Brothers Remembered, Brothers Honored: 2025 Award Recipient
John “Jack” Garside
John “Jack” Garside, a native of Raleigh, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in physics. As an undergraduate, Jack worked in the Branca Lab at UNC’s Biomedical Research Imaging Center, where he conducted advanced studies in nuclear medicine and imaging techniques. Jack’s work culminated in multiple published papers and extended into a full-time research role during his gap year before medical school, managing projects funded by the Department of Defense.
Jack’s time at UNC was marked by rich extracurricular involvement and leadership. He pledged Alpha Sigma in 2017, later holding several key positions, including social chair, rush chair, and initiation chair. Jack also volunteered extensively with the Student Health Action Coalition (SHAC), a student-run clinic providing free care to underserved populations, where he served in multiple roles, including Spanish interpreter and operations volunteer. He raised money for the UNC chapter of Timmy Global Health, which funded a medical brigade to serve the community in Tena, Ecuador. Finally, he worked as a photographer for The Daily Tar Heel.
Jack is currently a third-year medical student at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, with an interest in orthopedic surgery. Building on his strong undergraduate experiences, Jack continues to serve his academic and local communities in Washington, DC, leading a medical student mentorship program, tutoring peers, and volunteering with outreach efforts to support the local homeless population.
Brothers Remembered, Brothers Honored: 2024 Award Recipients
Drew Wayland
Drew Wayland, a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, earned a BA in media and journalism with a minor in creative writing from UNC Chapel Hill. As a Morehead Cain scholar, he pursued his passion for discovering and reporting true stories through diverse international experiences. These included roles as a media literacy instructor in Hong Kong, a human rights reporter in South Africa, and a mountain sports journalist in British Columbia, Canada.
At UNC, Drew immersed himself in campus storytelling. He served as editor-in-chief of content for Vintage Blue, a Lodge-founded and student-run fashion company, and as editor for Chapel Hill’s arts and culture magazine, Coulture. His contributions to the UNC School of Journalism’s Media Hub led to winning the 2020 National Hearst Award in Explanatory Reporting for his story on artificial coral-reef regeneration in Belize. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Drew developed a passion for documentary filmmaking, working as a freelance filmmaker in Chapel Hill.
Drew pledged at the Lodge in fall 2017, quickly embracing its history and traditions. He served as assistant Lodge manager and later Lodge manager, living in both Crabdance and Exotica. His passion for researching and sharing the fraternity’s lore extended beyond his active membership and continues to this day.
After graduating in 2021, Drew worked as a development writer for Story Syndicate, a documentary film production house. There, he pitched new films to major streaming services and advised on story mechanics. Concurrently, he worked as an audiovisual technician at the Durham Convention Center and directed a feature documentary, Nowadays, about a Hawaiian farming family’s struggle to preserve their traditional lifestyle.
Drew credits his time at the Lodge as foundational to his interest in exploring diverse global stories. The Lodge, he says, is fundamentally a place of stories, a place to tell them, hear them, and preserve them in ways that bring the fraternity together. Inspired by his fraternity experience and international work, he began a dual Masters of Sciences in global media and communications at the London School of Economics and the University of Cape Town in 2023. This pursuit aims to enhance his storytelling capabilities and his ability to represent subjects more authentically and responsibly.
Nolan Gingrich
Nolan Gingrich, from New Bern, North Carolina, graduated from UNC in 2023, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in biology with a minor in chemistry. Nolan was a member of the pre-optometry club and served as president of the club lacrosse team for two years. While in school, he worked at a local optometry clinic as an administrative intern before joining the staff full-time as a technician.
Nolan pledged at the Lodge in spring 2020 and filled the role of social chair, Delta Advocate, and #5 shortly after. He lived in the Lodge for four semesters, beginning during the COVID pandemic. He lived in the Mojito Lounge his sophomore year and First in Flight during his junior year. Nolan spent his senior year in a nine-bedroom house with other members of the fraternity.
Nolan has been working at Carrboro Family Vision as an optometric technician for the last year while applying to optometry school. His role is to prepare patients for their routine and medical eye exams by performing pretest scans, gathering information regarding their medical history, and coordinating referrals to various specialists.
In September, Nolan will be moving to Boston, Massachusetts, to attend the New England College of Optometry. This is a four-year doctorate program with an optional one-year residency offered to those wanting to specialize in cornea and contact lens, ocular disease, pediatrics, primary care, or vision rehabilitation.
Brothers Remembered, Brothers Honored: 2023 Award Recipient
Walter Winslow
Originally from Hurdle Mills, North Carolina, Walt returned to North Carolina after attending high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, to get his undergraduate degree at UNC. At UNC, he earned a BS in public health, focused on health policy and management, as well as two minors in business administration and computer science. Around the UNC community, Walt held leadership positions across multiple professional, academic, and community-related extracurricular activities. The first of his key leadership positions was serving as copresident for the Jon Curtis Student Enrichment Fund, where he led fundraising efforts to support student extracurricular enrichment activities for academic or professional purposes. He also served as fundraising chair for the UNC chapter of Timmy Global Health, where he helped fund public-health missions around the globe, staffed by UNC students and faculty. Walt was also a key member of other professional clubs in the business and public health schools and served on local consulting projects.
Walt pledged at the Lodge in fall 2014 and quickly became an active member of our fraternity leadership. His most significant role was serving as assistant treasurer (#4.5) and then treasurer (#4) in his junior and senior years. Prior to that, he served as a rush chair for three semesters, a social chair for two semesters, a pledge trainer for one semester, and a #5 for one semester. He also lived in the Lodge for six semesters in both the Sleeping Porch (2 years) and the Boardroom (1 year). He regards the friends he made at the Lodge across those four years as many of his closest friends to this day.
After leaving the Lodge and UNC, Walt worked at McKinsey and Company across healthcare projects as a business analyst and fellow in McKinsey’s Center for US Health System Reform, before leaving to join an early-stage healthcare technology startup: Stellar Health. Stellar Health focuses on supporting primary care providers to best care for their patients under value-based payment arrangements. At Stellar, Walt was promoted twice within his first year at the company and helped with two successful venture capital fundraising initiatives.
Walt states that his experiences at the Lodge and UNC helped him refine his interest in an MBA program by exposing him to the highest caliber of student entrepreneurs and building his professional network, ultimately driving him to take his GMAT while an active brother in the Lodge and to apply to and be accepted at Stanford several years later. Within his MBA program, he is focusing on entrepreneurship in healthcare and has coordinated his coursework, extracurricular activities, and internships around this emphasis. His ultimate goal is to start his own healthcare technology services business, and he regards the Stanford MBA as the best path to pursue this aspiration.