Andrew Nguyen graduated from Wichita State in May having achieved more than just earning a degree.

One additional goal he met was to have a recognized fraternity with an Asian emphasis. He also earned a business management degree.

“It was actually a lot of work, basically I spent an entire semester filling out paperwork and trying to get approval at Wichita State,” Nguyen said. But with him were friends and fellow charter members, Adam Joslin and Victor Phothilath. Alicia Newell, the faculty advisor for the fraternity, also helped.

Nguyen started the group as a student organization in 2008. Chi Sigma Tau earned its letters and became the Epsilon Chapter of Chi Sigma Tau National Fraternity with six members on Dec. 5, 2009.

“I have two older siblings that are alumni at WSU, and I guess I just wanted to set myself apart from who they were and start my own legacy,” said Nguyen. His brother was a member of Phi Delta Theta and his sister was involved in various organizations.

“We are the first Asian interest fraternity ever at Wichita State,” Nguyen said. “However, we do not discriminate.”

The strongest values of Chi Sigma Tau are courage, strength and trust, he said.

“I do think that the cultural aspect really strengthens our bonds,” Nguyen said. “Obviously, our parents are all about education and getting to that next level, and it is something we can all relate to.”

“Although they are independent now in college, I would always tell the brothers to study and focus in school because we need to always keep in mind that the goal is to graduate,” he said.

Nguyen said the fraternity recruits using referrals and is most active during the fall and spring.

“Within the Asian community everyone knows everyone. So if you are doing something positive, everyone will know you are doing something positive, and so you hear about it,” Nguyen said.

Junior Richard Nguyen, head rush chair, multicultural Greek council delegate and one of the performance chairs for the Strolls and Steps took notice of Andrew’s efforts and decided to participate after transferring from the University of Kansas in fall 2011.

“We are at 17 brothers now. You start at 6 and now we are at 17. That’s not a huge number but to know that 17 of us are part of something here that just started two years ago, it is impressive within itself,” Richard said. “We’ve grown large enough to where the other Greeks recognize us now.”

Tyler Nepote, president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, has noticed of Chi Sigma Tau’s effort.

“I’ll be honest, I had not heard much about them until this year. I think this year they really did well, they were well represented at Greek Awards and their membership has increased dramatically,” Nepote said.

Chi Sigma Tau exceeded expectations with starting a fraternity at a non-traditional school like WSU, Nepote said.

“I’m sure campus will hear a lot of great things in regards to Chi Sigma Tau this coming year,” he said.