As SigEp returned to the Colorado campus in 2007, Kent Hickman, Colorado ’61, wanted to ensure that his rechartered chapter would have the leadership needed to sustain success. So he set out to build a financial bridge to link his young brothers to the leadership training they would need.

Each year, executive officers leading SigEp chapters attend events like the Carlson Leadership Academy, their registration fees heavily supplemented by gifts to SigEp’s Annual Fund. But for aspiring leaders, the cost of a leadership program is often prohibitive. Working with the Colorado Chapter, its alumni-volunteers and the Educational Foundation, Hickman established a grant program to send the chapter’s rising leaders to events along with the current key officers.

The program resonated deeply, pushing brothers to think about the role they would play in their chapter’s future. Motivated by the program’s success, Hickman decided to replicate the model at chapters near his Northern Virginia home. He focused on new and re-chartering chapters that needed alumni support.

After meeting with brothers at American University, Hickman knew he had found a chapter that would benefit from the program. The announcement that American brothers would be the latest beneficiaries of the leadership grant was made at the chapter’s 2008 installation banquet.

Hickman’s leadership grant program continues to award scholarships to rising leaders which allows them to attend Carlson Leadership Academies, the Ruck Leadership Institute and Conclave. Today, brothers at American attend Carlson before running for office, exposing them to the responsibilities of the roles they aspire to fill.

“Many undergraduates have told me that their involvement in the chapter is primarily due to their early exposure to the many facets of chapter leadership,” said Hickman.

While the grant program was started to ensure that there would be a strong supply of leaders within the undergraduate chapter, it has coincidently created a dedicated base of alumni-volunteers. As the first beneficiaries of the grant program graduate, many are staying involved.

“A strong member graduating from a strong chapter possesses a compelling incentive to become a valuable alumnus,” said Hickman. “I am seeing a large number of graduates becoming AVC members and volunteers—some even from locations far away from D.C.”

Benjamin Schorr, ’11, went on to serve as American’s AVC president and credits the grant program with exposing him to essential leadership practices he still employs. “The leadership grant was my avenue to learn best practices from other SigEps around the country,” said Schorr. “I applied for the scholarship because I would not have otherwise been able to attend Carlson. [It] gave me the confidence that I was not alone in my efforts to make my chapter the best it could be.”

Fellow American volunteer and grant recipient Dan Alt, ’12, also believes that Hickman’s generosity propelled him to leadership. “As an undergraduate, the leadership grant acted as a charge for me to take it upon myself to do something more than just participate,” he said. Today, Alt works alongside Schorr and a handful of other American alumni who have benefited from leadership grants to pay forward the generosity that Hickman once showed them. As it turned out, that bridge led to more than one way to ensure chapter leadership over time.