TCNJ

18 The College of New Jersey Magazine Dynamic duo JP Egan and Ben Rogoff During the pandemic, JP tried to rush a fraternity online. "My dad was in a fraternity, and he's still friends with many of the brothers," he says. However, as JP went through the process, he felt it was difficult to make connections and find his place online. So, instead, he started his own fraternity. JP knew some upperclassmen who wanted to get a TCNJ chapter of the international fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon off the ground. He recruited his first friend at TCNJ, Ben, to take the reins with him. JP and Ben were both drawn to the organization's values of love, charity, and esteem, and they liked the service focus of the organization (their main charity is St. Jude Children's Research Hospital). After two years of paperwork, they officially established TKE on campus. They have grown the chapter to 34 brothers in their time leading it. Along the way, JP and Ben became not just brothers, but best friends. They are both New Jersey Devils fans, and enjoy the same music (though JP is "kind of a music snob," says Ben). And as housemates, they have shared a wall and confirmed TKE was the exact fraternity they needed in order to find their people. "We'll be each other's best man at our weddings," they both say.

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