From the moment Jonah Mudse (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), ’22) signed his bid card to join Lambda Chi Alpha, he knew he had found a home away from home. Originally from Ohio, Mudse’s family moved to California right before he entered college. Mudse fell in love with the way of life at RPI in New York and was faced with a crossroads in life. Did he take the safe route and stick close to home or venture across the country for the chance to do something incredible?
Now going into his senior year deep into his studies of information technology and web science, Mudse is incredibly thankful that he took a leap of faith, not only moving but also by joining Lambda Chi. Mudse will be the first to admit that he was opposed to joining Greek Life, but something about the Brothers of Lambda Chi enticed him to give the experience a second look.
When Mudse decided to join during the fall of his freshman year, he was immediately impressed by the strong operations of the chapter. Having just won the Grand High Alpha Award, one of the most prestigious awards presented by the Office of Administration and coming off several high-performing recruitment seasons, Mudse saw this group of men as go-getters and individuals he would be proud to call Brothers.
He was also drawn to the amount of support he was offered by his chapter. One of the best memories he has is being interviewed for a news story in the student union about his success at several hackathons his freshman year. The interview took place at noon and just one hour later, Mudse was set to sign his bid.
Several of the senior Brothers stumbled across Mudse giving his interview and told him right away that they would be watching when it aired later that evening. Mudse didn’t give the comment a second thought. Sure enough, when he went to the chapter house later that night, he was greeted with thunderous applause and cheers from his newfound Brothers.
With a strong foundation set, Mudse knew he wanted to make whatever difference he could in the Fraternity. Because of this desire, he was immediately drawn to the Student Advisory Committee (SAC).
As an outgoing member, Mudse now reflects on the many valuable lessons he has learned through his time as Grand High Nu.
“It gave me perspective,” said Mudse. “The Fraternity works like any other organization, whether it’s for profit or nonprofit…being able to learn from Jeff Stuerman and Steve Swafford in my committee on how they run organizations, the expectations they have of the members and how they organize things has been transformational.”
In his time serving on SAC, Mudse has worked with other members to ensure that the previous goals of SAC have been met while also working with CEO Troy Medley to make sure communications from the OOA continue to remain transparent with members in mind.
Mudse is also incredibly thankful for the opportunity he had as part of SAC to chair his own legislative committee in preparation for the 58th General Assembly.
Finally, Mudse was an instrumental part of piloting the new Leadership Skills Certification Program that will be rolling out soon.
With all these great lessons under this belt, Mudse will use his last semester at RPI before studying abroad to impart his wisdom and continue to encourage relationship-based recruitment.
“That is something I’ve been passionate about for the past few years and working on transforming how we recruit, because if we transform how we recruit, we transform our organization,” said Mudse.
From that first bid experience to now having the unwavering support of his Brothers to launch his own organization on campus focused on product development and networking, Mudse encourages all members of Lambda Chi to take full advantage of the incredible opportunities available to them through this Brotherhood.
“Get involved as much as you can,” said Mudse. “Fail as fast as you can because that’s where you’re really going to learn.
“This four-year Lambda Chi experience is actually made for you to fail. You don’t have to succeed; the whole point is to teach you how to succeed later.”
