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member development

philosophy

To be a Sigma Chi is to embrace a process of lifelong learning and a lifelong commitment to a set of ideals.

The learning process consists of instructional tools, shared experiences and a cultivation of friendships of a higher order — all working toward enlisting worthy men in a meaningful commitment of a lifelong duration.

Our award-winning member development curriculum, based upon Sigma Chi’s Transformational Leadership Philosophy, is produced by the high-level professional team from the Sigma Chi Leadership Institute in conjunction with top educational curriculum consultants.

Through a blended approach of online and in-person learning, our members receive content designed to help them:

  • Understand every aspect of our Sigma Chi ideals, history and traditions
  • Develop values-based leadership skills
  • Better understand the relevant issues found on college campuses today such as alcohol and drug abuse, mental health awareness, hazing and sexual misconduct

Furthermore, the hybrid approach that blends both eLearning and in-person learning paves the way to deliver highly accessible, relevant and impactful educational content that is sensitive to the time constraints and schedules of both our undergraduate brothers and alumni facilitators.

Sigma Chi Online

Sigma Chi Online, made possible through the support of Significant Sig Bill George, GEORGIA TECH 1962, the George Family Foundation and donors to the George Match Challenge through the Sigma Chi Foundation, is the Fraternity’s learning management system comprised of a full menu of online learning content that is available to all undergraduate members.

The service provides educational opportunities and content that combines curricula from existing values-based leadership programs with interactive mentoring and support from professionally-trained alumni.

alumni facilitator training

Sigma Chi developed its alumni facilitation training program in 2013 in response to an increased need for skilled volunteers. Always looking looking to better enagage alumni and expand our facilitator base for all leadership development opportunities, Sigma Chi offers mulitple training opportunities for leadership and development offerings focused on issues that undergraduates face today.

For more information on Sigma Chi Online contact leadership.programs@sigmachi.org.

character-based recruitment

Throughout Sigma Chi, recruitment is a 365-day process of seeking the highest quality men on campus.

The health of an organization is determined by the quality of its members. Founder Isaac M. Jordan, MIAMI (OHIO) 1857, addressed the 15th Grand Chapter in 1884 stressing the importance of member selection. 

Founder Jordan’s speech provided the basis for the development of The Jordan Standard designed to ensure that our Fraternity growth is sustained by young men worthy of membership. It represents a minimum set of requirements that we use to evaluate potential members before they are invited to pledge.

Sigma Chi members better learn character-based recruitment and leadership skills through the Mission 365 course.

Mission 365 is designed to provide our undergraduate brothers with the necessary skills to recruit quality men into our fraternity.

Realizing that recruitment is the means by which we perpetuate our Ritual and Fraternity, the Fraternity provides a core curriculum and six electives that support our undergraduate brothers in looking for men of good character 365 days a year.

In essence, Mission 365 provides our chapters the opportunity to learn essential recruitment skills for fraternity life and the professional world.

For more information on the Mission 365 curriculum, contact leadership.programs@sigmachi.org.

preparation for brotherhood

Over the last decade, Sigma Chi has invested in the development of an innovative approach to pledge education called Preparation for Brotherhood.

Preparation for Brotherhood, thanks to the support of a lead gift from Significant Sig David Pyle, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 1980, is the critical first step in a Sigma Chi’s life-long learning journey. 

Each of our chapters and colonies are required to use this program to educate new members.

Preparation for Brotherhood (P4B) is designed to ensure that each new pledge, regardless of their chapter, gain a comprehensive, consistent, quality orientation to Sigma Chi — our history, values, ideals and programs — as well as, understand Sigma Chi’s commitment/contributions to the Greek world, campus and community. It ensures that Sigma Chi values remain front and center as a member of our organization.

As we teach principles, we hope to inspire our pledges to build lasting relationships with their brothers, to search for a way of life based on high ideals and to apply these ideals in their everyday actions. In short, it is our desire to inspire, educate, and help our members apply what they have learned.

Since the implementation of Preparation for Brotherhood in the 2015-16 school year, resulting program data points to higher pledge retention rates each year, an overall increase in pledge-class GPA each year, and an increase in leadership development and involvement among our members.

Chapters that fully implement and are completely adherent to P4B have eliminated hazing from their chapter environment.

For more information on Preparation for Brotherhood, contact leadership.programs@sigmachi.org.

living our values

In 2016, 69th Grand Consul Mike Ursillo, BROWN 1978, charged the Jordan Initiative Committee with developing a comprehensive Ritual education curriculum for new initiates following the completion of the Preparation for Brotherhood program.

In 2019, Ritual for Life will launch to every new initiate across the Fraternity.

