History
Alpha Sigma Alpha is a woman’s organization which promotes high ideals and standards to its members, and emphasizes its four aims: intellectual, physical, spiritual, and social. The open motto of Alpha Sigma Alpha is aspire, seek, attain. This motto is a standard which every woman tries to forth as chapter members and individuals.
Alpha Sigma Alpha was founded in 1901 in Farmville, Virginia on November 15th. The State Female Normal School, now Longwood University, in Farmville, Va. Was the first institution of higher education in Virginia to accept women for collegiate study. Naturally, it attracted superior students, many of whom were daughters of college professors.
Among the students in the fall of 1901 were five women who were five best friends. Attractive, vivacious, and intelligent, these five friends organized a new sorority on November 15, 1901.
As stated in the charter, “The purpose of the association shall be to cultivate friendship among its members, and in every way to create pure and elevating sentiments, to perform such deeds and to mould such opinions as will tend to elevate and ennoble womanhood in the world.” Signatures to this document include those of Alpha Sigma Alpha’s five founders: Virginia Boyd Noell, Juliette Hundley Gilliam, Calva Watson Wootton, Louise Cox Carper, and Mary Williamson Hundley.
Since the founding in 1901, Alpha Sigma Alpha has achieved many awards of excellence among its members and the chapter. For more than a 100 years, Alpha Sigma Alpha have created strong leaders and have encouraged every member to strive for high ideals that will be carried on throughout each one of their lives.
Member Badges
New Member Badge
A silver emblem with four concave sides, displays the
sorority letters raised against a design of the rising sun. Silver, symbolic of
youth and mystery even as the pale moon is but a promise of the sun and shines
only with reflected light, is regarded as particularly appropriate for the badge
of the novice and new member.
Membership Badge
A black enamel emblem with four concave sides superimposed
on a similarly shaped gold emblem, displays the sorority letters, a star and a
crown. Gold, symbolic of wisdom and revelation, even as the sun sends its shafts
of light into the darkest places, is reserved for the badge of the initiate, to
whom all mysteries have been made clear.
Beta Sigma's History!
The
Beta Sigma chapter of AΣA was founded in 1947 by a group of fabulous women.
Nearly 60 years later, their legacy still lives on with these exceptional women of Missouri
State.
