Mixing Business with Pleasure

Phi Chi Theta's Alpha Mu chapter has been serving students here at the University of Maryland since 1974 by providing them with useful career and philanthropic opportunities while fostering tight-knit relationships between its 75 brothers.

The brothers of Phi Chi Theta, who constitute the largest membership this chapter has seen to date, may not be exactly what you expected though. This coeducational fraternity accepts both male and female brothers, as well as students majoring in either business or economics within Maryland and Shady Grove's business schools.

"[Phi Chi Theta] is kind of like your fraternity for smart people who enjoy the social life aspect as well," said sophomore finance major David Ancona-Cole. "Basically, we're all people who have some kind of interest in business or economics."

Through the fraternity, brothers are able to tap into these interests in order to make useful connections and gain invaluable experience in the career fields they plan on pursuing. Phi Chi Theta has partnered with big-name employers such as Morgan Stanley and T. Rowe Price in order to engage members beyond their typical classroom experience.

"Our alumni base is huge. A lot of brothers have gotten summer internships and full time positions through communicating with different alumni," said President Hayley Brown, who is a junior marketing major, "so that connectivity is one of the main things we offer."

Phi Chi Theta also mixes business with pleasure, however. Aside from preparing members for the work world ahead, the fraternity's social life includes themed potluck dinners, tailgates, sports games, and other such events that strengthen members' bonds of brotherhood.

"We study hard and we work hard but we do play hard as well," Brown said. "A lot of us live together and hang out outside of typical school hours, so we're definitely a tight-knit group."

And what's a thriving campus group without a little rivalry, right? Phi Chi Theta also enjoys some friendly competition with Alpha Kappa Psi's Omega Theta chapter here at Maryland. Priding itself as the original business fraternity, Phi Chi was originally founded in 1924 and came to Maryland 38 years ago, while AKPsi was founded in 1904 and didn't come here until six years ago.

"All of us being business students, we obviously know a lot of members [of AKPsi]," Brown said. "The main differentiating factor is that we only accept business and economics majors whereas they accept all majors. And beyond that, it's just the culture: they're a little bit bigger and we're more tightly knit."

In its decades on campus here at Maryland, Phi Chi has undergone a gradual evolution from its roots leaning more towards a social fraternity to its current status as more of a resource for those interested in career-building and professional networking. Beyond this, Brown said that the Alpha Mu chapter, which is the largest of any in the country, "is making more of a name for itself on campus and in the business school" through its booming membership and variety of events.

With such an extensive history and no plans of slowing down its growth, the fraternity has big plans for the future. It has spent the past year working with a number of other professional fraternities to create the equivalent of a Greek life council for academic fraternity life, a goal that it will continue to pursue in coming semesters.