Reid Kamhi

Reid Kamhi
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Name	Reid Kamhi
Chapter	Delta Alpha Rochester Institute of Technology
Date Inducted	November 18, 2018
Roll Number	ΔΑ 433
Alumni Chapter/Assoc
Honorary Member
Major	Computational Mathematics
Birthdate	April 18, 1997
Spouse
Nicknames
Awards

Reid Kamhi (born April 18, 1997) is an alumnus of the Delta Alpha Chapter of Phi Sigma Pi. He was inducted during the fall semester of the 2018-19 academic year – his third year – at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He previously served as the chapter's parliamentarian.

Early Life

Reid Kamhi was born on April 18, 1997 in Burlington, Vermont and lived his entire childhood in the state. He played tennis from the age of six and played for his high school during his first two years there. He also played on his high school's bowling team during the entirety of his time at the school, which were also the first four years of the team's existence. From 2011 to 2015, with the exception of a hiatus in 2012, he was a referee for his middle school's intramural football league. His refereeing work began to include soccer in 2012, and he was certified by the US Soccer Federation from 2014 until 2017, when he retired.

Academics at RIT

Reid was accepted to the Rochester Institute of Technology to study Chemistry. His request to be moved to the Computing Exploration Program was accepted, and it was thanks to this that he committed to attending RIT.

Reid chose to continue with the Computer Science major at the conclusion of the exploration program, which lasted his first year at RIT. His time in Computer Science lasted only a semester, when he switched to the Computational Mathematics major.

Involvement with Phi Sigma Pi

Recruitment

The day was September 2, 2018. The place, New Brunswick, New Jersey. It was here that one of Reid's cousins was getting married, and so he flew out for Labor Day weekend to attend. This was a needed getaway for him, as his third year at the Rochester Institute of Technology had begun miserably. There had been a fourteen-hour bus trip from his Vermont home to Rochester, a first night in his unfurnished apartment when he slept on the floor, a night out with friends he had to miss because of a scheduled furniture delivery he had to be home for (the furniture did not get delivered that night), his feeling excluded from an organization he was attempting to rejoin, the need to use reusable shopping bags to carry some of his binders to classes because they did not all fit in his backpack, and a major conflict which arose with one of his closest friends that led to the end of the friendship.

At the wedding reception, Reid had a chance to check his emails. One of the emails was the one advertising Phi Sigma Pi. It felt special to receive the email, and he decided to go to the first information session. However, as someone who was generally opposed to Greek life due to its culture and the massive parties and hazing it consists of, he did not think he would pursue becoming a member.

Two days later was the first info session. The moment Reid walked into the room, he was immediately welcomed by the brothers who were there. They clearly wanted to get to know him for who he was, and this was like nothing he had ever received before. He stayed for the duration of that info session as well as the one the following night, and it was at this point that Reid knew this was where he belonged. He triumphantly withdrew himself from the other organization he had joined only two weeks prior, and within two weeks, he was offered a bid into the Alpha Rho initiate class.

The Initiate Process

Not one to be found in clubs on a Friday night, it was no problem for Reid that this time of the week was when the weekly initiate meetings were held, led by initiate advisor Joe Talbot and in the company of fellow initiates Taylor Kozak, Emily Mills, Jennifer Schroll, and Kesavan Shanmugasundaram. The weekly quizzes may have increased in difficulty, but Reid was up to the challenge every time, and some preparations for these occurred alongside big brother Caleb Katzenstein. Though it took Reid longer to resonate with his fellow initiates in this time-frame than it did with the brothers during recruitment, he was able to create and grow connections during the events he and the other initiates organized.

Reid went above and beyond the chapter meeting requirements, attending the first part of all but one of the meetings which took place during his time as an initiate, despite only needing to go to two. He enjoyed the experience of being clapped out by the brothers!

On November 9, 2018, Reid took and passed the national exam. On November 11, 2018, he and his fellow initiates all sang (with the exception of one, who instead elected to convey the lyrics in American Sign Language) the fraternal songs. Reid, along with the other initiates, were all admitted as brothers later that evening, and they were inducted on November 18, 2018.

First Full Semester of Active Membership

Early in Reid's first full semester as a brother, the Spring semester of the 2018-19 academic year, he was elected the chapter parliamentarian. Through the semester, in addition to upholding the duties of the position with aplomb, he made slight modifications to the chapter's governing documents to use gender-neutral pronouns as opposed to gender-specific ones, with the intention of recognizing the gender-inclusiveness of Phi Sigma Pi. Perhaps his most notable accomplishment to the chapter was in the interest of risk management, where he preached "safety" to his fellow brothers, doing so in large part through the signal for the scoring play of the same name from American football. As such, he and other brothers would shout "safety!" and give the signal following any remotely unsafe action or proposal, such as standing on tables, throwing markers across the room, or Reid announcing he would use a lighter to burn ballots following votes.

