Smeal Freshman Revives Business Fraternity's Penn State Chapter

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (February 7, 2007) – A Smeal College of Business freshman recently resurrected the Penn State chapter of a national business fraternity and has grown its membership to about 35 students.

Upon arriving in University Park in September, Matt Hawkins was disappointed to find that the local chapter of Phi Beta Lambda was no longer active and had been so for several years.

In his hometown of Glenolden, Pa., Hawkins was involved in Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), the high school equivalent of Phi Beta Lambda. After being accepted to Penn State, he looked forward to continuing his involvement with the organization as a member of the business fraternity.

"Participating in FBLA activities in high school is what got me interested in business," Hawkins says. "Before I joined, I had no idea what I wanted to do. The organization really helped me figure out my life and what I want to do in the future, so I wanted to be sure and stay involved with it in college."

When he found out that the local chapter had dissolved, Hawkins took it upon himself to revive it.

"I wanted to bring it back because I know what it did for me and I wanted other Penn State students to have that same opportunity," Hawkins says.

He found an e-mail address for Sean Cook, the former adviser to the fraternity, on its old Web site and sent him a message inquiring about the club's status. Cook, now assistant director of residence life for Penn State, put Hawkins in touch with Jack Latham, Smeal's coordinator of student and corporate services, who laid out the course of action for Hawkins to bring Phi Beta Lambda back to Penn State.

The first step was to get the organization reinstated by the University's Center for Student Engagement. This required him to rewrite the chapter's constitution, find club officers, and recruit at least 20 interested students.

After several months of work, the Penn State chapter of Phi Beta Lambda was finally activated on Jan. 24. Hawkins now serves as president of the chapter, which currently has about 15-20 students rushing, in addition to its permanent membership.

Hawkins hopes to start official meetings in late February and begin holding workshops and other events as soon as the club's resources will allow.

"Right now, because the chapter is so new, we're listening to everyone's ideas about what direction we will take," he says. "We want to do philanthropic activities, hold recruiting events, bring in speakers to address our members, and send teams to national competitions against other universities. But, for the immediate future, we're just trying to get our feet off the ground."

Hawkins says he would love to hear from former members of Penn State's previous Phi Beta Lambda chapter. Alumni can reach him at msh5071@psu.edu. Interested students should contact him, too.

He hopes to have a Web site up and running in the near future.

Phi Beta Lambda, headquartered in Reston, Va., has more than 10,000 members at the collegiate level. The organization's mission is to bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs.

For more information, visit www.fbla-pbl.org.