have been all right we’d
Long as none nobody’s a Cowboy fan no no no no I don’t hear okay all right I okay right no we all right we work we workable we workable well gentlemen well gentlemen I’m so I’m so proud yeah I know y’all hear it all the time I’m so
Proud of y’all I am I am I’m so impressed with y’all I just I just love when I see my brothers pouring back into the community because it it is such an impact it’s such um especially for the young kids when they see Brothers out there rolling up their sleeves and
Putting in the work because sometimes they feel like nobody cares um the the lives that you’re touching especially with the adopting the families for the Thanksgiving dinner you know sometimes you just feel like a lost voice and where am I gonna get some help from and
D alpha F Alpha with they capes on here we are to save the day it’s just it’s just it’s just so phenomenal I mean um and and sometimes it’s a thankless job so um you have Lana over here saying thank you um I love you guys for what
You’re doing what you stand for um just thank you very much the need the need the need is great gentlemen I thank you all for your time today and I wish you nothing but continued uh success and impact on people’s lives uh old to young
And uh nothing but the best from L love Lana thank you guys for your time thank you you thank you thank you that is all for this week’s that’s all for this week’s episode of the male perspective I’m your host Lana Reed and I will see everybody next time
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