Letter from a Parent

Dear Par­ents,

When I heard my son, Kevin, was inter­ested in join­ing the Greek sys­tem at USC, I was excited for him to expe­ri­ence the same life I had in my years at USC. The Greek sys­tem at USC forges bonds of cama­raderie which my sis­ters and I still feel to this day.

I’ve seen Phi Delta Theta impact Kevin in many ways, with the most sig­nif­i­cant being giv­ing him a place to call home. He knew very few peo­ple when he started school last fall, and join­ing the pledge class gave him a “soft place to fall”. He instantly could join the guys at the house for lunch, which can be a lonely expe­ri­ence for new fresh­men at din­ing halls. Even early into his expe­ri­ence in Phi Delt we saw his cama­raderie with his pledge broth­ers at the Phi Delt game day tail­gates and home­com­ing.  Along with the broth­er­hood comes a sense of deco­rum my hus­band and I saw first­hand as a cou­ple of Kevin’s Phi Delt broth­ers came with us on a ski­ing vaca­tion. They were noth­ing but respect­ful and thought­ful houseguests.

Beyond the broth­er­hood, the oppor­tu­ni­ties that Phi Delt presents were numer­ous for Kevin. One of the most imme­di­ate ben­e­fits of the broth­er­hood is the built in men­tor­ing it offers to the stu­dents of all grade lev­els. To a fresh­man engi­neer­ing stu­dent there is much to know about the uni­ver­sity that isn’t taught in ori­en­ta­tion, mak­ing the pres­ence of the upper­class­men invalu­able. The upper­class­men became a safety net when a class would become a night­mare or dorms became insufferable.

The fra­ter­nity offers lead­er­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties that help the boys to grow. In Phi Delt, Kevin was involved in his pledge class, has had the chance to help nav­i­gate the vol­ley­ball court con­struc­tion project, and directly work with com­pa­nies in throw­ing the annual Phi Delt FIFA phil­an­thropy. Phi Delt has given Kevin skills that he will be able to use and directly trans­late into life after graduation.

Finally the social life that the fraternity/sorority sys­tem offers allows for stu­dents to meet a sig­nif­i­cant amount more of the stu­dent body through the var­i­ous func­tions the Greek sys­tem pro­vides. Through the phil­an­thropies, mix­ers, and other events Kevin has been able to meet many more of his fel­low Tro­jans than he would have sim­ply through dorm life and his studies.

Kevin has enjoyed his fresh­man year at USC in large part because of his join­ing Phi Delta Theta.  It has given him a place to call home, friends of all four years, an oppor­tu­nity to spread his lead­er­ship wings, study bud­dies, and the chance to cre­ate his own fond mem­o­ries of USC.

Jean Fohrer

Par­ent of Kevin Fohrer

Class of 2015, Indus­trial & Sys­tems Engineering