Shane Lay, California-Santa Barbara ’12, first met varsity soccer captain Danilo Radjen, Cleveland State ’16, in his Balanced Man Scholarship interview. “Right away, I knew we had a scholarship contender,” Lay said. “It was clear that he was committed to excellence on and off the field and was passionate about what he did.” Lay knew that if he could get Radjen excited about SigEp, his passion, dedication, and leadership would be tremendous assets for a new SigEp chapter at Cleveland State.

Lay, a California native and SigEp’s chapter development director, was on the Ohio campus recruiting a new generation of founders for the previously dormant Ohio Nu Chapter. A former soccer player himself, Lay knew that the right student-athletes had the leadership experience, time management skills, and work ethic he needed to get a chapter off the ground.

Before meeting Lay, Radjen had never considered joining a fraternity. He was busy leading the university’s division one soccer team as captain, serving on the Student Athletic Advisory Committee, and maintaining a 3.9 GPA.

Ultimately, Radjen found that the Fraternity offered an experience he could not find anywhere else. “I joined SigEp to improve myself as a person and to help others improve as well,” Radjen said. “We need more leaders in the world, and I feel like SigEp can help make that happen.”

Time was scarce, but Radjen had plenty of experience making the most of each hour in his busy schedule. As Radjen puts it, “rather than watch TV after practice, I go to a SigEp event… it’s really not hard.”

It didn’t take long for to find a niche in the chapter. “I want to make an impact on recruitment,” Radjen said “I know a lot athletes who already live SigEp’s values—I can make this fraternity big.” A master at juggling multiple priorities, Radjen was appointed recruitment chair and went to work helping Lay rebuild our chapter at Cleveland State. Despite a commuter school culture, the chapter is targeting 25 undergraduate brothers for spring and already has a 3.45 GPA. Radjen is delivering the goods, just like Lay knew he would.