Congrats to Brother Jack Garlinghouse, the first person to receive the Zeta Pi Alumni Association’s new scholarship award.
Brother Garlinghouse applied soon after his Zeta Pi Chapter initiation in Fall 2024 as part of the Gamma Epsilon pledge class, in which he’d served as president.
Growing up in Roseville, Jack is studying integrated science education with hopes to eventually become a high school science teacher. During his initial Fall semester, he was already striving toward that future career goal with 5 classes that included focus in early education.
He mentioned a high school science teacher who inspired him, and that happened to be a Sigma Pi brother who’d joined the Central Michigan University chapter in 1999.
For the future, he wants to “learn something each day and help to teach and inspire our next generation.”
He’s a recipient of the Golden Guaratee, a tuition-free program that Oakland University offers to those who graduated with at least a 3.0 GPA. Though it doesn’t include books, he also obtained a diffferent scholarship from Roseville High School to help with that.
One of his goals in the near-future is to expand upon existing outreach groups for teens without fathers, something he’s been discussing with middle schools in Lake Orion.
His hope would be for some Sigma Pi men from the Chapter (and possibly alumni) to go into these schools to have outreach and mentorship for those young men who need it most.
Eventually, Brother Garlinghouse believes that could expand to other schools and possibly become a Sigma Pi tradition for both new and alumni men to be a part of.
Province Archon Mike Long, a Zeta Pi brother who initiated two decades ago, shared this when recommending Brother Garlinghouse:
“Jack has proven his character to be praiseworthy,” Brother Long wrote. “We would all benefit if he enters our adytum, so I recommend Jack Garlinghouse for this scholarship.“
Other echoed him being an effective and compassionate leader, creating unity amongst new members, actives, and alumni.
You may not recognize him quite yet as a new Zeta Pi Brother only in his freshman year, but he’s already making his presence known around OU.
For instance, Brother Garlinghouse plays the saxophone for OU’s Golden Grizz pep band, usually playing once a week at basketball games. This continues the passion he’s had for music throughout his life and during high school.
Brother Garlinghouse is the first brother to apply and win this award, created by the alumni association and its scholarship committee earlier in the year.
He told the scholarship committee, during the interview process, that he’d like to use any scholarship award to help pay expenses and his fraternity dues, which increased to $475 for a semester.
Our ZPAA will be awarding new scholarships as we move forward, including for the current winter 2025 semester. The scholarship application period is currently open from Feb. 15 – March 15, 2025. After that deadline, the ZPAA scholarship committee will review all submitted applications and interview those men, before awarding the next scholarsip in Spring 2025.
You can apply using with this form, and submitting to the ZPAA Scholarship Committee by the deadline.
