UPDATED: April 24, 2018 at 8:12 a.m.

Editor’s note: The “Who is Syracuse?” series runs in The Daily Orange every spring to highlight individuals who embody the spirit of Syracuse University. The D.O. encouraged members of the campus community to nominate people who fit this description, and The D.O. selected the final eight nominees. This series explores their stories.

With rattled nerves, Derrick Owens sat alone. He knew no one in the room. He was just an alienated Syracuse University sophomore, waiting around at an information session to learn more about the professional cinematic fraternity Delta Kappa Alpha. Then a recognizable face from class approached.

He had talked to this girl maybe once, but that was enough for Eunice Pak to gravitate toward Owens as, if not a friend, a crutch. She sought a companion as much he did. After entering the session as individuals, the pair became inseparable for a time, texting to meet up before fraternity events so neither had to go alone.

Owens had to take a step back. Pak, it seemed at the time, was too nice.

“(Did) she have some sort of ulterior motive?” Owens, now a senior history and television, radio and film dual major, asked himself more than two years ago. “No. I realized that’s just who Eunice is. She’s someone that is willing to engage with anyone.”

That engagement altered Pak’s college career, stopping her from nearly transferring out of SU and inserting her into the organization that’s come to define the past two years of her life. Graduation is just weeks away for the senior television, radio and film major, as is the end of her unforeseen tenure as DKA president. These milestone moments will mark the culmination of a leap out of loneliness and into the trust of lifelong friends.

“This (organization) has done so much for me,” Pak said. “It’s mainly the reason I’m still at Syracuse.”

Pak arrived at SU with a four-year vision. She would major in international relations and figure out the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications half of her dual degree later. She’d be a regular in the Carrier Dome to cheer on the Orange. And she’d find a home away from home in one of the social sororities on campus.

She returned home to North Jersey after her freshman year having not realized most of these desires. Pak took a television, radio and film course and found her Newhouse major, and rushing only led her to discover that the social Greek life didn’t suit her. And while the Syracuse-Duke basketball game that winter became a lasting memory, a love for SU sports never stuck.

With her parents wishing she had chosen a school with a more recognizable brand and the feeling that something was lacking in her SU experience, Pak submitted an application to New York University. She didn’t establish living arrangements for a fall return to Syracuse.

But Pak hoped for the best. She gave Syracuse one more shot and ended up moving in with a random roommate on South Campus. The situation didn’t improve. The bus ride from her apartment to Main Campus built a buffer between freshman-year friends. Her classes were boring. Then, an old resident adviser floated the idea of giving DKA a shot. A professional fraternity, the RA advertised, offered a different experience than a social sorority.

“I had nothing to lose,” Pak said of her sophomore self. “… I realized it was OK for me to not know where I belonged on campus.”

She met Owens. They’re still best friends. The next semester, the spring of her sophomore year, Pak moved in with another member of her pledge class, Isobella Antelis. They still live together. Through DKA, Pak found a circle of friends with similar interests. She had a reason to stay.

Now, after Pak stuck with her initial college choice, these friends all use the same word to describe her: loyal. When Owens studied abroad in Prague a year ago, Pak finished her semester in London and plotted course for Prague just to stay 12 hours and catch friends’ final film screenings. Owens knew that was a sacrifice.

Chris Sechler, a senior television, radio and film and information management and technology dual major who roomed with Pak during their junior year, recalled countless instances of Pak giving “brutally honest advice” over pho. Antelis pointed to Pak’s cooked dinners and meme-sharing, which seem to constantly brighten gloomy days.

“If she considers you a friend, she’s always going to be there,” Antelis said. “It’s those people she cares about, she puts her whole heart into that friendship.”

Duncan Lambden, a senior English and textual studies major, has found that sentiment to be true as he entered the 2017-18 academic year as DKA’s president. Pak served as vice president.

Lambden hardly knew Pak before they ran unopposed. He worried about their dynamic, but Pak smoothed that over within days. Her trustworthiness was clear when Pak ensured the current leadership maintained access to the fraternity’s bank account after the yearly power-transition caused confusion with the bank. That was the job of the president and the treasurer. Pak helped anyway.

But in the middle of their two-semester term, Lambden left his post. In her final semester as a college student, with a job hunt in full swing, Pak took over.

As president, Pak has focused, in part, on diversity — not just in DKA’s recruiting process but in the film industry in general. The fraternity now has a diversity panel that engages the entire chapter at weekly meetings, and a diversity chair position will be installed next semester.

By that point, Pak will be gone. She’ll have finished four years at SU that didn’t follow the blueprint she laid out after high school. She’ll have left the Greek home she never saw coming. Commencement will be one of her first times back in the Carrier Dome since that game against Duke University her freshman year.

“But I found my group of people, I found my family, my place at Syracuse,” Pak said. “There is a place for everyone. Regardless of what Syracuse has as a reputation, there is a place for everyone to find a home.”

CLARIFICATION: In a previous version of this post, the reason for Duncan Lambden’s departure from the DKA presidency was unclear.

Published on April 23, 2018 at 10:47 pm

Contact: jtbloss@syr.edu | @jtbloss