2012 Winter Outing Presidents Speeches

Also, while we are extremely proud of our contribution of hundreds of service hours and thousands of dollars to assist suffering Milwaukee residents, we are most eagerly awaiting our largest philanthropy event of the year, St. Baldrick’s Day. We brought this event to our house just two short years ago, but it has already made an inspirational impact. Our scholars and other Marquette students have raised over $16,000 by having their heads shaved in our basement in order to aid in the research and treatment of children’s cancer. To date, we have even had one female scholar go bald, and who knows, if the bids get high enough, you may even see me up there.

Miami: Charlie Benandi

It is a great opportunity and my pleasure to be able to speak to all of you on behalf of the Miami Evans Scholars. I would like to begin by telling you a little bit about what has been going on at our Chapter this past year. This past fall semester our house achieved the highest GPA since its inception in 1974, a 3.41. Through a successful New Scholar program the freshmen class also did very well and posted a 3.36 cumulative GPA. We even had one freshman with an outstanding 4.0. 

Grades are not the only thing that defines the Miami chapter however. In the past year we succeeded both socially and philanthropically. Every fall we host a pancake breakfast at a local church in Oxford. This fall was the 8^th Annual Miami Evans Scholars Pancake Fest, and we raised over $1,500 for local Oxford Charities. In the spring time, our house also participates in Relay for Life for cancer and matches every dollar that we raise from the pancake breakfast. In November, we helped Ambassadors for Children raise money to build schools in South America and helped raise over $500 for that cause. This past Tuesday, our house participated in a blood drive which we co-sponsored with two other Miami organizations. There were 233 appointments made and 197 units of blood were collected. Out of the 38 scholars in the house half were able to donate blood, and those who were not able to donate their blood donated their time in assisting with other activities in the blood drive. 

Socially the past year has been very active for us as well. We have held multiple golf outings, gone canoeing, gone to King’s Island Amusement Park in Cincinnati, had house dinners both in and out of Oxford, and had socials at local Oxford establishments among other things. During the holiday season we had our annual house football game before Thanksgiving and a Christmas party with a secret Santa exchange before the holidays.

This past semester there were six juniors abroad at Miami’s campus in Luxembourg. Through my understanding, they had an excellent time and were able to see some beautiful parts of Europe. There was a big gap in the house with only one junior and three sophomore scholars. This caused a large interaction between the freshmen and the seniors, something that is not always prevalent. Where it might be awkward to interact with a class three years away from you, the Scholar house really promoted group living and helped foster a great relationship between two groups of people that might not have otherwise interacted.

Running the house does not come without its challenges however. As the WGA and Miami come to a close on finalizing the project for a new house in Oxford, current scholars must do their best to maintain the current house we live in. That being said some of the biggest problems of the e-board were in the physical nature of the structure itself. However, as Evans Scholars we persevere through challenging times, fix the problems, and know that there are always good ones ahead. With the work of the outgoing e-board, our faculty advisor Bill Shawver, WGA directors, and the continued help of the new e-board we will continue to work hard to make sure that our chapter upholds the values of Evans Scholars and abide by all policies that are required of us.

Michigan: Pat Brinnehl

It is once again an honor to be here with all of you, and updating you on the status of the University of Michigan chapter. The Michigan scholars have been very active in 2011, both in and out of the classroom. Wolverine scholars pride themselves on being leaders throughout campus. In 2011, we held two food drives for the Washtenaw County food gatherers. This is an event started in 2010, and has finally blossomed. In October, we were able to fill an entire food gatherers truck, doubling our efforts from 2010. It has been a pleasure watching this event grow with more support from within the house, and our surrounding community.

Michigan State: Michael Chamas

First and foremost, I would like to thank the Western Golf Association for the support of the Scholars both past and present. Your efforts and leadership make this scholarship run effectively and I know I speak on behalf of all the 850 Scholars by saying thank you. Also, thanks, Chick, for your ambition and generosity so that everyone can be in this room today.

The Michigan State Chapter had a very productive and exciting year. Each scholar strives to live by each of the four pillars: Scholarship, Leadership, Group Living, and House Maintenance. We as a chapter increased both our overall house cumulative and new scholar grade point average this past year. We as a board set this goal from day one and were very pleased by the performance of our scholars with special recognition to our new scholars from vastly improving upon last years class and accomplished a grade point average north of a 3.4.