Ritual for Life (R4L) is designed to educate each chapter’s new initiates on Sigma Chi’s Ritual history and inspire them to apply the Ritual’s lessons to their lives for the betterment of their chapter, campus and community.

By examining our Ritual, our new members are encouraged to make a lifelong commitment to the betterment of self, others and community through Sigma Chi’s values-based living. They will be inspired to find ways to apply our Ritual to their lives.

For more information on Ritual for Life, contact leadership.programs@sigmachi.org.

mental wellness

Following the tragic loss of seven members over a three-year span from 2012 to 2014, Sigma Chi wanted to send a message to its members that their safety and welfare were top priorities.

Through a partnership with The Jed Foundation, whose mission is to promote mental health awareness and suicide prevention measures, Sigma Chi began developing and implementing mental health resources for our members in memory of Keller Zibilich, an undergraduate member of the Louisiana State chapter who tragically passed away in 2012.

Today, through the lead support of Keller’s parents Michael Zibilich, GEORGIA STATE 1970, and wife Gayle, the Sigma Chi Strong Arms curriculum serves as the Greek-letter world’s first dedicated learning resource addressing mental wellness and emotional health.

For its groundbreaking approach, the Strong Arms curriculum was awarded the 2019 Laurel Wreath Award for outstanding education within the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC).

Sigma Chi Strong Arms is assigned to all new members upon receiving a license on Sigma Chi Online and it should be completed within a new member’s first year within the Fraternity.

The first course of Strong Arms – Welcome to Strong Arms – can be found in the Commencement Course of Preparation for Brotherhood (P4B), while the other five courses will be completed either during or after pledgeship.

The Strong Arms education focuses on:

  1. Staying Connected and Spiritual
  2. The Importance of Self-Care
  3. Dealing with a Crisis
  4. Seeking Strong Arms and receiving help from others
  5. Encountering Challenges and using Resiliency

The reach out app

Sigma Chi is committed to the mental and emotional health of its members, neighbors and communities at all stages in life. In recognition of the support needed to maintain the well-being of brothers and others, the Fraternity established the Reach Out app in 2019.

This free application provides anonymous, 24/7 access to local and national resources like helplines, counseling services, emergency responders, rape crisis centers, legal aid services and medical care providers. It also has support for the unique needs of law enforcement and first responders, LGBTQ+ members and people of color and support for those suffering from substance abuse.

The Reach Out also app contains mental health support for veterans, including information on post-traumatic stress disorder; common challenges service members face when returning from a deployment or when separating and transitioning from active-duty service; military sexual trauma and help for survivors; Veterans Affairs locations; the Department of Defense Safe Helpline for active-duty members; and the Veterans Crisis Line.

The app allows the user to answer questions such as: What are my rights? What are my options? Who can help, and how can they help? Although a member may never need these resources, chances are high that one will be in the immediate vicinity of someone who will. It is Sigma Chi’s hope that no brother will find himself needing support and be unable to access it. The Reach Out app is a way to show you are never alone.

The Reach Out app is available for download in the Apple App Store and Android’s Google Play Store.



accountability

Since the early 2000s, Sigma Chi has made a concerted effort to provide members with the resources needed to lead by example when facing challenging issues within the Greek community such as alcohol and drug abuse, hazing and sexual misconduct.

A new hybrid learning curriculum touching on these key issues, Values-Based Decision Making (VBDM), the Fraternity’s accountability education, will launch in Fall 2019.

Values-Based Decision Making, through the lead support of Order of Constantine Sig and Significant Sig Robert J. Georges, FLORIDA SOUTHERN 1973, is based on a more personalized learning experience that can be tailored to the needs of chapters and individuals, as well as be delivered in variety of educational settings and venues, including chapters, Sigma Chi Online, province conferences and Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop.

VBDM addresses accountability and the challenging issues on our college campuses today from a positive behavioral approach, meaning that we explore these topics with the goal of inspiring change through positive reinforcement of brotherhood, healthy relationships and our values.

The core curriculum (pre-learning, in-person and post-learning) invites our undergraduate brothers to live more authentically by holding self and others accountable to the seven values of Sigma Chi.

Our undergraduate bothers are introduced to the new S.O.A.R. Model, the third Sigma Chi instructional model, that will enable them to make values-based decisions – decisions that give them wings to “soar” toward the White Cross.

An integral component of the core curriculum is the art of giving and receiving feedback through the Sigma Chi Feedback Model. The topics areas and models in the core curriculum are foundational to the entire VBDM program. Therefore, the core curriculum is a prerequisite to the seven electives.

The naming of the elective areas reflects our positive behavioral approach mentioned above, e.g., the elective aimed at eradicating hazing is called True Brotherhood and the elective addressing sexual disrespect and assault is called Healthy Relationships. Each one of the electives takes the learner on a journey toward holistic living where healthy masculinity and self-identity actualize personal mission and the collective mission of the larger fraternity.

