Mo Alpha Phi Kappa Psi Brothers in Business
Mo Alpha Brother,
Think back to when you were at Mizzou. Did you or one of your Brothers have an alum or older Mo Alpha Phi Psi who positively influenced your career path? Many of us did, and formed friendships that have lasted for decades. It is now your opportunity to provide that same valuable guidance to our undergrad Brothers at Mizzou.
The Mo Alpha Phi Kappa Psi Brothers in Business activity pairs our undergrads with alumni who pursued similar degrees and have valuable business experience. This career development activity has been very helpful to undergrads in the past, and we want to build on this success by encouraging more undergrads and alums to participate. This activity will typically involve three phone calls (or perhaps FaceTime or Zoom calls) each semester between the undergrad and alum. If you are not already enrolled as a mentor or mentee, we encourage you to join us in this worthwhile endeavor. With over 150 undergrad Brothers on campus this Fall, we have a great need for more alums to offer their expertise. Contact Brother Mark Picker, ’73, 309-846-0521 or send an e-mail to mark.b.picker@gmail.com. You can also access the Brothers in Business page on the PhiPsiMizzou.com website.
To give you an idea of what the Brothers in Business is all about, the following two examples will give you an idea. Thanks for alum Brothers Bill Scheidker. '66 and Bob Underhill, '71, and recent graduates Chris Appel, '22 and Joe Wagner, '22 for their participation in the Brothers in Business.
Mentoring for success in engineering
Chris Appel ’22 and Bill Scheidker ’66
What alum hasn’t been helped in their career by a mentor? We’ve all had help along the way. For alums like Bill Scheidker ’66, offering that helping hand for an undergrad who is staring at making the big leap from student to first career job is an important part of living the brotherhood.
As part of our Brothers in Business mentoring activity, “Stein” teamed up early this year with Chris Appel ’22, a senior majoring in civil engineering. It was a good match: two civil engineering majors, two former chapter presidents, two fraternity leaders from different eras.
The two brothers first met at Spring Homecoming in 2023 but didn’t establish their mentorship until the Alumni Relations Committee revived the program in early 2025 under the direction of Brother Mark Picker ’73.
Whenever Stein was in Columbia, the two found time to talk. With occasional phone calls and then a dinner meeting, the conversations deepened this summer after Chris started an internship at Kansas City-based engineering firm Burns & McDonnell. Stein was able to share learnings from his career in engineering, which included owning his own firm and then working for another leading Kansas City-based engineering firm, Black & Veatch, managing structural engineering projects for the firm in the U.S. and abroad. One piece of valuable advice he offered was for Chris to start his own engineering library.
“We’ve tried mentoring programs in the past, but they always seemed to collapse when it comes down to communication,” Stein said. “The undergrads then felt left alone. Regular communication is really the key.” Chris says the mentoring program has been a huge help, along with the leadership opportunities he’s had as a Phi Psi at Mizzou. He hopes more undergrads and more alums will take advantage of the program. For him, the summer internship led to a permanent job offer at Burns & McDonnell after he graduates. He’s now back in Columbia finishing his degree and grateful that his future career has been helped by his association with Phi Psi and a mentor who helped guide his path.
Mentoring for success in accounting and finance
Joe Wagner ’22 and Bob Underhill ‘71
Among his many leadership roles in the house, Brother Joe Wagner ’22 is this year’s undergrad alumni relations chair. As such, he’s working closely with the Alumni Relations Committee to bolster our membership program, helping Brother Mark Picker ’73 match undergrads with alums for our mentorship activity dubbed Brothers in Business.
So it makes sense that Joe was among the first participants in the program, pairing with Bob Underhill ’71 as his mentor. “I knew of Bob when I was chapter president in 2023-24,” Joe said, “but we didn’t meet until Spring Homecoming II last April. Bob has worked in my same field of public accounting, so it was a perfect match.”
After earning his accounting degree and law degree from Mizzou, Brother Underhill spent 25 years with Arthur Andersen, eventually becoming a partner and moving to the firm’s Seattle office. He later left the firm to start his own accounting and financial consulting firm in downtown Seattle. Bob provided invaluable expertise during our Capital Campaign and continues to do so as a Housing Corporation board member.
Since signing up for Brothers in Business, Bob has mentored two undergrads, Harry Pardo ’23 and Brother Wagner. The house currently has many finance and accounting majors, so the need for additional mentors in that field is huge.
Bob and Joe have kept in touch mainly by phone, but also during Bob’s occasional visits to the house, most recently when Bob was a member of an alumni panel at Spring Homecoming II last April. Joe has worked at Ernst & Young and this past summer landed an internship with Prinova. He has accepted a job offer with Ernst & Young after graduation.
Discussions with Bob thus far have included advice on managing Joe’s career path, including whether and when he might want to pursue a law degree – something Bob has found to be highly advantageous in his career. A native of Palatine, Illinois, Joe is back in Columbia this fall, still involved in helping his fraternity but looking forward to charting his future career. His advice to other undergrads is to get involved in Brothers in Brothers as a sophomore and not wait until their junior or senior year to benefit from the counsel and example available from a fellow Phi Psi.
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Mark Picker