Hon. Heraldo D. Gabriel Founding Father Creator 01		Hon. Carlos E. Lopez Founding Father Listo 02
	Hon. Archer D. Hutchinson Founding Father Majestic 03		Hon. Steven Lee Founding Father Bishop 04
	Hon. Noah Rodriguez Founding Father Knowledge 05		Hon. Marvin Simon Founding Dean Beddroc 06

The majority of Phi Sigma Chi founders were student activists. As a student at City Tech Founder Heraldo Gabriel worked on environmental racism, an issue that was plaguing communities of color. He was also instrumental in helping to shut down the Brooklyn Navy Yard Incinerators which has adverse health effect for the surrounding community. Gabriel had become a key leader on campus. He also mobilized other students against the proposed tuition increases for CUNY students in 1995. The students eventually won the fight against these increases.

In the spring of 1996 after reading an article on how student activism had died out since the sixties and seventies era Archer Hutchinson decided that it was time he stopped waiting for someone to do something about the world’s problems and exercise his power. He quickly became friends with Gabriel and ended up leading a homeless outreach project on campus. Pretty soon he was organizing and hosting events. He hosted his first event that semester, a higher education speak-out with guest speakers including community activist Richard Green from the Crown Heights Youth Collective and Charles Barron, a former Black Panther and future City Councilmember. He was later elected chairman of a student research committee that examined the effects that New York City’s new Work Experience Program had on college students, which found that many student were forced to drop out of school in order to comply with the new welfare program.

During the fall of 1996 Carlos Lopez, who went to high school with Hutchinson, joined the student movement at City Tech. Lopez started working on voter registration. He had once single-handedly registered over sixty students to vote in less than an hour. He knew that the key to claiming the power of the people was for the people to do just that, claim their power. And this was done by exercising the right to vote. By voting the people were not only exercising their right but also showing their power; the power to make a difference. This is exactly what the founders all intended to do as individuals; make a difference in this world.

The three came together and shared and interest in wanting to be apart of an organization that not only pushed community service and economic stability, but also fostered lifelong unity among its members and was structured in a way that kept members involved after graduating from their colleges and universities. There was no organization on campus that was structured in such a way. They researched existing fraternities but were unable to find what they were looking for.

Gabriel and Lopez eventually decided that it would make the most sense to create the fraternity that they had been searching for. Hutchinson and another student activist and poet, Steven Lee, approached the two about joining them with the creation of a new fraternity.

Steven Lee was the youngest of all the founders. He was a freshman in 1996 and was just adjusting to college life. After graduating from LaGuardia High School he enrolled at New York City Technical College. He was the poet of the group. With his strong interest in hip-hop he was often found in the middle of rap cyphers.

Lopez recruited fellow artist Noah Rodriguez to join the group. Rodriguez quickly became a great asset to the team. Rodriguez was always one to think outside the box and reminded the group to be unique and individuals.

The founders also wanted the fraternity to have a meaningful intake process that taught intakes valuable lessons while honing their leadership skills on and off campus. At the same time they felt that it would be wise to have a Dean of Pledges who had experience in pledging and understood the significance. Luckily they had known such a person, Marvin Simon.

Marvin Simon was a leader in the step team Ujama. Simon had attended high school with Lee, who was also apart of the Ujama step team for while. Simon had had experience running an intake process and understood what the group was trying to accomplish with this new fraternity. Simon was the obvious choice for the position of Dean of Pledges. He was brought on board as the sixth founder to be in charge of the intake process. The six founders quickly got to work.

They spent months researching and planning the fraternity. They spent many late nights on campus putting together information, creating concepts, teachings, chants, strolls, steps, the crest, and much more. But they were not the only ones on campus planning the future of a Greek-letter organization.

Founder Heraldo Gabriel approached Jessica Meade, a close friend of founder Noah Rodriguez, about creating a sorority at City Tech. Phi Sigma Chi’s founders were creating an organization that united and built men to be leaders. Gabriel believed that there should be a similar organization that united and honed leadership skills in women as well. Jessica Meade agreed and started working on the creation of Delta Sigma Chi Sorority, Phi Sigma Chi’s sister organization. Meade recruited Amorette Shaw, Mercedes Feliciano, and Tyeisha Neely to help her create this sorority. With assistance from the Phi founders these women founded Delta Sigma Chi Sorority on November 27, 1996 a couple weeks after the founders of Phi Sigma Chi Fraternity declared the establishment of their brotherhood on November 16, 1996.

{Read more about Phi’s History…}