Student Regent Jacob Wellman Receives Prestigious National Fraternity Award

Jacob Well­man is no stranger to respon­si­bil­ity and team­work. At 22, and still a year away from grad­u­at­ing, he has been the pres­i­dent of his fra­ter­nity, held mul­ti­ple posi­tions at the Asso­ci­ated Stu­dents of the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico (ASUNM) and cur­rently serves as a UNM Stu­dent Regent.

In recog­ni­tion of his achieve­ments, Well­man was one of only three men in the nation cho­sen to receive the North-American Inter­fra­ter­nity Con­fer­ence Under­grad­u­ate Award of Dis­tinc­tion. The award rec­og­nizes fra­ter­nity men who have used the under­grad­u­ate fra­ter­nity expe­ri­ence to develop as a leader and as a man.

“I’ve learned how valu­able friends and men­tors are and I now under­stand the ben­e­fits to pur­su­ing knowl­edge,” Well­man said.

Well­man joined Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) because he admired the fraternity’s belief that polit­i­cal, reli­gious and philo­soph­i­cal dif­fer­ences have lit­tle effect on a group’s abil­ity to bet­ter the world.

In addi­tion, Well­man was chal­lenged with the unique expe­ri­ence of re-chartering a chap­ter of ATO at UNM. The ATO char­ter was pulled in 1985 after the chap­ter was no longer able to main­tain the high stan­dards set by the ATO national headquarters.

Well­man said he saw the oppor­tu­nity to re-charter ATO as a way to bring more diver­sity to UNM, Greek Life and a group of young men. “I am already see­ing the pos­i­tive dif­fer­ence it has made within Greek Life, on cam­pus and in our mem­bers’ lives.”

“Jake is an incred­i­ble leader and men­tor,” said Skip Brown, ATO Alumni Chap­ter Advisor.

Well­man said the char­ter­ing cer­e­mony this past March is his favorite fra­ter­nity memory.

“To see our chap­ter alumni cry­ing tears of joy that their fra­ter­nity had returned to UNM was a very mov­ing moment,” he said. “The day cul­mi­nated years of hard work and strug­gles that I was able to expe­ri­ence and enjoy with my broth­ers and friends.”

At the cer­e­mony, the mem­bers were finally able to see their fraternity’s rit­ual and be pro­claimed an offi­cial chap­ter of Alpha Tau Omega.

After grad­u­a­tion, Well­man plans to attend law school and work in pub­lic ser­vice with the inten­tion of one day serv­ing in politics.

Story by Evann Kleinschmidt