Alpha Omicron Pi

Alpha Omicron Pi

Alpha Omicron Pi (ΑΟΠ, AOII) is an international women's fraternity promoting friendship for a lifetime, inspiring academic excellence and lifelong learning, and developing leadership skills through service to the Fraternity and community. ΑΟΠ was founded on January 2, 1897 at Barnard College on the campus of Columbia University in New York. Its founders were Stella George Stern Perry, Helen St. Clair Mullan, Elizabeth Heywood Wyman, and Jessie Wallace Hughan. The four founders met in the Columbia Law Library to begin their fraternity and to forever seal their friendships and the friendships of all future members. The philosophy which the founders guided their principals included membership to women who share their belief in lifelong friendship, service and love. Membership should be offered to women regardless of ethnicity, religion or socio-economic background. Because the founders had ethnicities that included Jewish and Catholic backgrounds, this ideal was in place from the very beginning.

Today, Alpha Omicron Pi is an international women's fraternity, with 193 collegiate chapters and 320 alumnae chapters in Canada and the U.S.A. Its international headquarters is located in Brentwood, Tennessee and it is a member group of the National Panhellenic Conference, which is the governing council of the 26 member women's fraternities and sororities.

Like many other Greek organizations for women, Alpha Omicron Pi is a fraternity, not a sorority, although both terms are often used. The term sorority was not yet in widespread use at the time of Alpha Omicron Pi's founding, and therefore it is officially a "fraternity for women."

Read more about Alpha Omicron Pi:  History, Symbols, Chapters, Philanthropy, Notable Alumnae

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