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Brother Cole Barnhill of Union, Kentucky, is recipient of the Wayne S. Colvin Change Maker Award.

The honor recognizes one collegiate member from the Association of Fraternal Leadership and Values central delegation for their willingness to challenge the conventional wisdom of fraternity and sorority life to find new solutions to existing challenges, their work to develop better collegiate fraternity and sorority members, and for affecting systemic change and sustainable progress in the undergraduate fraternal experience.

AFLV includes more than 300 college campuses, and Barnhill was selected from that group.

“I am honored and extremely grateful to be recognized as an agent of change at the national level,” Barnhill said. “Fraternity life has positively impacted my life and the lives of those around me and to know that I have contributed to the betterment of the national fraternity and sorority community, as well as the community at UM truly leaves me speechless.”

Barnhill said that he could not feel more rewarded for the hours of hard work that went into the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that sparked his nomination for the award.

“It is very fulfilling to see the hard work I put in during my term as IFC president come to fruition through this recognition,” he said.

Barnhill’s growth as a leader on campus the past two years has been remarkable, said Arthur E. Doctor, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life.

“To be recognized by the Association of Fraternal Leadership and Values for his efforts during his IFC presidency is so fitting because Cole never sought out the limelight for his work,” Doctor said. “He simply kept his head down and challenged his peers to be better for themselves, their chapters and, most of all, the fraternity and sorority community.

“Cole receiving this award serves as confirmation that fraternity and sorority life is truly the training ground for leadership.”

Barnhill attributed the recognition to his efforts to challenge the fraternity community’s members to be leaders of character focused on upholding the values of their fraternal organizations.

“I have a strong passion for challenging existing beliefs of fraternity and sorority members as it pertains to diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said. “Much of the work that I did centered around building relationships to remove systemic barriers between fraternal organizations and underrepresented groups while also making structural changes to the IFC code and constitution so that DE&I efforts will continue to be a priority well in to the future.”

Congratulations Cole!

The Deloitte Foundation announced recipients of the 2021 Doctoral Fellowships in Accounting Award, with grants totaling $250,000 awarded to 10 Ph.D. candidates.

The Deloitte Foundation has awarded $25,000 grants to 10 top accounting Ph.D. candidates across the U.S. through the Deloitte Foundation’s annual Doctoral Fellowship program. Given to students who plan to pursue academic careers upon graduation, the award is intended to support the 2021 recipients’ final year of coursework and the subsequent year to complete their doctoral dissertation.

Epsilon Xi brother Anish Sharma ’14 of Greenwood was named among this year’s award recipients. Congratulations Anish!

While an undergraduate at Ole Miss, Anish was awarded the 2014 Sigma Nu Fraternity Man of the Year award. That same year he also won the Scholar of the Year based on outstanding academics.

The Deloitte Foundation, founded in 1928, is a not-for-profit organization that supports education in the U.S. through a variety of initiatives that help develop the next generation of diverse business leaders, and their influencers, and promote excellence in teaching, research and curriculum innovation. The Foundation sponsors an array of national programs relevant to a variety of professional services, benefiting high school students, undergraduates, graduate students and educators. Learn more about the Deloitte Foundation.

Congratulations to the sixty-five newly initiated brothers of Epsilon Xi Chapter of Sigma Nu Fraternity!

We’re excited to share that Epsilon Xi achieved the highest chapter GPA of all IFC organizations for the Fall 2020 semester. Our members put in hard work to earn a 3.41 Chapter GPA amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic and it clearly shows!