In an effort to support local veteran and military students, the Kappa Sigma Fraternity Nu-Epsilon Chapter at New Mexico State University, established the Kappa Sigma Military Service Endowed Scholarship during NMSU’s annual Giving Tuesday event in November.
Chapter President Evan Conner explained that the impetus to introduce the scholarship during Giving Tuesday was the ability to receive matching funds from generous donors of the NMSU Foundation. With matching funds, the fraternity’s initial investment would double and expedite the scholarship award. The availability of matching dollars also provides growth for the fund, allowing for larger, or multiple, scholarship allocations from endowment earnings.
Recipients of the scholarship are selected by the scholarship committee of the military and veterans program on NMSU’s Las Cruces campus using the criteria set by the fraternity: students must have a 2.5 GPA and have been honorably discharged or are currently serving in the U.S. National Guard or Armed Forces Reserve. The newly formed partnership between Kappa Sigma Nu-Epsilon and NMSU’s Military and Veterans Programs has given Conner and his fraternity brothers the opportunity to better account for their scholarship’s positive impact on students who serve our country.
“For many years, our chapter has donated to the Military Heroes Campaign through our national affiliation,” Connor said. “But, we have not been able to determine how dollars directly affected local veterans, so we decided to create a scholarship that would help military students we see every day.”
The Military Service Endowed Scholarship is the second endowed scholarship established by Kappa Sigma’s Nu-Epsilon chapter at NMSU. The first, established during NMSU’s first Giving Tuesday in 2015, provides scholarship assistance to junior and senior level Kappa Sigma Nu- Epsilon members with a 3.0 or higher GPA, in good standing with the fraternity.
Since the chapter’s founding in January 2000, Kappa Sigma Nu-Epsilon has donated more than $100,000 and 30,000 man-hours to local community groups, including the Doña Ana chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Doña Ana chapter of the Southern New Mexico Red Cross, the Fisher House Foundation and others. The fraternity’s philanthropic efforts have earned the group multiple NMSU awards, as well as recognition by its national affiliate as one of the top five chapters in the country.
“Las Cruces has been home to our fraternity chapter for almost 19 years, and to be able to give back to the community directly has been a humbling experience,” Connor said. “We all know multiple people in our classes who are military veterans. And now, we have the honor of helping the people we sit next to in class.”
Information from NMSU