By Emily Wild, The Miami Student
Miami's chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon, a national marketing and sales fraternity, set a national record at the 2016 PSE National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Friday, March 25.
The group earned the Lewis F. Gordon Top Gold Chapter Award for the third year in a row and the twelfth time in the past 17 years. Before this convention, they were tied with The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for the most Top Gold Chapter awards at 11, and broke that record with this year's win.
Along with this prestigious title, Miami's chapter won the Top Management Team award and placed second for Top Chapter Recruitment Campaign, Top Marketing Research Program and Top Client Marketing/Sales Project. Additionally, they received the Sustained Excellence Award, which recognizes chapters who have maintained at least three consecutive years of gold status measured by the amount and value of activities they create and participate in each year.
Out of the chapter's 143 members, 38 attended the national convention to compete against PSE chapters from across the nation.
"It's a lot of fun to be in a different environment with people who also share the same passions as you do that aren't necessarily from Miami," said Blake Cortez, a first-year PSE member who attended the national convention for the first time this year.
Leading up to this year's national convention, Miami's PSE chapter worked on a total of 19 projects with clients including Luxottica, the Butler County Veterans Service Commission, the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Cincinnati Reds, Dewey's Pizza and Western & Southern Financial.
For senior Ben Arwine, PSE's former chapter president, expectations were high going into his final national convention.
"I wanted to make sure that we were continuing this tradition of winning and excellence, and I did feel some pressure," Arwine said. "I wanted to put our best foot forward."
At last Friday's award ceremony, all 38 chapter members huddled together and held hands as they nervously awaited the announcement of the Top Gold Chapter Award. When Miami's Gamma Gamma chapter was announced as the winner, the group erupted into a mass of triumphant cheers and congratulatory hugs.
"There was so much energy," Cortez recalled. "I had never been a part of something like that ... to know that you were a part of something great, that you had such an instrumental part in winning such a big award and gaining this amazing honor. It was incredible."
Along with the group awards, Arwine was individually honored with the Whan Challenger Award which is given each year to a PSE member based on their chapter leadership, involvement in chapter projects, participation in recruitment and extracurricular or academic pursuits outside of PSE.
"While it is an individual award ... I was able to win that award because of the development and the support from the entire chapter," Arwine said.
This recent success comes in the wake of another notable honor for Miami's PSE chapter. In the fall, the Gamma Gamma chapter received a resolution from the Ohio House of Representatives in recognition of their eleventh win at last year's convention, as well as for their continued success at the national level and their dedication to educating and developing young adults.
Arwine attributes the group's continued success to the determined approach they bring to each competition.
"We put so much time into preparing, and every year we approach it like we've never won before, and that's why we're able to keep winning, because we don't take it for granted," Arwine said. "We absolutely put our best work in every single year and we get rewarded for that."
As for next year's national convention, expectations remain high, especially for PSE Miami's new president Ryan Craig, who said he has every intention of maintaining the high standards the group sets for itself.
"Seeing all of this go so well, for me personally, it adds some pressure," Craig said. "But also, I've never been more motivated to win it again and to go for that grand slam of four years in a row."
Donald Norris, PSE's faculty advisor, believes that the true measure of next year's success will simply be whether or not the chapter is able to be better than they are now.
"Every time we go, it's to improve," Norris said. "We feel that we are not as much competing with the other chapters as we are competing with who we were in the previous year ... the competition is an important part of this, but I think what's even more important is the project and experience work that the students get while they're doing this."