When arriving on campus as a freshman you are instantly bombarded with hundreds of clubs and organizations you can join. Senate, Newspaper, Art Club, Weightlifting Club, maybe even a quidditch or frisbee club.

I'm pretty sure after the first week of freshman year I was on the e-mail list for about 20 different organizations, most of which I knew I would never actually join. However, out of all of those clubs I decided to rush a professional business fraternity. Looking back on a very stressful and emotional freshman year, there is no doubt in my mind that accepting a bid to a professional fraternity was the single best decision I made as a freshman.

As a professional business fraternity, it was no surprise that I instantly began to learn valuable lessons in professional dress, communication and resume construction. But what did surprise me was how much of a brotherhood aspect there truly was. While business and professionalism is always the number one goal, and the one thing that brought us all together- it's the social and brotherhood aspect that makes it even more fun and enjoyable to be there.

When joining I was immediately surrounded by a wide variety of people who all not only had amazing professional skills, but all had an incredible amount of passion for whatever they did. I had almost immediately found my 'niche' at the University with a group of people I could connect and share amazing experiences with, something that can be very hard to do at a school of any size.

With a business school that has such a wide variety of majors, as a marketing major, I never in my life thought one of my best friends would be a finance major. But that is just what happened, I found many of my closest friends through my fraternity.

I also immediately knew upper class men, that were able to help me not fail accounting, or tell me the best professors to take (or not take), a group of people that had been through several years of school, several internships and jobs and had a wealth of knowledge to share with me. I've seen many people in my chapter have different internships (or even that all important post-grad job) through current members or alumni.

So why join a professional fraternity? It gives me a balance. An opportunity to have fun and enjoy college, but also develop myself as a young professional and learn so many valuable skills I'm not sure I would have learned before. A chance to still focus on my academics and have a social life. But plain and simple- it's amazing.

My brothers are some of the best people I've ever met, with a large group of very different people we all love and accept the quirks everyone has. I firmly believe that most of us would do whatever we could to help a brother- professionally or otherwise.

The experiences I've already had, and people I've already met as a sophomore I wouldn't trade for the world. It is impossible to fully explain the indescribable feeling my chapter and brothers give me. But trust me it's amazing.