The gentlemanly qualities of three freshmen have finally paid off -- literally.
Three members of the Class of 2005 won the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity's Gentlemen, Leaders and Innovators Scholarship on Wednesday. After dinner at Moriarty's, the winners were announced.
Wharton freshman Samuel Reeves took first place, College freshman Patrick Brugh came in second and Engineering freshman Deep Maji walked away with third place.
This is the fourth year that Phi Psi has awarded the scholarship, which gives $1,000 to the first place winner, $300 to the second place winner and $200 to third place.
"We like to honor people with the same ideals as our fraternity," Rush Chairman Stuart Torch said.
Over the summer, Phi Psi sent letters regarding the scholarship to all incoming freshman males, and asked those interested to complete a general information and activities sheet.
More importantly, the fraternity requested an essay, video or "anything else" that would describe the applicant's personal qualities and community or school involvement pertaining to "gentlemen, leaders and innovators."
Scholarship Chairman John Gatschet said 120 people applied for the award.
"We interviewed 65 people and had an informal date party downtown for the brothers to meet" the applicants, the College junior said.
"We also had some events at the house... like watching Monday Night Football and stuff," he added.
Eventually, the fraternity narrowed down the field to 11 finalists, who attended the dinner and ceremony at Moriarty's.
Acknowledging that many fraternities now offer scholarships to freshmen, Torch said that Phi Psi was delighted at the large number of freshmen who applied.
"We were pretty pleased that our numbers went up," the College senior said.
The three scholarship winners impressed Phi Psi with their many accomplishments during high school. Reeves worked on an Eagle Scout project for the homeless, Brugh taught health classes to middle school students and Maji completed over 475 community service hours at a hospital.
"I feel extremely honored to be chosen," Reeves said. "I know everybody else was extremely qualified also."
"I just feel really honored and I commend Phi Psi for their efforts to foster leadership and community involvement," he added.
Brugh expressed his pleasure at winning the award as well.
"I was very excited," he said. "It was a nice surprise."
Phi Psi will apply the award money to the winners' Penn bursar bills, unless that affects their financial aid. If that is the case, Phi Psi will provide a check, and the winner will sign a waiver stating that he will only use the funds for academic purposes.
