Before Luke Higgins knew strength through service in the Brotherhood of Lambda Chi Alpha, he was forging his own path. Over the course of his childhood and into his collegiate career, Higgins has logged over 2000 hours of community service.

Most of these hours come from the South Dakota National Guard Youth Program, a program which Higgins became a part of when he was just eight years old. Meant to bring together children from military families, Higgins fell in love with the values and the camaraderie that the program promoted. As he got older, Higgins involved himself more and more with the program, taking a spot on the Youth Council. Higgins and the other council members worked to format camps for the younger children to learn values such as service.

“We helped create the ability for these kids to have somebody to reach out to… members of the Youth Council got to meet with a kid whose parent was on deployment,” said Higgins.

Coming from a strong military background himself, Higgins has always held service to others in the highest regard. When he enlisted in 2019, he knew that he could serve others through the medical route. After basic training, Higgins completed combat medical training. Higgins thought he could make a real difference with these skills, so he changed his major from engineering to pre-health.

For Higgins, the military has provided direction and aided him in meeting people where they are, no matter their background.

“The military really builds you up in a whole bunch of different ways that you don’t expect,” said Higgins. “It makes you resilient, it makes you able to tolerate the horrible things in life…and understanding that everybody comes from a different background I think is another thing that’s really important as well.”

So, when Higgins got to the South Dakota School of Mines, he was looking to keep building on the lessons that were so engrained in him from the military. Greek Life did not even cross his mind, but before he knew it, he found himself gravitating towards the men of Lambda Chi Alpha.

Higgins appreciated what the organization, and all of the Brothers in turn, stood for and saw membership in this Brotherhood as a way to keep growing in his love of service.

Most recently, Higgins has taken on the role of High Alpha. With this new responsibility, Higgins is learning what it means to not only be of service to others but how to lead effectively.

“Lambda Chi has taught me so much about what I want to be and how I want to grow and what direction I should take myself,” said Higgins.

Higgins’s goal for his chapter as High Alpha is to attract men that are ready to do the work to help themselves stand out and position themselves to have a positive impact in their community.

“The more you put out into the world, the more you get back,” said Higgins. “And I think if we continue as Lambda Chi and as ourselves as Brothers to try and improve the world and make it a better place one piece at a time, we can do a lot of change really fast.”