Outside of parliamentarian duties, Reid served on the scholarship committee, and he orchestrated two scholarship events of his own. In the first one, he demonstrated to brothers and initiates how to create custom slide templates for Microsoft PowerPoint. As part of this, he showed how he created the slide template he used for presentations within the chapter. He also held an event where he introduced brothers and initiates to the sport of handball. Following a presentation on the rules of the game, he and the attendees watched a then-recent archived match between PPD Zagreb and RK Vardar in the men's Velux EHF Champions League.

Reid was re-elected to the parliamentarian position at the end of the semester. He was also honored with the Distinguished Leader and Best New Brother awards.

First Summer of Active Membership

As he was living on Villanova University's campus for a large part of the summer, he had the opportunity to meet with a member of the Epsilon Tau Chapter. There, they got to discuss their experiences in the fraternity and exchange ideas about chapter governance, event ideas and planning, and recruitment. Reid brought some of the insights he learned to his chapter to hopefully improve how it operates and markets itself to the campus. Reid also learned that one of his fellow interns at the company he worked at during the summer is also a brother from the Epsilon Tau Chapter, and so they also had the opportunity to discuss similar matters.

Second Full Semester of Active Membership

Soon enough, Reid's second semester as an active member arrived. During this semester, he made additions to the annual risk management presentation based on content presented at the summer's national convention. He spent a fair portion of the semester creating an extensive transition document for his elected position to ensure his successor and later parliamentarians in the Delta Alpha Chapter were well guided into the position.

Reid served once again on the scholarship committee. Though he did not lead an event, he was one of multiple speakers at a "teach-a-thon," where brothers and initiates gave short presentations about areas of personal interest. He spoke about tools to use to add subtitles to videos. He also presented on a variety of basic, high-level aspects of computer science at a computer science-themed "teach-a-thon," held later in the semester.

Also of significance that semester was Reid's being a big brother to Keegan Kresge. They were drawn together by the commonality of also being in the Computational Mathematics major, one of the smaller majors in the university. Much to the joy of the two of them, Keegan became a brother on November 10, 2019 and was inducted five days later.

Semester of Inactivity

Reid opted to be inactive for the Spring semester of 2019-20. He nonetheless made it a point to remain connected to his chapter and even attended an event where brothers created a page for the university's own wiki as it was relaunched. Additionally, the closure of campus due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting move of meetings to an online venue allowed Reid to participate in these meetings.

Alumnus

On May 8, 2020, Reid graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with a Bachelor's Degree in Computational Mathematics and minors in Computer Science and German. He hopes to continue to connect with his chapter and possibly also be involved to some extent with other chapters near him.

Inter-Chapter Relations

Reid enjoys interacting with members from other chapters and learning about their experiences. He has spoken with members from the following chapters:

• Tau Chapter (East Carolina)
• Alpha Eta Chapter (Delaware)
• Epsilon Tau Chapter (Villanova)
• Zeta Xi Chapter (Coastal Carolina)

Other Involvement at RIT

During his first year, he completed training for becoming a DJ of RIT's radio station, WITR 89.7, and he hosted a two-hour timeslot during the spring semester. He then left the broadcaster to become the secretary of the university's Computer Science Community, where he was involved for his second year.

In his final two years, he has served as a Peer Advisor Leader (PAL, pronounced like a word) for RIT's International Student Services. In this role, he communicates with incoming international students as they prepare to come to the US and begin studying at RIT. He returns to campus earlier than other students to assist at the international orientation and meet his group of incoming students. Through being both a PAL and a brother of Phi Sigma Pi, Reid has sought to attract international students to the fraternity, especially as Greek life tends not to appeal to such students.

Other Interesting Facts

• Reid's surname is pronounced like the words "cam" and "my" put together.
• Reid speaks Spanish and German.
• Reid loves watching sports, especially soccer, on television.
• Reid went to four matches at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada.
• Despite growing up in Vermont, Reid ironically does not ski or snowboard. He skiied until the age of eleven, though.
• While Reid does not play tennis or bowl anymore, he is an avid table tennis player, having played it from a young age. He has taken courses at RIT as part of the wellness requirement and also participated in a tournament on the campus.
• Reid once tasted fried alligator served at a restaurant on the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri.
• Reid held on to the email inviting him to Phi Sigma Pi, storing it in a special folder in his university email. When he transitioned away from that address, he forwarded the invitation to his personal email for safekeeping there.