Many steps were needed to bring Alpha Phi Omega back to its former glory. By the following semester, events were held, service projects were planned and started, and a presence at the Spring 2007 New Jersey Sectional Conference [author’s note: here after referred to as Sectional Conference] was fulfilled by the interest group’s three members. Huth, along with Scott Barnes and George Bittar, took home the sectional award, “Gang’s All Here,” much to her delight. As the semester drew to a close, Huth and Barnes graduated but not without leaving a gaggle of new members in their wake, including Lauren Alfant, Eric Strickland, and Katie Bojanek, the first elected president of the group.

Fall 2007 proved to be quite substantial in progressing the eventual chartering of the chapter. Three new members, James Carolan, David Kraemer, and Allyson Schechner-Kanofsky, helped to support the chapter and fulfilled the needed offices to obtain a charter under Montclair State’s Student Government Association. In addition, the group established a partnership with community advisors Lillian and Vincent Mondaro, faculty advisors Scott Barnes and Fatima deCarvalho and scouting advisor Robert Ferrara. Additional support came from Paul Galuskin, our big-brother chapter president from William Paterson University.



Spring 2008 provided road bumps and a lot a growth. The semester began with Katie stepping down as President. At that point James Carolan took the helm. That semester saw the addition of Natalie Rusciani, Katie Lynn Cook, Alicia Shuford and Jerry Yalovitser. Our group placed second during the Sectional Conference at NJCU for the Role Call award, and were permitted to have voice delegates. We also were becoming very well established on campus and held our first annual Blue and Gold Awards dinner to celebrate different members’ achievements. At the end of the semester, elections were held for all positions and Eric Strickland was elected as the 4th President of the soon to be Nu Psi Petitioning Group. On July 20th 2008, we officially became a Petitioning Group.



During the Fall 2008 semester, final steps were being taken to ensure that we would become a chapter. During this semester we continued to increase our membership with the final members of the founders class: Priscilla Dueñas, Danielle Kelly, Morgan Bardall, Crystal Moore, Will Senedzuk, Craig Surko and John Pope. Scott had to step down as faculty advisor and we were joined by David Sanders from the Broadcasting department as a faculty advisor. We continued to establish ourselves as one of the prominent service organizations on campus, held many different projects and attended the fall sectionals at Ramapo where we won three awards; Gangs All Here, Role Call and Service Boy. That semester also included our largest event to date, the Smash Arcade. At the end of the semester, six members attended the National Conference in Boston, helped with the service projects, enjoyed the fellowships and sat on the floor of legislation as voice delegates and spoke against some substantial legislation.



As we continued on through to the Spring 2009 semester we were so close to chartering we could feel it. Galuskin came on as a community advisor after graduating from William Paterson, and was appointed as Chair of the Advisory Board. [Authors Note: A petitioning ceremony was held on February 2nd for those who had not already gone through it.] We took our test, had a pledge class, submitted all the necessary paperwork and we finally got chartered. We, “the founders class”, went through the ceremony on Saturday April 18th 2009 in Student Center Room 419 with special surprise guest National President Maggie Katz in attendence.