William John Barrow

William John Barrow
Pimpalicious Jack!
Name	William John Barrow
Chapter	Alpha Sigma Virginia Commonwealth University
Date Inducted	April 20, 2008
Roll Number	ΑΣ 242
Alumni Chapter/Assoc	N/A
Honorary Member	N/A
Major	Biomedical Engineering
Birthdate	July 3, 1988
Spouse	N/A
Nicknames	Jack Jack, JackAttack
Awards	2007 Horatio Alger Scholar

William John Barrow ("Jack") (born 3 July 1988) is an Active Member of Alpha Sigma Chapter (ΑΣ 242) at Virginia Commonwealth University.

My Life Story

William John Barrow ("Jack") was born in Chippenham Hospital in Richmond, Virginia.

At age two, Jack was diagnosed on the autism spectrum and was also diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Doctors told his parents that if he was lucky, Jack would be able to live in a group home (instead of being institutionalized) and/or being able to respond verbally to a few yes/no questions. When he was 5 years old, Jack was officially diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) or a mild autism spectrum disorder (he didn't start talking until he was 4 years old).

Jack was introduced to the game of chess when he was eight years old. He became exceptionally good at the game. Since he was ten years old, Jack has been rated in the top 50 kids in his age group for chess in the United States. Jack won the Virginia State Amateur Chess Championship at an age of 14 years and 2 months.

But Jack did more than just chess. He wasn't just some nerd who played chess all the time. Just like any normal kid growing up, he played physical sports, including soccer, basketball, and baseball.

Although he was somewhat good at these physical sports, he was better at chess than any other sport he ever played. From September 2003 to June 2007, Jack Barrow attended Clover Hill High School which is located in Midlothian, Virginia. While attending there, he was a member of the Chess Club, Chess Team, Mu Alpha Theta, and National Honor Society.

In fall 2006, while Jack was still in high school, Jack applied for the Horatio Alger National Scholarship, which consisted of $20,000.In January 2007, Jack learned that he was one of the 106 (out of a total of 35000) applicants lucky enough to receive a Horatio Alger National Scholarship (People who win this scholarship have overcome so many obstacles and hardships in their lives in order to succeed).

Jack graduated from Clover Hill High in June 2007 with honors.

As of April 2011, Jack had been accepted into all of the grad schools he had applied to (U.Pittsburgh, GWU, Medical University of South Carolina, VCU, etc.). He plans on starting grad school at VCU in the fall 2011 going for a PhD in Biostatistics. After getting the PhD, he plans to go out and obtain a research job that hopefully involves studying certain factors in those affected with neurological disorders including autism spectrum disorders.

In May 2011, Jack graduated Cum Laude from VCU with a Bachelor's in Biomedical Engineering.

Collegiate Years at Alpha Sigma Chapter

In the spring 2008 semester, William John Barrow ("Jack") was inducted into the Alpha Sigma Chapter at Virginia Commonwealth University. He has been an active brother in the fraternity since then.

He was also the Alumni Relations chair for both the spring and fall 2010 semesters. During his semesters as the Alumni Relations chair of PSP-AS, he has hosted several Movie Nights and several Game Nights. However, the joint event of his event("Game Night") and Theta Tau's event "Thanksgiving Poker Tourney" held near the end of the fall 2010 semester was his most successful event(by far).

This is because not only did brothers/alumni/initiates of Phi Sigma Pi participate in his "Game Night", but also the brothers of Theta Tau and anyone else outside Phi Sigma Pi and Theta Tau attended his event "Game Night".

Bigs and Littles

• Great-Grand-Big: Candice McAllister, Alumnus
  • Grand-Big: LaShanta Smart, Alumnus
    • Big: Heather Wright, Withdrawn
      • William John Barrow, Brother (Spring 2008)
        • Little: John Marin, Withdrawn(Spring 2009)
          • Grand-Little: Joshua Flory, Brother (Fall 2009)
        • Little: David Wiley, Brother (Fall 2010)

Name of his Greek Family Tree with Jack as the patriarch: Wolfpack

Further Resources

• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=505875892&ref=profile

National Involvement:

During the spring 2010 semester, Jack attended the PSP Regional Conference which was held at VCU.

Other Interesting Facts

• Jack is a descendant of the original kings of England.
• His favorite NASCAR Driver is Jeff Gordon.
• His favorite music artist is Eminem.
• In September 2010, the paper on the "Frequency of Persistent or Continuous Toewalking in the Autism Population" study that he did (and co-authored along with a couple of doctors, one of whom came up with the idea of the study in the first place) became approved for publication. In early February 2011, an article on that paper was published on a medical website known as MDLinx.
• During the fall 2010 semester, Jack was offered to be a founding father of the social fraternity Phi Sigma Kappa for the VCU chapter and even attended some of their events. But considering that getting a chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa established takes at least three semesters and that he is planning on graduating in the spring 2011 semester, he felt that it wasn't worth the trouble for going through the process of establishing a chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa at VCU.
• Jack taught himself to read at the age of 4.
• Jack can run a mile in under 7 minutes.
• Jack is part Irish (from his mom's side of the family).