Story by Bridget Sjoberg | Staff Writer, Video by Kennedy Dendy | Broadcast Reporter
Delta Sigma Pi, Baylor’s largest business fraternity, combined recruitment and service for local animals at their Fuzzy Friends donation event on Wednesday.
Delta Sigma Pi will be hosting recruitment events to join their chapter up until Feb. 16 and used Wednesday’s event as a way for potential new members to learn more about their chapter while also giving back to Fuzzy Friends, a no-kill animal shelter in Waco dedicated to finding homes for dogs and cats in the local area. A variety of donations were accepted at the event, including food, toys, kennels and beds, as well as cleaning supplies like wipes or Windex, according to Plano senior Maral Solaimani, who serves as Delta Sigma Pi’s senior vice president.
“Fuzzy Friends is a non-profit animal shelter that takes in dogs or cats that are without a home. They’ll house them and rehabilitate them and do their best to find them a forever home,” Solaimani said. “We’ve done a different event in the past centered around animal shelters- we did a drive for Waco Animal Shelter last spring and this year we’re partnered up with Fuzzy Friends to do a donation for them. We brought the fraternity pups out here as well to encourage the spirit of giving.”
Along with collecting donations for a worthy cause, Solaimani hopes the event helped prospective members learn more about what Delta Sigma Pi does and values, and served as a chance to be introduced to existing members.
“We’re a coed professional business fraternity and a national organization that is in all the major business schools around the country,” Solaimani said. “We have over 275,000 initiated members and 255 active collegiate chapters nationwide. We accept members from all majors related to business and commerce and have a goal of furthering the professional community around us.”
Naples, Fla., junior Lauren Mulford is a member of Delta Sigma Pi, and appreciates how the fraternity’s Wednesday event and mission in general allow her to form connections with other members while also growing in leadership and professional skills.
“This is my fifth semester in Delta Sig and I’ve been so happy with my experience forming lasting relationships with our members and growing professionally,” Mulford said. “Our fraternity is dedicated to serving the community, so this event was a great way to show that to potential new members while also getting to know them.”
Solaimani said the fact that Delta Sigma Pi took an event meant to be solely for recruitment and formed it into an avenue for service. Both current and prospective members, as well as for the Baylor community as a whole, were able to give back to the local animals of Waco and surrounding areas.
“Our hope for the event is that we helped the animals at Fuzzy Friends by giving them more supplies to take care of their animals,” Solaimani said. “We also hoped to promote Delta Sigma Pi and make sure more people are aware of our presence. We’d love for anyone who is interested in service, professionalism, and social or alumni events to think about us. We’re a great organization and have about 60 members right now but we’re always looking to expand.”
Delta Sigma Pi’s upcoming recruitment events are an information session from 6-7 p.m. on Feb. 7 in Foster 124 and a “What Not/To Wear: Business Edition” event from 5-6 p.m. on Feb. 10 in Foster 240.
