The SEP Community
Ethan Noell is a freshman in the World Bachelor’s in Business program and Director of Startup Growth in Sigma Eta Pi. During Founder’s Education, he co-founded Popspace, a platform where companies can browse, book, and curate their own pop-up locations.
Sigma Eta Pi is a great organization that has provided me with lifelong memories.
With SEP, it always feels like management is very organized — always planning fun things for us to do. First off, the way SEP recruits new members is indicative of the entrepreneurial fun you can have in the organization. It was my first interview ever since coming to USC. I sat in a room with five other students and we received a prompt: you will be creating a startup idea and presenting it to a panel of judges — all in 50 minutes. Of course, this was a stressful process, but after all the brainstorming, our presentation, and my answers to the Q&A questions, I came away feeling like I had done something truly worthwhile. To make things better, I got lunch afterwards with two members who would end up joining me in SEP — Chloe and Anya.
It’s no secret that SEP is a lot of work. But I truly enjoy how members are pushed; it makes the experience worthwhile. In particular, I’ve enjoyed how we get to do coffee chats with all of our class and actives. I feel like just 20 minutes of 1-on-1 conversation helps you get to know someone so much better. To me, this sets SEP apart from a lot of organizations — there is a true sense of community and friendship. This friendship is not an accident either; the way SEP is run creates strong bonds.
One great memory that I have with SEP was the day of the Big-Little reveal. To do this reveal, SEP set up a whole game where balls of yarn were all tangled together around the McCarthy Quad trees. At one side I found my name. The goal was to untangle the ball of yarn in order to find my big’s name at the other side. I enjoyed working together with the rest of my class to finish the puzzle. The best part of this night was going out with the rest of the organization after the reveal. We went to a karaoke spot in LA, which was a bunch of fun. I loved seeing the club in a social setting in contrast to the professional setting of our weekly meetings.