For more information on Values-Based Decision Making, contact leadership.programs@sigmachi.org.

leadership

Sigma Chi’s Transformational Leadership Continuum, presently under development by the Sigma Chi Leadership Institute, will seamlessly tie the lessons of leadership, education and life skills in a blended curriculum format which will enable members to learn how to be transformational leaders at their own pace and throughout their lifetime as a Sigma Chi.

The pinnacle of this leadership curriculum are two events that, upon their launch, changed the face of the Greek-letter world.

krach transformational leaders workshop

Each summer, Sigma Chi’s undergraduate chapters send a delegation of five-to-seven brothers who were elected to officer positions to meet as a collective group during the Fraternity’s longest-running leadership engagement event.

Formerly known as Leadership Training Workshop, Krach Transformational Leaders Workshop (KTLW) creates an opportunity for undergraduates to undergo mentoring and strategic planning sessions to ensure improvement in their chapter roles and operations throughout the forthcoming academic year.

Sponsored by a lead endowment gift from 64th Grand Consul Keith Krach, PURDUE 1979, the former Chairman and CEO of DocuSign and Ariba and current United States Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, KTLW shifts between chapter small group discussions to officer-specific large-group educational presentations, both led by highly-trained alumni facilitators within the Sigma Chi Facilitator Academy. The alumni facilitators also serve as mentors for their assigned chapters during the following academic year.

The chapter officers meet together with the facilitator throughout the workshop’s three days to develop core objectives of the chapter’s strategic plan, which will be finalized at the beginning of the school year.

Attendees also meet in officer-specific groups at Krach TLW. In these presentations, individual officers will participate in core educational sessions related to their office, key initiatives within the Fraternity and the Ritual before breaking out to officer-specific small groups for personal mentoring from an alumnus facilitator. Here, the facilitators will teach best practices and provide guidance in values-based decision-making regarding the operations of the chapter.

Chapters also spend time meeting with other chapters within their province with their Grand Praetor and local alumni facilitators. In this meeting, brothers assess their operations and goals, and discuss the strategic plan components they plan to implement during the upcoming year.

Alumni also have training opportunities offered at KTLW for building operational and leadership skills, such as New Chapter Advisor training, which offers a blend of in-person and online training to accommodate all learning styles.

After the learning journey during throughout the day, Krach TLW is host to the annual SigFest activities and tournaments in the evening – an opportunity for chapters to challenge and interact with one another through a variety of athletic and educational opportunities. Beyond the competitive events, SigFest offers discussions on Ritual history and opportunities to meet Grand Officers and distinguished alumni in attendance.

ktlw logistics

The location of Krach TLW has moved throughout North America during the last 72 years, ranging from college campus in Texas and Ontario, Canada. In 2019, Krach TLW will be held from August 1 to 3 at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Email workshop@sigmachi.org for more information on the Workshop experience.

horizons huntsman leadership summit

In 1995, members of the Sigma Chi Foundation board of governors began exploring the Fraternity’s challenges and opportunities. The prevailing thought was to reestablish the core values of character and provide an opportunity for undergraduates to develop skills to deal with the complex and ever-expanding issues of our global society. Their idea was to create a program that encompassed a renaissance in the areas of core values and beliefs.

In 1999, after four years of development, the Fraternity launched Horizons, a six-day leadership program located in Snowbird, Utah. What began with 48 participants in a pilot program has grown into an annual attendance of nearly 250 undergraduates spread across five weeks each summer.

In 2014, through a generous endowment by Order of Constantine Sig and Significant Sig Jon M. Huntsman Sr., PENNSYLVANIA 1959, to the Sigma Chi Foundation, the Horizons program became the Horizons Huntsman Leadership Summit.

The Horizons Huntsman Leadership Summit is a leadership development experience created for qualified undergraduate Sigma Chis with at least two years of academic eligibility remaining. The program is conducted in an ideal setting for outdoor adventure, interactive learning and inspired reflection.

The Huntsman Cancer Foundation and the Sigma Chi Foundation generously fund 100 percent of the Horizons experience through a leadership grant. This includes all travel, housing, food, curriculum, materials and activity costs.

objectives

  • Provide Sigma Chi undergraduates with the highest level of leadership training in order to positively impact our chapters, host institutions and the world
  • Expose Sigma Chi undergraduates to character development that helps them realize and explore their core values
  • Provide a growth experience that will support Sigma Chi brothers throughout their collegiate years and
  • Provide participants with a mentor that will help them further develop their character. 

For more information, email horizons@sigmachi.org. To apply for HORIZONS, click here.