The majority of this generation does not enjoy attending school for their education. Eian Malloy is no different, he enjoys it because he is a very social person and loves to be with his friends. He was disappointed when the infamous COVID-19 virus first surfaced during his last semester of junior year, restricting social life all around. As COVID-19 rampaged through the country, schools everywhere were shutting down and making the switch to online learning. As a result of this shutdown, Eian lost the last bit of his junior year and the first three-quarters of his senior year to the deadly virus.
“Online learning was pretty hard on me mentally,” said Eian.
Though he lost the majority of senior year to the virus, Eian had high hopes for his freshman year of college– in which he would be attending the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.
“I was really excited about starting college; I’ve always heard that those are the best years and I couldn’t wait to get started,” said Eian.
When he started his freshman year at Charlotte, Eian didn’t plan on joining a fraternity. He was solely focused on moving into his dorm, passing his classes and having a good time. But as the days passed by, Eian found that college was not the social and educational epiphany he thought it would be; starting college without any of his familiar friends was harder than Eian thought it would be.
“None of my friends back home we’re going to Charlotte with me, so I knew I would have to start over in a way and make new friends,” said Eian.
He decided to attend rushing events to try to see if he could meet any new people. A rushing event in the Greek world has the purpose of recruiting new pledges to join the fraternity. After Eian got back from the Kappa Sigma rushing event, he was seriously considering pledging.
“I knew that pledging would be a lot of commitment and require a lot of my time,” said Eian.
The pledging process required pledges to be on call for members of the fraternity any time they called. Pledges would participate in activities given to them by the fraternity members and be expected to do so without complaint. While pledges are not usually allowed to go into detail about said activities, they could include cleaning the frat house, participating in games or entertaining the members in various ways. The transition from high school to college was already stressful for Eian, but to add another commitment to his already full schedule could prove to make Eian’s life even more hectic.
“The classes I was taking were definitely a lot harder than the ones I took in high school and required a lot more of my attention,” said Eian.
When Eian finally decided to start the 63-day pledging process, required to be a member of Kappa Sigma, he had to convince his parents that the fraternity was a good idea and he would still be able to maintain his grades.
“I knew my parents would eventually agree with me, but it took a little extra convincing to win my mom over,” said Eian.
However, Eian’s dad had already seen that Eian was a hard worker. When Eian was still in high school, he had previously worked for his family’s construction company on his time off run by his father Cory Malloy.
“When Eian gets something in his mind, whether it’s a job to complete or a goal to accomplish, he always gets it done,” said Cory.
As Eian first began the pledging process alongside his other pledge brothers, he found that managing his time was a greater struggle than he anticipated.
“There would be a lot of nights that I barely got any sleep because I had so much to do between school and my pledging duties,” said Eian.
However, his new fraternity helped him combat these issues. One of the values of the Kappa Sigma brothers was helping each other succeed. They would have designated library time where the members and pledges would use the time to get school work done.
“Fraternities aren’t just parties and hanging out, there’s a lot more to Greek life than that,” said Eian.
The philanthropy for Kappa Sigma focuses on military veterans. Their biggest event is called The Military Heroes Campaign which offers financial aid to military veterans and their families.
“It’s nice to know that Eian is a part of a fraternity that does good things,” said Cory.
Though Eian had to commit to 63 days in a row of late nights and early mornings, he feels accomplished to have earned his letters and be a part of Kappa Sigma.
“I’m really glad I stuck it out and finished my pledging. I would totally recommend joining a sorority or fraternity to those interested in Greek life,” said Eian.
