In the midst of the hustle and bustle of attending classes for his computer science degree, senior Guy Ramos participates in extracurriculars like many other Emporia State students. He’s part of the Black Student Union, is always looking to find ways to get involved, and ran track for three years, becoming a three-time All American MIAA Champion in relay and an ESU record-holder in the process. What some may not know, is that he just so happens to be the president of the only historically Black fraternity on campus, Kappa Alpha Psi.
Originating from Indiana University Bloomington, Kappa Alpha Psi was founded on Jan. 5, 1911 as Kappa Alpha Nu in an effort to “fill the missing link” in the college lives of Black students in the midst of racism, bigotry, segregation, and anti-assimilation attitudes. On May 15, 1911 the fraternity was officially chartered and became the first incorporated Black fraternity in the United States.
Kappa Alpha Nu officially became Kappa Alpha Psi on April 15, 1915 and ESU’s Mu Alpha chapter was chartered on November 17, 1984.
“It started with a couple of guys I know to this day,” Ramos said. “They’re really, really great guys to be around.”
While he enjoys playing video games and reading in his freetime, Ramos is also keen on giving back to the community.
But giving back isn’t just important to Ramos, it’s also something largely important to the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity as well. Even with only two on-campus members, the Mu Alpha chapter still looks for ways to get involved in community service.
“We love to help the community no matter what it is,” Ramos said. “You know, picking up trash, cleaning cars, things like that, helping homeless people, but it’s just like, (Kappa Alpha Psi wants) us to do more for the community, because the community is always going to give back to you when you do that.”
Ramos puts his best foot forward each and every day. From receiving his degree at the end of his senior year to striving to get his master’s in the future, Ramos says going to class each day and trying to set himself apart from others is how he applies “honorable achievement in every field of human endeavors,” one of Kappa Alpha Psi’s core values, into his everyday life.
“I just try to keep myself very mellow,” Ramos said of pursuing other values of spiritual and intellectual welfare. “Try to understand everything from different aspects and different points so that way I’m just not like, ‘Oh, you’re wrong, but I’m right.’ How can we both be wrong and right?”
Achievement isn’t just a fraternity value to Ramos, it is also a large piece of what Black excellence means to him.
For Ramos, Black excellence is “achieving and doing whatever they can to put themselves a step further to the right path they want to be on.”
Ramos has found a sense of belonging in Kappa Alpha Psi and he says that’s why it is so important for students of color, especially Black students, to have organizations and communities that represent them at predominantly white institutions like ESU.
“It just gives us a sense of us,” he said. “A Black student can go to a white fraternity and feel like ‘okay these are my people’ but that’s not really how they feel sometimes, and, you know, I feel like just being around people who look like you, have kind of the same situation, maybe not, just the same demographic kind of, it just really helps you out at the same time.”
