We’ve had an active summer in the workforce and all over the world here at TKE.  Here’s what a few of us have been up to… 

 Erik Smith, David Packer, Theo Constantouros, Filipe Gouvea, Matt Williams, Aaron Pattison, Tyler Brown, Daniel Orlik, and Michael Cafarchia (Left to Right)

Theo Constantouros, Beta Sigma 1242

Theo graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Biotechnology this past May. In his last semester at USC he was awarded “IFC Man of the Year” and honored as a “Senior that made a Difference” by the USC interfraternity council for outstanding service to the Greek Community over his 4 years. In addition, “The Order of Troy” was bestowed upon him from the University Staff for extolling campus leadership, scholarship, service, and dedication during his tenure, which is awarded to less than 4% of all graduating students from both undergraduate and graduate programs each year. This summer, Theo began work at Apollo Interactive, one of America’s leading online media advertising companies. His communication and leadership skills developed through serving on the Beta Sigma executive board as first secretary and then president should help in his real world job as an Account Coordinator. He plans to visit the chapter during home football games, and looks forward to their great accomplishments to come.

 Aaron Pattison, Beta Sigma 1243

Upon graduation in May with a degree in International Relations, Aaron moved out to Indianapolis, IN to begin work with TKE International as an expansion coordinator.   Though he never really expected to leave beautiful Southern California for the Midwest, Aaron was happy to make the move to do what he loves most—building TKE into the strongest fraternity in the nation, one chapter at a time.  He has seen exhilarating success at Beta Sigma over the past 4 years, and shared amazing experiences with his brothers building the chapter into the strongest at USC.  As an integral part of this success, he has the drive to do the same at other chapters across the country.  Using many principals and methods he established and put into place at USC, he plans to bring other chapters to dominance on their campuses.  He will begin at the University of Minnesota this fall, and the Universities of Tampa and New Mexico in the spring.  He also hopes to spearhead the re-colonization of San Diego State to expand the TKE Nation in Southern California, and looks forward to visiting with Beta Sigma’s at the TEKE tent on gamedays this fall.

Nick Greenberg, Beta Sigma 1272

A Senior in the Viterbi School of Engineering, Nick spent his summer working for Vornado Realty Trust, one of the largest REIT’s in America. The company owns over 100 million square feet of property and he is currently employed in the construction and development department.  He was able to explore all areas of real estate development and worked both in the office and in the field.  His responsibilities have included: reviewing proposed development plans to ensure that they meet local zoning policies, dealing with the Landmarks association and NY Department of Buildings, assessing overall hard and soft costs for multimillion dollar projects, managing construction on-site, and a variety of others.  He hopes to work for Vornado or a similar company after graduating next year.

 Nick Greenberg, Andy Hayes, Adam Fried, and Andrew Grace (Left to Right)

Austin Sprague, Beta Sigma 1347

Austin, a Sophomore Kinesiology Major/Business Minor, recently finished 6 weeks at the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia. Day to day life basically consisted of 2-4 hours of sleep, written tests and class time, drilling, marching, tactics, physical training, chow, and an absurd amount of cleaning gear and the living area. It’s entirely voluntarily, so he opted to spend half of his summer getting screamed at by huge marines and standing still in 95 degree, 95% humidity weather for hours at a time. Sounds ideal right? While it was excruciatingly hard at the time, Austin did and learned more in 6 weeks than he thought possible, pushing well beyond whatever boundaries he thought he had, and picked up some discipline, intensity, and perspective on civilian life. Plus a guaranteed job after college in this economy is not too shabby. 

Andrew Grace, Beta Sigma 1266

Andrew spent his summer in New Orleans working for Chevron’s North American Exploration and Production Company.  As a facility engineer, he managed a handful of capital and operations projects aimed to increase efficiency and reliability, reduce unscheduled down-time, and improve safety.  He coordinated with a variety of contracting companies and support organizations, produced economic and profitability analysis packages, and spent valuable time on production platforms out in the gulf.  Andrew is a Senior in the Viterbi School of Engineering, begins classes towards a M.S. in Green Technologies this fall, and hopes to continue in the energy industry with a company like Chevron in the future.

