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350 Men Attend Burns Institute |
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2009 marks the twelfth year Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity has hosted the Ralph F. Burns Leadership Institute. The Institute took place simultaneously at five locations – Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania January 23 – 25, 2009. 350 undergraduate men participated in this year’s Institute.
The Institute is an intense experience for all involved – designed to reflect the qualities and characteristics of the man for whom the Institute is named. Ralph F. Burns was a man of character, vision, commitment, action, and dedication. Our undergraduate men are encouraged to model their fraternity experience after his example.
The three day institute aims to build character and leadership development in the Fraternity’s newly initiated members. A cornerstone of the Burns experience is the society model of learning and teaching: experienced undergraduate brothers volunteer their time to lead small groups of participants through the Institute’s curriculum. The curriculum is centralized around StrengthsQuest, a leadership practices experience developed by the Gallup Organization. It also focuses on the application of the Fraternity’s Five Values as a character and leadership development tool.
In 2001, the program was radically improved and the decision was made to officially call it the Ralph F. Burns Leadership Institute, a logo was designed, and portions of the curriculum were re-written. To allow for greater participation, headquarters staff decided to move the Institute to four regional camps across the country; Washington, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania were first. Over the years, the camp sites have changed as the Fraternity has grown, most recently hosting a site in Washington, North Carolina, and New York.
In 2006, the Fraternity received the Laurel Wreath Award from the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) for the Institute and its exceptional curriculum. The Laurel Wreath Award is the highest award given by the NIC to fraternities for educational programming.
The Ralph F. Burns Leadership Institute is open to any initiated undergraduate member of the Fraternity that has not previously attended. 60 undergraduates and alumni served as facilitators at this year’s Institute. To date, more than 2,000 undergraduates have participated in the Burns Institute.
If you like to learn more about how you can support this program, please contact Cara Augspurger at the Educational Foundation. She can be reached at
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or via phone at 317-843-1911 ext. 226.
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Phoenix Rises Again