Zeta Beta Tau and the Jody Appell Award

Written by: Emma Simpson '23

The Jody Appell Award is given by the York College of Pennsylvania Student Senate to recognize a student organization’s community service throughout the year. The winners have a donation made in their name to a charity of their choice. This year’s first-place winner, announced in March, was the York College Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT) Chapter.

Christian Williamson ’24, President of ZBT, says that “Zeta Beta Tau is a fraternity dedicated to intellectual awareness, social responsibility, integrity, and brotherly love. We are a brotherhood dedicated to forging leaders and bettering the world around us.”

ZBT took part in several different community service projects to help a variety of groups within the York community. Some of their projects include participating in Adopt-a-Block, organizing a donation drive for Valley Youth House, called Neighbor in Need, for which they collected winter clothes, toiletries, and money for food; and an event called Sister of the Semester, a competition that partners York College fraternities with sororities to feature a sorority woman who makes a difference in the community. The event raises money for both organizations’ philanthropy efforts.

After winning this award for community service, Zeta Beta Tau chose Gift of Life Marrow Registry to receive the charity donation in their name. They chose this organization because they are “dedicated to saving lives by assisting bone marrow and blood stem cell transplants for patients with blood-related diseases by raising awareness, hosting donor recruitment drives, and fundraising for the cause.”

Christian says that a lot of what drives his community service and helps him grow is reflected in a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, which states "The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well." He says this quote has stuck with him since he joined Zeta Beta Tau, because “you don't have to change the world, just make it a little better than before you were born.”