Page 3 - Gamma Mu News - Winter 2010-11

Jim Bruce: Recipient
Pursuit of Excellence Scholarship

ach year, Sigma Nu Fraternity awards an incoming male freshman student
a $2,500 scholarship. This year’s recipient of the Pursuit of Excellence
EScholarship, Jim Bruce, reflects an impressive blend of character and intellect.
In his childhood, Jim enjoyed numerous activities such as volunteering at the local
soup kitchen. He always enjoyed playing doctor with the neighborhood girls and
to this day dreams of going to medical school to become a surgeon. As he entered
high school, Jim realized that his dreams could only fully be met if he excelled at
everything he did, so he does just that.
During his junior year of high school, Jim faced possibly the greatest setback of
his life: he was badly burned over 37 percent of his body. He was flown by helicopter Jeremy Palgen, Commander-Elect, William Niemira, Commander, Jim
to Loyola University Medical Center’s burn ICU, where he stayed for three weeks. Bruce, Pursuit of Excellence Scholar 2010 and Pledge Class President,
After an entire summer of recuperation, Jim was released to play football the day Andrew Taylor, Lt. Commander.
before practice started. To this day, he bears scars from this heart-breaking event.
Despite the setbacks, Jim graduated 8th in his class of 635 students, and was
the captain of, and a four-year varsity letterman, on the rugby team. Jim swam
competitively for 12 years and also received four-year varsity letter honors on the COMING SOON
swim team. Academically, he was the recipient of the Army’s National Scholar Athlete
award, an AP Scholar, a National Merit Honorable Mention, as well as a member of
National Honor Society, German National Honor Society, Key Club, German Club,
Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Society of the Red Cord (for the school’s most
frequent blood donor). Jim is also an Eagle Scout and a member of the national Eagle Campaign Kickoff
Scout Association, and as such attended a National Leadership Seminar in 2008.
He has worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor for five years, and as a Red
Cross life guarding instructor for a year. Jim serves as the Pledge Class President Spring 2011
and organizes various social events, specifically, the 2nd Annual Toys for Tots
philanthropy. In his spare time, he enjoys SCUBA diving and jumping out of perfectly
good airplanes. Jim is dedicated to Sigma Nu and is the incoming Rush Chairman,
succeding Jeremy Palgen (Commander-Elect), Pursuit of Excellence Scholar 2009.

Homecoming 2010

he plan was hatched last year at Homecoming 2009. Brothers
Greg Frantzis GM 1345 and David von Nirschl GM 1349
Twere standing in the Pool Room, having a nice time and seeing
the usual cast of local Brothers at another Homecoming. This posed the
question, where is everyone we lived in the House with, and how can we
get them back for large reunion?
In early 2010, Greg started casting the net to reel in many of the lost
Brothers. The hard work paid off, with 49 Brothers making their way
back to Urbana for Homecoming 2010, including a dozen or so who had
not returned since they graduated. Not only was the attendance great, but
the distances our brethren traveled were equally impressive. Fourteen
States were represented among this group of Eighties graduates, but it
was Brother Jeff Baum GM 1328 who traveled the farthest, coming in
all the way from Singapore.
The Theme of the Reunion was an Eighties Party. Even the Illini
Football team pitched in with a 43-13 drubbing of Indiana, to help us
relive the days when the Eighties really did belong to the Illini.
The weekend officially kicked off on Friday night with a campustown
pub crawl that began at Kam’s. It warmed our hearts to see that Kam’s
had barely changed since we left, the floors were still sticky with beer,
and the faint smell of vomit still lingered. Sadly the trough is gone, but
the cheap beer was pouring for the 23 brothers who turned out in force.
In fact, everyone was having such a good time, we never left Kam’s the
whole evening. Afterwards, a group of over a dozen shared a night cap
back at the hotel for some additional laughs.
Saturday morning, the House was buzzing with good feelings as
Homecoming, continued on page 4