Alpha Tau Omega - Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

\\\\\\\\\\ Gamma Gamma Scholarship Campaign Launch \\\\\\\\\\ As most of you know, the cost of attending Rose-Hulman is approaching $80K per year. Most brothers require significant financial aid that includes scholarships, grants, work study, and to make up the difference they and/or their parents end up assuming significant debt. The Chapter has addressed many of its opportunities and is on an extremely positive performance trajectory, but chapter academic performance has lagged our own as well as ATO National expectations for most of the last decade or longer. As a result, the Gamma Gamma Board of Trustees has been working with the Chapter on numerous initiatives to help sustainably improve academic performance. One of those is to initiate a scholarship program for the undergraduate chapter. The program has several objectives: 1) Elevate overall Chapter academic performance to surpass Rose's All Men's Average, excel academically within the Greek community and be consistently academically competitive for ATO National True Merit recognition. 2) Incent active members to take full advantage of their Rose opportunities by excelling in the classroom and assuming greater responsibility in the Chapter, school, and community. 3) Reward active members who strive to improve and distinguish themselves both inside and outside the classroom. 4) Provide a competitive advantage in the recruitment of outstanding new members. 5) Engage alumni in alleviating the financial burden on active members and reinforce the tradition of "giving back." 6) Encourage individual and group decisions that promote the health and success of the Chapter and its members. The scholarships are focused on recognizing academic excellence and improvement, as well as leadership impact. Specifically, the scholarships will initially recognize all brothers who achieve a 3.5 or better each quarter and any brother whose quarter grades surpass his cumulative GPA by > .5 as well as members of each class who improve their cumulative GPA the most quarter over quarter. Each year there will also be scholarships awarded for outstanding leadership in the Chapter, school, and community. ATO National recognizes top chapters each summer with the National True Merit Award. Gamma Gamma has been so honored 26 times (fourth highest) since its inception in 1969. All returning active brothers will share in an award during the fall quarter whenever this is achieved. Eligibility requirements include being in good standing with Rose-Hulman and the Fraternity plus taking a full load in their major with no dropped courses. As noted by the chapter president, the trend in the Chapter is very encouraging. After several months of planning, the scholarship campaign was launched in January with a goal to provide $125,000 in 2024, $150,000 in 2025, $175,000 in 2027 and a sustainable $200,000 in annual scholarship awards to the Chapter by 2028. There are two ways to donate, and both are fully tax-deductible. One can contribute to the scholarship endowment or pledge to make an annual expendable contribution. The scholarship program will be administered by the Alpha Tau Omega Foundation, but The Board of Trustees will maintain full control of the process including determining recipients of the leadership related scholarships. Our learnings and experience from the capital campaign give us the confidence to complete this fundraising without the assistance of a third party. This year's pledge class achieved a 3.44 in their first quarter – beating every other class from the last 20 years by a wide margin. That momentum contributed to a blowout second quarter for the Chapter with 11 (not a typo) brothers achieving a perfect 4.0! Another 23 cleared the 3.5 hurdle. Seventeen brothers surpassed their GPAs by at least .5. All these brothers were recognized at the March 9 Academic Recognition Dinner, the second of these now quarterly events. The 4.0 students and three other brothers who demonstrated dramatic improvement versus their previous cumulative GPA were surprised with $500 checks to launch the campaign, details of which were shared in a Chapter meeting on March 11. The trend in the fundraising campaign is equally encouraging. We have a strong core team of leaders and a number of other brothers who have agreed to solicit their peers. The initial responses have been favorable with a very high percentage of those contacted wanting to participate with an annual pledge or a contribution to the endowment. Eight have also expressed an interest in making it part of their estate plan with three already confirmed. Unlike the capital campaign, success will not require very large contributions from many individual alumni (although they will certainly be welcomed), but more moderate contributions from many as well as build- ing an endowment for sustainability from those that can contribute at a higher level. As our Creed states, ATO was founded in part to achieve "the recognition of true merit wherever found." This program does that as well as giving each of us the opportunity to give back to an institution that made such a positive difference in so many of our lives. I sincerely hope you will consider joining us in this endeavor when you are contacted by a fellow alumnus. Should you have any questions or suggestions, please contact me via email, text, or phone. Respectfully, Rob Banerjee Chairman, Board of Trustees ineedatrain@yahoo.com 740-816-2784 Early Campaign Donors Jack Fenoglio '59 Ron Jennings '60 Bill Perkins '60 William Johnson '60 Tom Dinkel '72 Clayton Black '74 Rich Haut '74 Pete Deal '76 Terry Eifert '76 Jim Gidcumb '76 Mike Jennings '76 Dan Kuester '76 Mike Bandy '77 Paul Koch '77 Jack Lasswell '77 Jerry Matthews '77 David Ayars '78 Dave Badger '78 Rob Banerjee '78 Gary Eck '78 Roger Edelbrock '78 Rob Fransham '78 Al Shipp '78 Rick Stanley '78 Eric Clouse '79 Chris Bodenhorn '80 Joe Haniford '80 Bob Pease, '80 Todd Royer, '80 Michael Tucker, '80 Kent Harris, '81 Karl Menke, '81 Rex Phillips, '82 Troy Snider, '82 John Gregor '82 Kenny McCleary, '83 Mike Hatfield, '84 Ron Stark, '85 Bill Daugherty, '87 Ron Grammas, '87 Ed Hemmersbach, '87 Mark Whitmore, '87 Dave Clauss, '88 Nathan Wright, '88 Jason Lueking, '90 Tony New, '91 Brad Bechtel, '92 Dave Hussung, '94 Mike Benefield '95 J.P. Williams, '99 Matt Wentz, '03 Cody Barron, '11 Nick Birch, '14 Jake Phillips, '23 Fiscal Year Scholarship Program Goals Fundraising Status to Date Pledged 2024 $125,000 to be awarded 2024 Annual Expendable Donations YTD: $88,000 2025 $150,000 to be awarded Endowment Contributions/Pledges first 5 years: $456,000 2026 $175,000 to be awarded Alumni Estate Gifts to Date: $400,000+ 2030 $200,000+ endowment Logan Phillips Nathan Hodson Tommaso Calviello Matteo Calviello Braden Blackburn Wyatt Bell Fritz Kyser Austin Frick Chris Wiemuth Logan Should Kevin Beddow (Not Pictured) Brothers that achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA last Winter Quarter.

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