The ‘sky is the limit’ for Elon University senior and founder of Delta Sigma Pi’s Phi Psi chapter
It takes approximately thirty seconds of talking with Elon University senior and founder of the Phi Psi chapter of Delta Sigma Pi Francesco (Franki) Filandro to realize that she is 1) from Long Island and 2) a total badass. In fact, her brothers in Delta Sigma Pi and other students from the Love School of Business will openly call her one — and it’s warranted.
Filandro is from New York. She’s a management major and triple minor in finance, leadership studies and communications. If that’s not enough, she started her own business fraternity at Elon.
But being involved with the business industry isn’t new for Filandro. Her father worked on Wall Street for 30 years and when Filandro was younger, he would take her along on small business endeavors.
“He covered retail stocks and some of them were like Victoria’s Secret and American Eagle,” Filandro said. “So he would always take me to the mall because if he had to look at something it might be a little awkward if he was walking into Victoria’s Secret by himself without a girl around.”
“It is true that Franki had an interest in the business world from an early age,” Filandro’s mother Cami said. “She was always very inquisitive about her dad’s career, his clients, any conferences he attended, etcetera.”
While Filandro was exposed to the business industry at an early age, she makes it clear that she wasn’t forced into it. She grew to love it and so when it came time to apply for colleges, Filandro was searching for business schools — especially those that offered co-op programs akin to Drexel and Northeastern’s. These programs are 5-years-long, and one of those years is spent working for a company as a paid intern with an intensive work load.
“Somebody said that Elon had a co-op program,” Filandro said. “Long story short, they don’t. But I came here and I fell in love with it.”
Once at Elon Filandro knew she wanted to join a business fraternity, however, the pledging process for the organization she was interested in was too much of a time commitment. Disappointed, Filandro called her dad who jokingly told her to start her own business fraternity.
“I couldn’t sleep that night,” Filandro said. “So I actually just pulled out my laptop and typed in co-ed business fraternities and Delta Sigma Pi was the first one that came up. So I clicked on it and read up on it.”
With further research, Filandro discovered that Delta Sigma Pi was started in her home state of New York and was the first business fraternity to accept women.
“I emailed them right then and there at like 3 in the morning and they got back to me the next morning and said I was approved to start a colony at Elon,” Filandro said.
But obtaining the official charter for Delta Sigma Pi did not come easy.
“We applied for our charter for the first time when I got back from abroad, which was spring 2017,” Filandro said. “And we actually got denied which was the first time in my life I had ever failed.”
To Filandro, this failure was a pivotal moment for not only Delta Sigma Pi, but for her own personal life as well.
“I think that was the defining moment in my life,” Filandro said. “You’re going to hit road bumps, but you have to just keep driving and see what happens and get to your destination.”
“From the moment the idea [for Delta Sigma Pi] sparked inside her head, through the ups and downs of the years-long process and through its initiation, Franki devoted 110% of her heart and soul into the chapter’s success,” Filandro’s best friend Brianna Klenkel said. “Watching both her and Delta Sigma Pi grow together was like watching her win a hard earned marathon.”
Filandro’s unwavering resilience, however, is not a new quality.
When Filandro was only three days old, she was diagnosed with an incurable fatal metabolic disease and was given a projected lifespan of one year. But after being administered an extremely difficult and painful test at just a few months old, Filandro put up the fight of her life. Her mother, 22 years later, recounts what the doctor said to her that day.
“I can still remember the doctor coming out the room after the test, covered in sweat,” Cami Filandro said. “In his words, he had never seen a baby so young, put up such a fight! He told me that if anyone was going to prove the doctors wrong, it would be her!”
The first year of Filandro’s life was difficult for her whole family, however, at the end of that year she was given a “clean bill of health,” Cami Filandro said. “From that point on, we knew that determination was a part of Franki’s DNA.”
I am constantly in awe that despite the obstacles that have come her way, Franki never loses her enormous sense of optimism,” Klenkel said. “She is genuine, honest and never afraid to be herself or boast her New York accent in any setting!”
Current president of Delta Sigma Pi and Elon University junior Caroline Cirby believes that Filandro is the perfect example of quality student leadership because of the qualities Cami Filandro highlights.
“I don’t have words to even say how inspiring Franki is or how much of an impact she has made on my college experience, let alone on Delta Sigma Pi,” Cirby said. “She is dedicated and passionate about everything and a truly embodies everything that a student leader is and should be.”
Cirby also makes sure to note Filandro’s personality and relationships within Delta Sigma Pi.
“If you ask any of our members about Franki there is no doubt they will say that she is one of the most inspiring, caring, humorous, hardworking and passionate individuals they have ever met,” Cirby said. “Her genuine personality and humility make her one of the most personable people who can start a conversation and have a relationship with anyone she meets.”
Despite Filandro’s busy life, her priorities remain clear in the eyes of the people who know her best.
“Even on her busiest days, she always makes time for her friends and family,” Klenkel said. “Everything that Franki has accomplished so far is just a preview of what’s to come for her, and if there was ever a person for who the sky is the limit, it’s Franki.”
