Georgia Tech member Josh Cherry reflects on High Alpha Summit
Josh Cherry was pleasantly surprised when he learned he would get to attend the 2017 High Alpha Summit in Indianapolis.
It was a life-changing experience for the Georgia Tech chapter president.
“It was extremely beneficial for me,” Cherry said. “Even though it was tiring, they had wall-to-wall productive activities every day.”
The High Alpha Summit brings together presidents from Lambda Chi chapters and colonies across North America to learn, share ideas, and brainstorm a productive year.
Cherry said the speakers who were brought in for the summit were extremely helpful. But even more beneficial for him were the roundtable discussions.
“Being able to discuss some of the common issues we all face was great,” said the junior electrical engineering major from Pennsylvania. “It’s something you don’t get to do at your own chapter where the only experiences you’re able to pull from are your own. At the High Alpha Summit, you get to pull ideas from a number of different people and chapters.”
Many of those roundtable discussions were made up of just High Alphas. Those were the most beneficial, Cherry said, because they focused on best practices and time management, which has been a huge help during his presidency.
He used what he learned during the three-day summit to make the most of his tenure as Beta-Kappa’s trusted leader.
“It has been extremely fulfilling,” Cherry said, reflecting on the year he’s had. “The job isn’t easy, but it isn’t designed to be easy. If it were designed to be easy, the chapter wouldn’t improve from year to year.”
The most rewarding part of being High Alpha is witnessing growth firsthand, he said.
“There’s satisfaction in seeing not only your chapter grow, but your members grow as well,” Cherry stated.
Growing or improving a chapter isn’t an easy task, but the purpose of the High Alpha Summit is to convince undergrads that they can do it and give them all of the resources they need to follow through.
“It takes a lot of hard work from officers and from the president to make all of the gears turn in the machine,” Cherry said. “But being a part of a brotherhood like this makes every single minute of hard work worth it.”
He encourages alumni to think back to their own experiences as undergrads this Day of Giving — to think about all of the ways they could have benefitted from scholarship funds and other support from the Educational Foundation.
“Whatever it is that a brother is doing, as long as they’re following our values, they’re living life as a Lambda Chi,” he said. “And we as a brotherhood should always support whatever that is.”
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