Our Scholars are leaders both in the house and on campus. We participate in several philanthropic events that are near and dear to our hearts. With the continuous success of our AIDS Walk, Blood Drives, Charity Breakfast, Packing backpacks for underprivileged children and this year we participated in a Breast Cancer walk that went extremely successful. Our house prides itself on giving back.

Another goal that our board had was to increase group living to a all time high. I feel with the success of many events, which include ice cream socials, backyard bar bq’s, and sporting events. We also pride ourselves by being athletically gifted. We accumulated many trophies throughout the year. However we are especially proud of our basketball team. We are extremely excited to defend our Championship title in the Inter-Chapter Basketball tournament later today.

Standing up here is definitely a bittersweet moment. The past almost four years have went by too fast but with that I have friends and memories that I will always have and never forget. I am excited to start the next chapter with the Evans Scholar Foundation as a proud alum. I cant wait to get the opportunity to spread my story to others and generate contributions to this great foundation. GO GREEN!

Minnesota: Jamie Burnett

This year the Minnesota Chapter hosted our annual 7-Club Tournament at Interlachen Country Club. This is where we all caddy for Par Club members and Alumni who play with 7 Clubs to commemorate Chick Evans’ 1916 US Open victory where he used seven hickory shafted clubs. The tips we raised accounted for over $5,000 which was donated to the WGA to benefit the Evans Scholarship Program.

That day along with multiple others is why being on EBoard this past year is something I won’t soon forget. As an EBoard I’m most proud of how we stood by each other, and embraced one another’s strengths and weaknesses. One of the biggest challenges for us in my eyes was to establish an identity as a board, to have one common goal that we could be “remembered” from. But I soon realized that’s not needed. As long as we did our best with the houses best interests in mind we would be doing our jobs.

I thank you all for the opportunity to share the Purdue Chapter House’s accomplishments and challenges we have faced over the past year.  The New Scholars worked very hard and earned an average GPA of 3.43, which was very impressive considering their other obligations going through the New Scholar Program.

As a house, we looked for ways to become more involved on campus. Several scholars put in a great deal of effort in creating a house philanthropy. We will be holding our first annual euchre tournament in which all proceeds will go to the Smith Family BReaK Thru Fund. This fund raises money for Niemann Pick Research. Niemann Pick affects the spleen, liver, and brain and is passed down from family members. The Smith’s are a local family from Lafayette who has three children affected by this disease.

We are excited to be participating in Grand Prix this year. Grand Prix is an annual go-cart race on Purdue’s campus. Fraternities, sororities, and other student organizations build and race carts in this event. Our house used to be involved years ago, but we have not fielded a cart in the race for many years. As an Executive Board, we felt that this event could serve to unify the house and create something for all of us to rally around. 

Wisconsin: Alfonse Drechsler

Over the past year, we have had several accomplishments to be proud of whether it was in volunteering, social activities, or community building, but our chapter’s biggest success was in academics. Last spring, our house had a cumulative GPA of 3.43. This was the second highest GPA of all the chapters and easily the highest GPA the house has had in recent memory. While my executive board and I would love to take credit for this accomplishment, it was a great effort by everyone that brought this success.

However, our executive board can take credit for several improvements to the house over the year. New mattresses are being brought in over the next couple years, a new, energy-efficient water heater was installed, the house basketball hoop was replaced, and the internet was upgraded to name a few. One of the biggest improvements of this year, in my opinion, was a creation of executive board binders. These binders are filled with the problems and duties each position faced as well as how to handle them. This information will hopefully guide the new board and be improved upon by the time the next executive board is elected.

Despite these accomplishments though, there were some disappointments throughout the year. Easily the biggest problem the chapter faced was issues or problems scholars were having, but the executive board was never contacted. While none of these problems escalated beyond control, it was frustrating to help deal with a problem after it had gotten too big.

The house is filled with people from across the state, different majors, and different years in school. Nowhere else on campus can you find this amount of diverse people working together, let alone living together. But, thanks to this diversity, the scholarship can truly benefit. By bringing these people together, new ideas and efforts are brought out which only serves to benefit the Evans Scholarship, the community, and the university. With that, I would like to thank the Evans Scholarship for everything they have done for me and the Wisconsin chapter.