On a perfect Sunday afternoon during the last weeks of senior year, few things are more depressing than the inevitable stint in Swem. Imagine the thrill of reprieve coupled with birds singing, blue skies and easy conversation and you get an idea of the joy that is time spent with Royce McAllister. Friendly, laid-back, with a greeting from nearly every passerby, That Guy is as down to Earth as he is charming. Here, he talks about Freshman Orientation reviving a fraternity, and combining business with service.
p. **What are you doing next year?**
I’ll be working for General Electric in emerging business in the finance management program. It’s a two-year program and you basically learn everything there is to know about finance. I rotate every six months to different locations, so in the next two years I could be anywhere from Oshkosh, Wis., to Atlanta, Ga., to Schenectady, N.Y., to Southern California to Nevada — Florence, Italy is a possible location. I move every six months to a new place, so it’s a really good program. They do that so you can see different parts of the business; when you work for GE you can pretty much do anything.
p. **What is it like being a business major?**
Actually, when I interviewed, I tried to address this question, because I see myself as more of the anti-business business major. When I explained why I was a business major, it had to do with my service trips to Ghana and Southeast Asia where I got really interested in international development. A lot of areas of development have been spearheaded by people my age in finance. I guess I can see from the liberal arts standpoint (I’m an art history minor, too) why people might not like the business school. There are people in it who are there just to make money.
p. **Tell me about your international service trips.**
The first time I studied abroad was in Italy over the summer with William and Mary. I went to Ghana over spring break of my junior year on an international service trip for medical relief. Then this past winter break, I went to Southeast Asia, and that was with the business school, actually. It focused a lot on international development.
p. **How is it being president of Alpha Phi Alpha?**
When I first started, I was the only new member coming in. Then in the fall we initiated two new members, and that is kind of when we got the ball rolling. There was a semester when it was just me — when I was the chapter, and it was ridiculous. This year we just continued our success with Outstanding Fraternity, with — drop, drop, drop — Greek man of the year and Excellence in Service and Support of Others again, and we won more awards at the district and regional levels again. We had numbers in the past or whatever, but because this is a historically black fraternity, well, there aren’t many at this school, you know?
p. **Where did you learn to step?**
Stepping originated from way back in Africa, and through colonialism it came to the States. I didn’t step until I was initiated into the fraternity, in spring 2004. I pretty much just learned from the guys ahead of me, and with my superior rhythm I was able to see the steps of men in other chapters of my fraternity. I was able to adapt them and do my own thing.
