Leo Serrato
Leo Serrato
Leo is the University of Oregon's Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life. He is on a personal and professional mission to end Hazing in Greek-lettered organizations. Leo has been working in Higher Education with Fraternities and Sororities for the past eight years to help accomplish his mission. As a speaker, he has been sharing his personal experience with Hazing to ensure no member ever experiences the trauma involved with Hazing in FSL communities across the country.
Leo is the University of Oregon's Assistant Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life. He is on a personal and professional mission to end Hazing in Greek-lettered organizations. Leo has been working in Higher Education with Fraternities and Sororities for the past eight years to help accomplish his mission. As a speaker, he has been sharing his personal experience with Hazing to ensure no member ever experiences the trauma involved with Hazing in FSL communities across the country.
Leo is a brother of the Theta Chi fraternity and a proud graduate of Fresno State. He earned his bachelor’s in Psychology and a master’s in Student Affairs and College Counseling. As an undergraduate student, he lived through a nightmare situation for any Greek leader, being held responsible for the hazing-related death of a member. Ever since that night, he has vowed to do everything in his power to educate FSL leaders on hazing prevention and proactive leadership.
Leo’s research has been featured in the Central California Research Symposium, and he was named Outstanding Oral Presentation. He has also been featured on podcasts and was named an advisor of the year by Pi Kappa Phi. Leo’s mission is to make a difference one campus at a time. Leo shares his personal story and sheds light on the side of Hazing that is not talked about.
PROGRAMS
From Fraternity Letters to Inmate Numbers: HAZER
Keynote | Workshop
Leo Serrato could have never imagined he’d be delivering this message.
Before August 31, 2012, his fraternity membership experience had been typical. That night, however, changed everything. One of the new members of his chapter died in an alcohol-related hazing incident. Due to his involvement, Leo was charged and sentenced to jail time, and, because of this, he made it a personal mission to work to end hazing.
He vowed to his brother he would not let his death be in vain.
In this powerful, first-hand story, Leo shares the story of that tragic night and the lifelong and real consequences of his actions. But this program isn’t just about one night; HAZER is about how individuals can change the trajectory of hazing in their chapters and communities. Leo brings audiences into a deep dive to understand what hazing looks like, how seemingly innocent “rituals” can be passed down through generations, and how to break the cycle of behavior to create safe environments for all.
Audience members will…
Explore a powerful, first-hand experience of a hazer
Consider how their actions can perpetuate hazing-related behavior and how it impacts all members
Develop strategies to identify and prevent hazing in organizations and communities
Ideal Audiences
- Fraternity/Sorority Life
- Leadership Development
New To You: Creating an Exceptional Membership Experience for All
Workshop
The most important and pivotal time in a membership experience is at the very beginning. It is in this time we lay the foundation for what lifelong siblinghood will be about through the way in which we teach sorority and fraternity.
But are we really teaching it in a meaningful way?
Leo Serrato wants to disrupt the standard ways we engage in new member educational programming. In his signature program New To You, he introduces the newest members of our community and chapters to important topics like hazing, Title IX and sexual misconduct, alcohol use and misuse, UPstander intervention, and ways in which we can be the best sibling to our fellow members.
Through effective, interactive, and eye-opening case study exploration, Leo is confident participants will be better equipped to be the types of members we all hope they can: exceptional!
Audience members will…
Engage in thought-provoking dialogue about what membership truly means
Develop a core understanding of the greatest challenges of membership
Consider ways in which personal choices influence positive and negative outcomes
Be empowered to recognize their role in creating better organizations and communities now and into the future
Ideal Audiences
- Fraternity/Sorority Life
- Leadership Development
Hazed and Confused
Workshop | Retreat
As an undergraduate member, Leo didn’t fully understand hazing. He’d seen it in the movies and the media, but the only education he received was lacking. “Don’t hit the pledges,” he remembers being told.
Now as a champion for ending hazing, Leo knows it’s about so much more than that!
Following the death of a fraternity brother and his involvement in his alcohol-related hazing incident, Leo knew that his message could lend a distinctive perspective to efforts to better education fraternity and sorority members.
In this dynamic and interactive program, Leo works to engage participants on the core elements of hazing prevention, including:
- Definitions of hazing
- Understanding and interpreting laws
- Distinctions of the “levels” of hazing
- Impacts of hazing on individuals and the FSL community
- How to truly prevent hazing
- Meaningful bystander empowerment
Ideal for community education, individual chapters, or headquarters programming, Leo is ready and equipped to create dialogue necessary to prevent harm and tragedy on campus and in our organizations.
Audience members will…
Interact to better understand all elements of hazing from the perpetrator and victim perspective
Develop core competencies related to identifying and eliminating hazing behavior
Equip members engage in true bystander empowerment practices
Ideal Audiences
- Fraternity/Sorority Life
