Monthly Archives: June 2012
A Mentor’s Confession…
Posted on by JohnKomarek
Jared Schmidt, Minn. ’04 reflects on his time mentoring Lucas Glissendorf, Minn. ’13 Mentoring has always been such an odd thing for me. I’ve been volunteering as a mentor for three years now with the U of MN College of Design. Each year, without fail, I end up with this nagging sense that I should have done or given more to the mentee with which I was paired. The reason for this is simple: each year, I am sure I get more out of the exchange than they do. With active chapter president Lucas Glissendorf as my mentee for the 2011-2012 school year, this fact was more glaring than ever before as I found myself humbled by the schooling he gave me in ambition, creativity, insight, and indeed myself. In a moment of self-doubt, you may ask, as I have asked myself, “what qualifies me to be a mentor?” Well, the thing is, nothing in particular really does. We may assign these labels, but in the end I’ve found, I end up learning just as much as the person to whom I am supposed to be bestowing my “wisdom”. The fact is humans learn more, and learn better, through spontaneous informal interaction than they ever do through training, educational curricula, or authoritative direction. Research shows we learn nearly as much through what is known as legitimate peripheral participation – or in other words, just overhearing things the people around us are talking about. Knowing this eases the burden of mentorship immensely, as you realize; all you really have to do is expose one another to different opportunities and experiences and—voila—congratulations you’re a mentor! It’s really so easy that, oftentimes, you don’t even know when you are doing it. This is the secret to mentoring and one of the many reasons I love [read more…]
2012 Alpha Delta Phi Golf Classic
Posted on by Nik VanDenMeerendonk
We are pleased to invite all brothers to our annual Alpha Delta Phi Alumni/ Active Golf Tournament this upcoming summer. The tournament will be held on Saturday, July 28, at Columbia Golf Club in Columbia Heights, MN, a close 15 minute drive from the chapter house. Since most brothers do not see much of each other during the summer months, the golf classic is a good way to see our brothers before the annual Homecoming events. We encourage all alumni to participate (regardless of your skill level) and join us for a day of relaxation and excitement. After the golf outing, there will be an awards ceremony for the winning team followed by a grill-out at the chapter house. PLEASE RSVP TO KYLE KNUTSON BY JULY 7TH IF YOU PLAN ON ATTENDING. 2012 Golf Classic Details: When: Saturday, July 28, 2012 Start Time: 12:00pm Noon Where: Columbia Golf Course – 3300 Central Ave. Minneapolis, MN Cost: $50.00 per person includes cart, prizes and dinner at the chapter house. RSVP: Kyle Knutson at (952) 212-8821 or knuts600@umn.edu
MN Alpha Delt honored with Best Lead Actor award
Posted on by Nik VanDenMeerendonk
Congratulations to Br. Walid Amini ’04 for winning Best Lead Actor (Breakthrough Performance) at the Monaco Film Festival in May 2012 for his role in “The Black Tulip.” Walid and I were fellow pledge brothers in the fall of 2001. Though he did not live in the house, his consistent visits to help and participate in fraternity events cemented his status as a supportive brother. It was clear that Walid’s enthusiastic personality and movie star good looks were matched by his academic intelligence. Aside from being a highly accomplished pianist, he put forth every effort into his studies – keeping up a 4.0 GPA and strengthening the house average – and eventually graduating with a BS in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota before moving on to work at Honeywell. On the side, he would work various modeling and acting jobs in the Twin Cities. A fellow actor myself, I was surprised and fortunate enough to have worked alongside Walid in a McDonald’s commercial some years back. I was cast in a principal role (McDonald’s employee), but suffered minor car troubles on the day of the shoot, which delayed my arrival to the location. Upon arrival, I was informed that I would play a customer instead and that they had to do a last minute recast in the event that I wasn’t able to make it to set at all. Any disappointment melted away when they introduced me to my replacement – none other than Walid – whom I had not seen in years! It was such a fun experience reconnecting and sharing a little camera time with each other that day. Since then, he as moved out west to pursue a career in modeling and film, landing roles in movies like Charlie Wilson’s War starring Tom Hanks, and [read more…]