Sean Beddoe, Beta Sigma 1351

Sean is working as a Royalty Analyst for Progress Energy Resource Corporation, a publicly traded, mid-size oil and gas producer based out of Calgary, AB Canada.  His primary responsibility is to review royalty payments between his company, the government and their partners to ensure they are correct and paid in full.  When discrepancies arise, he is responsible for recovering the missing or incorrect payments.  He has learned that he must be assertive, confident, and great communicator when these disputes arise; skills which he believes have been honed at TKE.  Sean is a Sophomore in the Marshall School of Business.

John Wheeler, Beta Sigma 1322

John spent this summer working for his local congressman, Pete Sessions, in his Washington office on Capitol Hill. His primary duties included assisting with research, corresponding with constituents, sorting mail, giving tours of the capitol, and answering phones.  He has found it to be a tremendous experience in helping the government and getting a firsthand view of how our political system works.  He had a fantastic time getting acquainted with our capital city and hopes this experience will aid him in his own campaigns and political endeavors in the future.  John is a Junior majoring in International Relations and Global Business.

Chip Clement, Beta Sigma 1361

Chip is a Sophomore in the Marshall School of Business.  He is spent his summer working in Shanghai, China for GreenTree Inns, one of the nation’s largest hotel chains.  He was selected for this internship through the Global Leadership Program, a two-unit class for the top 10% of the Marshall School of Business’s incoming freshman that culminates with a spring break trip to Shanghai or Beijing. After spending his spring break in Shanghai, he applied for the summer internship program.  Chip was selected and has been working for GreenTree as a marketing analyst and a social media consultant.  He has spends his free time traveling throughout Southeast Asia and enjoying the World Expo.

Luke Beshar, Beta Sigma 1330

Luke, a Junior pursuing the Business Cinematic Arts joint degree, has been working in New York City for both NBC Universal and Departure Films.  For NBC Universal, he reports to 30 Rockefeller Plaza and is working in the USA Network’s Strategic Marketing Department.  Here, he learned about the relationship between advertising clients/sponsors and a television network and all the planning and execution tactics behind every cobranded commercial sponsorship that cable networks like USA run.  At Departure Films, he works as a production intern on several upcoming A&E Biographies, including those for Brad Pitt, Tyra Banks, and Ellen DeGeneres.  He got a first-hand look at all the stages of the production of a television show and learned the physical production aspects, behind the scenes legal, and research elements.

Alex Johnson, Beta Sigma 1277

Alex,  4^th year Architecture student, spent his summer with Maginniss + del Ninno Architects, a local architecture firm in his hometown of Alexandria, VA.  He often traveled down to Charlottesville to visit friends at UVA, and recently hosted fellow Frater Tyler Brown and his buddies on their return leg of a 7 week euro trip.  He’s headed to Chicago in early August for the Lollapalooza Music Festival, and just saw Sublime with Rome in Baltimore.  Alex will be studying abroad in Asia for the fall semester, and no doubt missing USC and TKE.

Kyle Nash, Beta Sigma 1313

Kyle, a Junior Business major, studied abroad during the spring semester with a program called Semester at Sea.  Students from all over the country, as well as some international students, take classes onboard our ship while sailing around the world and stop in various countries for around 5 days each. His trip left out of San Diego and stopped in Hawaii, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, and Brazil before returning back to the United States in Ft. Lauderdale. During the 105 days at sea he met people from all over the world and was able to visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia, see the Taj Mahal in India, hang-glide over Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, explore the night life in Hong Kong, and get some quality beach time in Mauritius.  It was the experience of a lifetime, but Kyle can’t wait to get back to SC this fall.

The men of TKE teamed up with the ladies of Kappa Kappa Gamma for this year’s philanthropic theatrical adventure known as Songfest. Since the Kappa new members outnumbered spring pledges, many members of the highly regarded Fall ‘09 pledge class participated as well. This event required that each fraternity/sorority team write and perform in a five minute skit containing songs and dance numbers.  After weeks rehearsal, the skit was performed at Bovard Auditorium to raise money for Troy Camp.  ”It was such a rewarding experience, to give back to community and bring smiles to children’s faces. Not to mention the opportunity to flirt with girls” explained former pledge Stevie Medearis. Under the direction of highly successful actor and frater Dexter Masland, the TKE-KKG team won the coveted “Most Original and Creative” award.  According to frater Ian Tolle “Dexter pushed us to be the very best we could be, we owe so much to his dedication and acting experience.” As a house, TKE donated over $700 to Troy Camp through Songfest.