Spencer Kuhn A Man With A Story
Introduction
Covid-19 has had a drastic effect on the way we live our lives. It has completely broken down the fundamental fabric of how we interact with each other. Resulting in 571,000 deaths in just the United States alone. But the deaths and the case count are just the tip of the iceberg on how Covid-19 has affected people. In a survey conducted by the CDC in a case study of 5,412 people from the months of April 2020, to June 2020 46% of people said that they have experienced worse mental health during the time of the quarantine. This is especially true for people ages 18–24. As 25% of the young adults said they had had suicidal thoughts within the last 30 days of taking this anonymous survey (1). Clearly young adults, especially, have had a hard time during the repressive lockdowns. Showing that young people have been especially vulnerable to the lockdowns and lack of socialization. Our healthiest population physically has been the population that got hit the hardest mentally from Covid-19. This is no different for local Colorado state University student Spencer Kuhn.
About Spencer
Spencer Kuhn is a senior at Colorado State University studying business and has recently gotten a job working an internship for a tech company in Denver Colorado. For when he leaves college in the next couple of weeks “Hopefully” As he says.
Along with being a student Spencer has multiple hobbies and organizations that keep him busy throughout this tumultuous time. Spencer is an Avid map maker. Spending lots of his time meticulously planning city layouts on his parchment paper. The maps are very detailed plans that can sometimes take Spencer up to eight hours to complete. For an average map he has to draw upwards of 300 streets that, yes of course, all have names. Also, taking into account how far neighborhoods can be from the nearest convenience store and gas station. Making richer neighborhoods as well as poorer ones. All with their own parks and hospitals, all the way down to mattress stores in an outdoor mall lot.
To juxtapose his hobby of map making, Spencer is also the president of the Eta Sigma Sigma Pi chapter of Colorado State University. The fraternity has 48 members as well as a fraternity house close to campus. Sigma Pi has been on campus ever since way back in 2014. Spencer is finishing up his second full semester of being the Fraternities president. His responsibilities as president include running chapter meetings. Planning out the direction the fraternity is going in. As well as outside relationships with the school and other partnerships the Fraternity has such as philanthropy. Spencer describes his time in the fraternity as “Very rewarding because it is something that is always constantly giving back to me as much as I put into it.”
Being the president of a fraternity has “Been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
Spencers Unique Covid-19 Experience
The pandemic began two months after Spencer had officially taken over the role of being the president of Sigma Pi. The pandemic hit Fraternity and Sorority life especially hard as a lot of these organizations center around socialization and gatherings to enhance the college experience. As Spencer describes. “The fraternity essentially got shutdown without actually getting shutdown. We were not able to have any events larger than 10 people for the whole last semester. We had to cancel essentially all of our events the only way we have been able to hang out and see each other is over zoom calls.”
Not being able to socialize has had a drastic effect on the members of Sigma Pi. A lot of brothers have also been in financial turmoil as a lot of them have been laid off because of the pandemic. Spencer noticed the effect the lockdowns was having on his fellow brothers. “Over the months I saw just how much people were being effected by not being able to hang out with each other. A lot of our guys, especially the ones in the frat house, have reported having a lot of mental health difficulties. Including depression, and anxiety.” Sigma Pi has only recently gotten a fraternity house in the last year. A major step for the fraternity in terms of growth. But, sadly a lot of the fun experiences the house was offering to its new eager members. Such as parties, tailgates, and general rowdy fun was foiled by three separate quarantines caused by Covid-19. Totaling in over a month of the semester being spent at the house under lockdown. Which meant the brothers living at the fraternity house were only allowed to see and interact with the people living in their rooms and no one else.
This led to a lot of turmoil for the residents of the fraternity house as well as the members of the fraternity. Despite the dramatic drop in morale for the fraternity Spencer, as a good leader, sprang into action. Putting together a mental health committee. Run by himself and two social services majors in the fraternity. The committee enacted mandatory check ins for brothers to have them describe their mental health situation. As well as organizing fun zoom events for the brothers to do. Such as video game night over zoom. As well as plenty of movie nights and sports games. To help the brothers of his fraternity through troubling times.
All of these actions led to a major boost in the moods of the brothers. As they were able to hang out and see each other while also being able to be safe from the pandemic. Spencer also noticed that a lot of brothers were struggling with the transition from in person classes to online. So he enacted a scholarship committee that organized zoom study sessions and tutoring from upper class men with the lower class men to help the boys keep their grades in check.
The experience of having to run the fraternity through such difficult times had an effect on Spencer as well. Even if he tried his best to hide his stress from his fellow members. To cope with the stress Spencer turned to what he has always turned to for a majority of his life, his hobby, map making. “Honestly map making has kind of been my saving grace over this last year. It always does a great job of letting me relax and forget about all of the problems I have to deal with a lot of the time. Its therapeutic for me. As with a lot of my life as of late has been out of my control but when I am making my maps everything is within my control. I can plan everything meticulously right down to the names of mom and pop shops in my imaginary little worlds.”
He has taken this philosophy to his fraternity as well. Encouraging brothers to stay active even through the pandemic (safely of course). Challenging his members to try new things and find the best way for them to cope with the stress everybody has been under with this pandemic.
Looks Like it Might Be a Happy Ending
Through Spencers guidance The fraternity hasn’t lost a single member throughout the entire pandemic. While also being able to recruit 14 new members to their ranks this spring. With Coronavirus laws getting less and less strict everyday and more and more places are allowed to reopen normally Spencer is looking forward to a bright future ahead for Sigma Pi. “Well I keep track of the vaccine doses everyday and its starting to look more and more encouraging. We have been able to throw a couple of smaller events as of late and morale just keeps going up. I feel like the sky is the limit for us. As I keep saying to the boys we were able to make it through this adversity I feel like we can make it through anything. I can’t wait to see where Sigma Pi goes after I’m gone.”
Spencer has left a lasting legacy on the members of his fraternity. Leading them through some of the toughest times of this decade. They will surely be having a teary goodbye as he leaves Colorado State University at the end of may.
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