By Marisa Young | Reporter
Phi Beta Sigma hosted a study night event Monday, signaling the start of their 2025 Sigma Week.
Pflugerville junior Damo Kouakou, vice president of the Nu Zeta chapter, said the week will hold a variety of events, through which the fraternity will serve and connect the community.
“We try to make it more about the people in how we’re trying to provide for the community,” Kouakou said.
Whether hosting study nights or providing Cane’s to students in the SUB, Kouakou said they are “showing what Phi Beta Sigma is about.”
Kingsville senior Samuel Salinas serves as the coordinator for the week’s concluding event. On Saturday, Phi Beta Sigma will host a March Madness-style basketball tournament at the SLC. In addition to the normal competition, Salinas said this year they are hosting a clothing drive for Waco Salvation Army to further reach their goal of serving those around them.
“Sigma Week is the culmination of all our hard work and planning,” Salinas said. “It’s been a lot … but for it to be less than a week away, I’m really excited.”
Kouakou said he is most excited for Walk Like a Sigma, which will take place Friday evening in the Bennett Auditorium. Walk Like a Sigma is an annual competition the fraternity hosts, in which some of Baylor’s historically Black sororities perform stroll routines. According to Salinas, the fraternity awards $1,000 in scholarships to the winners.
“The girls are excited, and I’m excited for them,” Kouakou said. “They really want to win; not even just for the scholarship but for the sisterhood.”
Salinas said the scholarship is an important part of Sigma Week, as it reflects the fraternity’s values.
“The ideals our fraternity was founded on are brotherhood, scholarship and service,” Salinas said. “So obviously our entire week is kind of built on service, we like to give to the people. And scholarship, we’re giving out a scholarship where we look at people with a holistic view — they write essays, we look at their story, how this money could help them.”
While this is a competition between sororities, anyone is welcome to attend any of the week’s events, Salinas said.
“I would never say anyone isn’t welcome to come to any of our events,” Salinas said. “We are about inclusivity. So we want whoever knows about us, or wants to get to know us, to come and see what we’re about.”
Looking forward to the week, Kouakou said he hopes to have genuine conversations with people outside of the fraternity, and get to know and serve them on an individual level.
“I hope that more people can see us more as a person than as an organization,” Kouakou said. “Not just knowing us because we’re in the fraternity, but knowing us as people.”
Salinas said he hopes people see Phi Beta Sigma as an organization that will support them both during Sigma Week and beyond.
“I think one of the goals that I strive to have within our events and our chapter as a whole is to foster safe spaces for people to come,” Salinas said.
More information about Sigma Week’s events can be found on the Phi Beta Sigma Instagram: @nz_sigmas.
