Nu Alpha Kappa comes to USD

Students seek to combine Greek Life with Latino culture by forming a new fraternity chapter

Glenn McDonell / Asst. News Editor / The USD Vista

On Saturday, Oct. 20, nine University of San Diego students chartered the Latino-based Nu Alpha Kappa (NAK) Fraternity, bringing the total number of fraternities on campus to eight. 

Senior Bryan Cardenas, who founded USD’s chapter of NAK, hopes that the new chapter will bring in students who might not have ever thought of joining Greek Life.

“We want to make sure people will see a chapter that will challenge them to consider Greek Life as an option, and a community they can belong in,”  Cardenas said.

Cardenas came up with the idea of bringing NAK to USD in the spring of 2016 after finding himself dissatisfied with the existing recruitment process. With some encouragement from friends in other student organizations, Cardenas decided that the best way for him to experience the kind of fraternity life he wanted would be to bring a new chapter onto campus.  

“I remember talking to some of my friends in MEChA about how there are no Latino fraternities here at USD, and they said I should try starting my own,” Cardenas said. “I think I just wanted there to be a chapter which would help people who hadn’t really considered Greek Life as an option find a community they can really belong in.”

Founded in 1988 at California Polytechnic University, NAK was originally formed by a group of friends who wanted to help fellow Latino students overcome the culture shock of being first-generation college students at predominantly white colleges and universities. As the fraternity has grown, however, its membership and its mission have evolved with it.

Cardenas says that while USD’s new chapter of NAK will work to serve a similar purpose, there’s more to the chapter in terms of both membership and mission. 

“We were founded by Latino men, but our recruitment going forward doesn’t have to be limited to that,” Cardenas said. “We want to promote and expose the community to Latinidad and what it means to be a Latinx person. We’re rooting for anyone who feels marginalized or doesn’t feel included for whatever reason.” 

As the fraternity’s cultural chair, Cardenas has worked to organize awareness and fundraising events aimed at bring attention to Latino culture, as well as issues within the Latino community.  

“Recently, we put on an event to commemorate Indigenous People’s Day in partnership with AISO (American Indian Student Association) with the goal of bringing attention to specific issues affecting native communities,” Cardenas said. “Some of the big ones we’ve focused on have been issues like the disappearance of aboriginal and native women, and the presence of ICE here on this campus. We’ll stay protesting and looking for what we can do to help.” 

Cardenas says that this kind of partnership between Greek and non-Greek organizations is something he hopes to continue as a leader in NAK, and something which he hopes will spread through the Greek community.  

“Most partnerships for philanthropy events are between fraternities and sororities right now, so we want to be able to bridge the gap and team up with other student organizations,” Cardenas said.  “By having one foot in Greek Life and another in multicultural orgs like MEChA and the UFMC, we can show that they don’t have to be separate and I think we can really change the culture at USD.” 

Before the new fraternity gained its current presence on campus, Cardenas worked for several semesters to recruit members, eventually building to the nine brothers who make up NAK today. 

Junior Cristiano Merano, who started getting involved with NAK in the fall of 2017, wasn’t sure if a fraternity was right for him at first.  

“I just wanted to focus on athletics and academics and early on I didn’t think of myself as the kind of guy who would be in a frat,” Merano said. “I think one of the reason I stuck around was because I realized that we all had a lot of the same goals in common.”

For Merano, using NAK to make sure that new students would be able to find a community was also something that drove him to become a founder.  

“I personally have had friends who have worked hard to make it to this campus only to find that they don’t fit in and then leave, and it’s heartbreaking,” Merano said. “If NAK can help make sure that they find a place where they can feel welcomed, then I’m in.” 

Junior and political science major Edgar Chavarria started collaborating with Cardenas in the fall of 2016, and became the chapter’s president this semester. Initially, Chavarria also wasn’t sure a fraternity was right for him. 

“I think a lot of us at first never thought we would ever be in a frat- it just seemed like a stereotype we didn’t fit into,” Chavarria said. “The more we discussed the idea, the more we realized this could be an opportunity for us to make Greek life more inclusive, and also more appealing for those who are a little more reserved being Latino.” 

While both Cardenas and Chavarria were already involved with Latino-based student organizations like MEChA, they saw that there was a need for the kind of male fellowship within their community which a fraternity would be able to provide.  

“Being a first generation Latino student here at USD, I wanted NAK to be able to provide support and brotherhood for others who might have that in common,” Chavarria said. “There’s something more personal about a fraternity that you don’t get in other types of orgs.”

For Chavarria, the hard work and sacrifices he and others put into establishing NAK at USD have helped to build this brotherhood within the fraternity.  

“We didn’t know each other that well when we decided we wanted to do this, but the work we have done to bring this onto campus have really built relationships,” Chavarria said. “All the steps we’ve had to go through, from convincing IFC to staying up late into the night planning has brought us together.” 

After four semesters of gradual growth and hard work on the part of its founding members, NAK has garnered official national recognition and has taken its place alongside the other seven fraternities at USD. This coming spring, the brothers of NAK will have their first chance to recruit new members through the IFC process and to work towards growing their vision of fraternity life for a new generation of Toreros.