Alpha Eta Rho (AHP)

I think it's about time that I wrote a little about the International Aviation Fraternity that I’ve joined since coming to Lewis University. Wikipedia describes Alpha Eta Rho as "a coed international professional college aviation fraternity that serves as a contact between the aviation industry and educational institutions... The alumni of the fraternity are found in all facets of the aviation industry and related management fields. These include airline captains, military aviation Flag Officers, corporate CEO's, NASA engineers, flight attendants, aircraft mechanics, aviation museum directors, aerospace engineers, and pilots. There are currently over 45,000 Alumni of Alpha Eta Rho, with over 1,000 new members pledging each year."

I went through the process to join last semester and it’s opened up a host of Aviation opportunities as a Student here. During the process I had to write a paper for the fraternity that detailed why I decided to join and considering I ‘made the cut’, I’ll assume the paper is good enough to share with you here.

Why AHP? by Joe Burlas

The simple, shallow, and meaningless answer to my now burning desire to join your organization is that I was in Aviation Meteorology one morning and you were offering donuts next door. I’ve never believed in the fraternity or sorority system. I’ve always felt like it was a group of people who got together because they were all at the same place at the same time and decided to create artificial bonds and titles amongst each other at the cost of money, time, and energy. Amazingly, Alpha Eta Rho redefined the way I think in only the last three weeks.

It began with the donuts. On that morning in particular, I was quite hungry and when given a fifteen minute break from class I walked over to the AHP spread and grabbed two. Not wanting to be rude while the active members stood near, I asked Michael Mazzoni what his organization was about. I was expecting Mr. Mazzoni to give me the standard: “Oh it’s about brotherhood, watching each other’s backs, and doing [random] things together” rhetoric that I’ve previously heard other organizations throw my way. Yet to my lasting surprise, his response was instead more about the organizations’ passion for aviation and the collaborative environment that it facilitated for the members. This left me thinking.

Now it’s very important to point out my feelings on brotherhood. While it’s a topic I’ve already had to write about prior to this paper, my feelings on brotherhood are at the center of my change of heart. In my mind, when someone you just met and know nothing about promises you bonds of brotherhood and calls of duty without providing any sort of glue to hold that bond together, you should run in the other direction. It is the weak mind that answers a call to serve with no reason to do so. Such things place undue burden on a person and detract from a meaningful life. For Brotherhood to be real it cannot be promised nor can it be handed out. Brotherhood is like love, trust, or admiration; it has to be forged in earnest in an environment that facilitates those bonds. Therefore, if you cannot promise to love, trust, or admire a stranger, how can you then promise to be his brother? You can’t.

Yet instead of promising me Brotherhood paid in full, Mike promised me an environment for Brotherhood in which to grow professionally with other people that share the same passion. It was with that thought that I ended up freeing my Tuesday night and going to the official Rush. I’m happy I did. It was in the spirit of rush night and seeing how the group acted together, that I had all the answers I needed. Much like a family, they did not act too seriously yet just seriously enough while maintaining focus. In the words of Sarah Eberwein, “We want you to be a part of what I consider my family but we have to see that you want it first”. Had she told us how much of a family we were all about to become, I might not have come back the next Tuesday.

In the course of my life I’ve gone through a lot and through that I’ve been privileged enough to have been a part of many brotherhoods. That being said, I know an opportunity when I see one. AHP is not about Brotherhood, it is a Brotherhood. I still feel like most other organizations don’t understand the difference; however I chose AHP because they do.

"Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future." - Alice Walker