Amidst the mishmash of clubs at DU, a new brotherhood has risen on the values of leadership, friendship and service. The Alpha Phi Omega (APO) national service fraternity joined the ranks of the DU club scene this past June, according to sponsor Amy Johnson.

The fraternity may seem at first glance like any other club, but Johnson said it is anything but.
“Most clubs really focus on one thing, but focusing on the fellowship and leadership development kind of brings us all together in Alpha Phi Omega,” said Johnson.

APO is a coed fraternity that serves to teach leadership and provide service to the campus and the community.

“We can have a service Thursday night making peanut butter and jelly. We can have a Saturday doing a full, day-long service event. We can do everything,” said fraternity president Elspeth Sweatman, a senior at DU from Memphis, Tenn. majoring in music and English.

Johnson and Sweatman explained that they have been growing steadily since the fraternity was chartered on June 1, and the members have been working diligently to recruit members and develop the fraternity.
“There was an interested brother and then folks like Elspeth and some of the folks who are studying abroad this year formed that core group. They recruited and had to follow a set of service requirements, leadership, getting to know the fraternity’s history. They had to develop their bylaws and things like that,” said Johnson.

Johnson and Sweatman, along with many others, have played a hand in chartering APO throughout every step of the way, from completing the original paperwork to celebrating the official charter in June.
They said that they have been putting in countless hours of work since January of 2012 to learn the history of APO, develop bylaws and complete the necessary requirements to officially charter the fraternity.

According to Johnson, the fraternity has had significant growth, with about 35 brothers including this year’s pledges. All the members who have been involved since June are referred to as brothers.

“It’s really a good steady growth, ten or fifteen each time so they don’t get overwhelmed. With too many members, you can lose people in that. It’s good how we have a lot of different years,” said Johnson.

According to Johnson and Sweatman, the national brotherhood gives these students a community across the country and sets their fraternity apart from other groups on campus.

“The fraternity is as diverse as its chapter, so each chapter really reflects their campus and what they’re about,” said Johnson, describing the diversity that sets each chapter apart even as they share common goals.

APO held its first official recruitment only a few weeks ago, gaining nine new pledges, and the recruitment process and pledging process are open to anyone, according to Johnson and Sweatman.

“I really stayed because it’s all about the people. It’s about everybody getting to know everybody. We don’t haze, we don’t discriminate. If they want to join, they can,” Sweatman said.

Any interested students can stop by anytime for a meeting where they will have a chance to see the group working together to create fun and community-building events such as attending Relay for Life and planning next year’s sectional conference.

“You can come to any meeting you’d like,” Johnson said.

The next opportunity to join will come with spring recruitment, when interested students can attend an initial meeting to see what the fraternity is all about.

Students will then attend a pledging ceremony and pledge meetings, fulfill requirements and eventually, there is a ceremony in which they turn from a pledge to a fully active brother.

“You always want to be bringing in new people and new ideas,” said Johnson. “The next rush is in spring, and we’ll start some stuff in the winter quarter to amp up for it.”

APO holds weekly meetings every Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. in Sturm.

Sweatman commented that she appreciates the flexibility of the projects and events.

“When I came to campus, I always had class on Friday which was when the other clubs would do all of their service events so I was never able to do it. And so when APO kind of came on campus and said ‘hey, we want a chapter,’ I said ‘well this is cool,’ because we can have service all the time,” said Sweatman.

Johnson also talked about a few upcoming projects that APO has planned for this year.

“Relay for Life has been a very big project here,” said Johnson. “They talked about the Merit Badge Academy and helping out another chapter at University of Colorado Boulder. So really they pick what their focus is and what is special to them and that can change over time.”

With it being their first year officially on campus, the fraternity is using this year to determine what their goals will be.

Johnson noted that outside of service projects, the fraternity will bond with other activities.

“Something as simple as going to see a movie tomorrow night, to bigger things like getting together for ski weekends,” said Johnson. “Really whatever anybody wants to do, the answer is usually yes.”
Students interested in learning more about APO can check out their Facebook page.