Journal - Ryan Park

For my journal today, I am going to write about my pledge brother, Ryan Park. Firstly, I want to start with an introduction. Ryan a third year political science major here at University of California, Los Angeles. He is from Cupertino, California, which is basically the headquarters of technology (around Silicon Valley). But most importantly, he is my pledge brother. Ryan was actually one of the first rushees that I met during the first rush event for Kappa Alpha Pi. My friend, Wesley, and I were standing outside in a small circle with a few of the other rushees waiting for the event to start when Ryan and Yeon approached the group. We introduced ourselves to each other and actually found out that we have some mutual friends. Then throughout rush, I found that Ryan was a very easy-going and fun person to talk to. However, as the pledging process really started, I discovered how invaluable Ryan truly is to our pledge class. At first, I did not think Ryan would be able to be very serious, especially around us, but I was proven wrong. During retreat, the dreaded job of being Fundraising Chair was dawning upon everyone. Koya, another one of my pledge brothers, bravely stepped up to the plate and asked for the job. I believe Koya’s actions are honorable and immensely appreciated by the entire class. However, Ryan was pretty reluctant at first. Even though he was hesitant and did not really want the responsibility, I can confidently say now that he is a very successful fundraising chair and has organized numerous events along with Koya to raise money for our Chi Pledge Class. He "took one for the team" in that situation and instead of making it difficult on everyone, he accepted the challenge and it turned out to have very favorable consequences. Ryan is an invaluable asset to our pledge class and I cannot see the Chi Pledge Class functioning as efficiently if he was missing.