According to Alex Brown, Keene State College has given him everything.
Brown has been the Coordinator of Greek Life and Student Leadership since July 2010, after he finished his Masters at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.
“The chance to come into Keene State and work in a newly created position, I was really given a ton of freedom and support to create whatever we felt was needed to help advance our programs on both the leadership and the Greek life side,” Brown said.
Brittany Murphy / Equinox Staff: On his last day, Coordinator of Greek Life and Student Leadership Alex Brown poses with KSC Greek Life students.
Brown will continue working with the fraternity and sorority community, as well as the student government community at UWL.
“It’s a chance to serve my alma mater. UWL is where I fine tuned my passion into philosophy and where I figured out what I wanted to do, as well as being close to my family and friends,” Brown said. KSC has helped Brown develop programming skills and given him many opportunities.
“That autonomy really helped me in a variety of ways to help me develop my programming skills and it helped me to develop and fine-tune that philosophy that UWL helped me develop. It afforded me the opportunity to be involved in a lot of different outside opportunities including the professional association I work with, the association of fraternity and sorority advisors, I had a chance to spend this last year as the regional director and so Keene State has been supportive of absolutely all my endeavors and it really helped me figure out who I am as a professional. Now when I got back to WLU I am much more prepared to take another community that’s very similar to Keene State College and help them grow and develop as well,” Brown said.
Brown said he will miss most the friendships he has made. He said he will miss “Relationships in general. I’ve had an absolutely great opportunity to work with so many fantastic, passionate students, faculty and staff, who go above and beyond. The student center staff is amazing.” Brown said that it is the people at KSC that have made the difference. “I love the campus, I love the community, but it’s the people that have made the difference.”
Director of Student Involvement, Jennifer Ferrell, is proud of Browns accomplishments at KSC. In terms of when Brown first started, she said, “I was hoping to get someone in who would be really interested in growing a lot of our programs and supporting both our Greek organization as well as making a big impact in our leadership programs. Alex has absolutely done that. Probably beyond what I could’ve even imagined. His specific experiences and skills and the way he works with people and students made that so much easier.”
Ferrell continued, “Right off the bat he was doing great things.”
Besides his coworkers, Brown is highly respected by the student community. Senior and President of Delta Phi Epsilon, Stephanie Ordille said,“He [Brown] is a huge influence on all Greek life, and it has grown so much since he has been here. We are really sad to see him leave.”
According to Ferrell, the Greek community is twice the size that it was three years ago when Brown arrived. Not only that, but an additional fraternity has been charted on campus, as well as various leadership programs.
“We have a much more thoughtful, thorough leadership development program that comes out of the student center with regular monthly events and even more specific annual events,” Ferrell said. “One of the new things he [Brown] created was the Emerging Leaders Program, that show anyone at any level to be a leader.”
Brown has also brought the well-known Ted Talks to campus.
Not only has the Greek life student body increased, their confidence has too.
“He [Brown] is really big on motivational speaking and when we have different milestones, he’s really big on promoting what we’re doing and helping us and getting our name out there,“ Senior and Delta Phi Epsilon member Juliann Abraham said.
She continued, “He’s a really big support system for us, when we need help, and its nice that he’s always there for us.”
Ordille added, “He has helped our sisterhood moral,and the positive energy in our sorority and Greek life altogether.”
When asked what she will miss most about Brown, Ferrell said, “I’ll certainly miss his positivity.” She said that Brown usually gives everyone in the office a high-five when he arrives in the morning.
Being that it takes so much time to find another person for Browns position, Ferrell will be taking over his responsibilities. She hopes that she is able to serve the Greek Life community as Brown has.
“The students are very close to him. I want them to know that I support them too even though I’m not Alex,” she said.
Abraham and Ordille offer some advice for Ferrell. “I know she is really busy, so try not to forget about us,” Ordille said.
Abraham added, “Because she is in charge of other organizations, were willing to help her just as much as shes willing to help us. Its nice to know that Alex has left us in good hands.”
Kenzie Travers can be contacted at mtravers@keene-equinox.com