Kappa Alpha Wins GO BRO Campaign

Kappa Alpha Order wins GO BRO Campaign
Kappa Alpha Order wins GO BRO campaign.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 18, 2017) After participating in a month-long competition, fraternity Kappa Alpha Order has won first place of GO BRO, a campaign launched by University of Kentucky Education Abroad and Exchanges (UK EA) and International Studies Abroad (ISA) in 2016. This is the second iteration of the campaign.

Pi Kappa Alpha and Beta Theta Pi came in second and third place; these fraternities will receive passport vouchers for three chapter members and one chapter member respectively. The winning fraternity, Kappa Alpha Order, elected fraternity member Brandon Kelly, a sophomore in Kappa Alpha Order, to receive the $5,000 GO BRO scholarship award that is applied toward an ISA program.

The GO BRO campaign was developed to increase male enrollment, as this population is underrepresented in UK EA programs, consistent with national trends. Nationally, the education abroad ratio of female participants to male participants is 65 percent to 35 percent. This ratio has held steady for more than a decade. UK EA and ISA have been working to increase the percentage of men participating in education abroad programs.

“We have several brothers that have been very passionate about going to study abroad, so we took this opportunity to help them in their endeavor,” said Zachary Wheatley, Kappa Alpha Order chapter president. “We are very excited to have received the award and would like to thank the International Studies Abroad office for putting this great competition together.”

Fraternity chapters received points through various activities, including Twitter competitions, attending the UK EA Fair, submitting interested student forms, inviting ISA Global Ambassadors to present to their chapter about education abroad, visiting the UK EA Advising Center, and creating a banner in support of education abroad. Each engagement was entered into a point system to then inform the winner of the campaign.

UK EA maintains an embedded office partnership with ISA, to further UK EA's strategic objectives, maximize student and faculty support, and raise awareness about the value of education abroad experiences. The ISA Kentucky Embedded Office, located in Bradley Hall, was established in 2012 and has collaborated with UK EA on several strategic initiatives that promote education abroad to underrepresented populations on campus. The GO BRO campaign is one of those strategic initiatives.

To learn more about this campaign and future iterations, contact the ISA Kentucky Embedded Office — Lindsey Capps or Sarah Kosid at 512-480-8522 or UK EA advisor Susan Meredith at 859-323-2143. To learn more about Education Abroad and Exchanges and available programs and scholarships, visit: http://international.uky.edu/ea.