Throughout the process of setting up “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes,” Shopher once again drew upon his military experience. He learned years before that baby steps are important in the planning process of any successful event, otherwise it could fail. In the end, projects like the one he brought back from Leadership School only earned Shopher more admiration among his brothers.

“He’s always one of those guys I can go to who is going to get the job done. He does it so well,” says Kyle Gillespie, the chapter’s Eminent Archon, who has worked alongside Shopher on projects.

For Shopher, staying active and involved reaches outside of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, though. He works with the Interfraternity Council, helping to plan and execute events such as homecoming and Greek Week. He stepped up to work with campus recreation and the organization of intramural sports as a referee. He’s even a major part of the Army ROTC program, participating in as many of its events and exercises as possible — because the passion he holds as a soldier remains burning, even as a student.

“I want to help the Greek community put its letters out there,” Shopher says. “The university needs to see that we’re more involved than the average student…that we make a difference here.”

For as much as Shopher continues to accomplish for his chapter, he sees the bigger picture, which impresses him most about the organization. He is among the members who had that Leadership School opportunity, which, he says, changed his outlook on the Fraternity. “I went from seeing what our 30-40-man chapter can do, and then I see 600 brothers from all over the nation and what they’re up against,” he says. “We talked about things like our problems in SAE, this is what we had to deal with and this is how we succeeded. I thought that was the big point. The good outweighs the bad.”

On his return flight, he wore SAE letters, which caught the attention of one of the pilots. Then, when the pilot gave him the SAE salute, Shopher realized what most members should realize — that Sigma Alpha Epsilon is bigger than just one brother or one chapter or one province. Our bonds transcend the globe.

“It takes your eyes off the small picture and gives you the big picture. You get to see everything we can do,” he says. The time that Tennessee Tau gets to enjoy his leadership will not last forever, though. Once Shopher graduates, he plans to head right back into the military, where he’ll be an officer. “I’ve knocked out about six years of my service, so I only have about 14 more to go,” he says. And while he’s pledged his obligation to our country, he’s made a pledge to his chapter as well. “I don’t want to be the guy who just graduates and gets put on alumni status and then you never hear from him,” he says. “I’d like to make donations continuously to the house for the brothers. I don’t want to be the guy who shows up at alumni weekend and says, ‘Hey, you don’t know me, but this is my badge number, and this is what I did.’”

Shopher says brothers shouldn’t showboat their accomplishments from the past. Instead, he’s rather talk about them and show others what he did so he can guide them in the right direction. He wants to continue doing things for Sigma Alpha Epsilon ten to 20 years from now.

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