AKPsi Walk Benefits Breast Cancer Fund

Cornell students marched to downtown Ithaca Saturday as the pledge class of the Alpha Kappa Psi (AKPsi) Professional Business Fraternity walked to support breast cancer. The walk, according to new member Greg Levow ’04 was to “signify the business world’s dedication to supporting its community.”

The march began at the Johnson Graduate School of Management and ended at the Ithaca Breast Cancer Alliance (IBCA) in Ithaca. There members of AKPsi presented the alliance with a check for $450 — money the pledge class raised itself.

According to Roberta Meo ’02, a former pledge, “one of our tasks [as a pledge class] was to pick a charity and raise money for it.”

Members, according to Meo, raised money from “friends, family and professors. It wasn’t advertised, we raised funds personally.”

Levow said that the fundraiser “roughly marked the end of the pledge period” and those who raised the money are now brothers in the fraternity.

AKPsi is a professional fraternity that was started at New York University. The Cornell chapter was established in 1998. According to fraternity literature, “Alpha Kappa Psi’s Mission is to develop well-trained, ethical, skilled, resourceful and experienced business leaders.”

“[AKPsi is] for people interested in business,” said Meo. “It’s like any other fraternity … there’s a pledging process and everything, except it’s a professional fraternity, not a social one.”

According to Bob Riter, associate director of the IBCA, the money that AKPsi has raised will be used to fund some of the programs and services that the IBCA offers, which are all offered free of charge. These include support groups, information networks and referral services among others.

“We don’t tell people what to do,” said Riter. “We give them support and help them.”

The IBCA was founded in 1994 by “women who had been diagnosed and had nowhere to turn,” Riter said.

The services and programs that the IBCA offers are all free of charge. These include support groups, information networks and referral services, among others.

Archived article by Kate Cooper