By Natalie MacPhee, Herald Contributor – November 10

The Delta Sigma Pi Nu Sigma Chapter of RWU traveled to Syracuse, New York over the weekend of November 4 to November 6 to continue their business education and DSP involvement at the annual Leadership and Excellence Academics for Deltasigs (LEAD) School. The LEAD School was hosted at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and conference center. Delta Sigma Pi is a professional business fraternity that advances elite business students’ education during college, and after graduation as DSP Alumni. A total of 28 Nu Sigma RWU brothers attended the event over the weekend.

“LEAD Schools are events dedicated to leadership topics and designed to appeal to Delta Sigma Pi pledges, collegiate members, and alumni members. Held in each province in the United States and throughout the fall, LEAD Schools are fun and fast-paced forums for building skills that serve you well in your professional life, community involvement, and membership in Delta Sigma Pi” states the DSP website. The LEAD School, held in Syracuse consisted of five breakout sessions with a total of twenty-five different speaker and workshop events for Deltasigs to attend on Saturday.

Each event focused on either improving DSP Chapters within each college or developing each brother personally for success after college graduation. For example, some of the breakout session events included Investing in your Future, Professionalism and Business Etiquette, Strategies for Managerial Excellence, Red Flag for Interviewing, The Pledge Program: Building the Best Deltasigs from the Beginning, and Officer Transition and Goal Setting. These events allowed brothers to converse, share ideas and their experiences, and ultimately network with each other.

“This was my fourth LEAD conference, and it was one of my favorites. At my first three conferences, there were never more than eight Nu Sigma brothers. This year, we had 28! It was incredible to watch my brothers bond. There were brothers who had never gone to LEAD before, never mind even had a conversation with each other in some cases. This weekend helped us progress as a fraternity, and I hope we continue to do so!” said Julia Palardy, a Nu Sigma brother from RWU, on how specifically Nu Sigma brothers were able to interact.

The DSP Chapters had the opportunity to network with other Chapters from around the country and also network with current Alumni. One of the activities hosted throughout the day was a resume revision. Deltasigs dropped off their updated resumes at the resume table to be reviewed by a DSP Alumn. The Collegiate Deltasig, a brother in college working towards a degree, sat down with the Alumn who critiqued their resume to talk about what changes could be made and what worked well on the resume. It is extremely important to have an impressive and well-presented resume to give to possible employers. It is usually the first professional document an employer sees, and the employer can tell a lot about a person’s professionalism by their first impression with the resume. The RWU Nu Sigma Chapter took advantage of this opportunity, and shared their results amongst their brothers and other chapter brothers as well.

“The DSP Alumn who looked over my resume provided great feedback and gave me advice on how I could emphasize on my stronger points to make it better” says Nu Sigma brother, Rianna DeChiara.

The event was also a lot of fun for the Colligate Deltasigs. On Friday night, there was a DJ and dance party event for brothers to get to know one another. There were also interactive booths from various DSP sponsors, such as Enterprise, ExecSocks, GEICO, OneMain Financial, and Mecca Specialities, on Saturday for brothers to engage with. Awards were given to chapters and alumni for their outstanding performance from the past year. There was also a large DSP apparel booth set up which was widely popular among brothers to stock up on their DSP gear.

Overall, the weekend was filled with inspiration, hard work, networking, fun, and loads of business talk. RWU’s chapter successfully improved their knowledge on business and the fraternity by the events hosted and speaking with other people within the fraternity. Greer Storey from Nu Sigma says, “This was my first LEAD conference and it was an amazing experience. After attending the different panels, I feel like I have learned about how to be a better leader and member of Delta Sigma Pi. I feel inspired to come back to school and implement all of the new great ideas and skills that were discussed by both panelists and brothers from across the country. It was also a great networking opportunity. I will definitely be going again in the future!” As a chapter, Nu Sigma will continue to better their fraternity on campus for the wellbeing of themselves and their brothers for their futures. For more information on the nationwide Delta Sigma Pi Fraternity, please visit www.deltasigmapi.org.