Since 1914, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. has been an organization that emphasizes brotherhood, service, and scholarship.
Ask Kary Ellington why he pledged Sigma, and you’ll hear about each of these principles. Kary values the opportunity to build friendships with other like-minded young men.
“When I saw Eta Beta I saw people, and by that I mean friendly, accepting, kind people who had not let the hype of ‘Greek life’ make them into something they were not,” recalled Kary of his initial interest in the organization. “When I saw the chapter interact with each other in public it was genuine brotherly love. I saw brotherhood in Eta Beta.”
Kary is also committed to serving the people and communities who needed it most. Since he arrived at the Unviersity of Mississippi, he has been active in a number of campus and community service organizations: the Luckyday Success Program, FASTrack, Pulse Leadership Conference, African American Males Enrolling Retaining Graduating (AAMERG), MAPS, and Men of Excellence (MOX).
Yet, while brotherhood and service are important to Ellington, it is the idea of scholarship and scholastic achievement that has been a guiding light. A nursing major, Ellington graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2018 with a 3.6 GPA. He is now working on his B.S.N. at Baptist College Sciences in Memphis, TN. In his view, academic achievement is the highest of the fraternity’s principles.
“With being a member of a fraternity a lot of new avenues that open up and try to distract you from why you joined in the first place. You have to be strong willed and not let that deter you from giving the fraternity the best thing you can, which is a degree.”