by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D.
Happy Founders Day to the ladies of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.* Founded on January 15, 1908 on the campus of Howard University, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is the first Greek-letter organization founded for black college women. Today, the sorority celebrates 105 years of leadership, sisterhood, education and service to communities of color throughout the world.
Alpha Kappa Alpha has 260,000 members in graduate and undergraduate chapters in the United States, the U. S. Virgin Islands, the Caribbean, Canada, Japan, Germany, Korea and on the continent of Africa. Program initiatives include The Emerging Young Leaders Initiatives which enhances the lives of 10,000 girls in grades six through eight by providing leadership development, civic engagement, enhanced academic preparation and character building. Health initiatives include asthma prevention and management, environmental stewardship and sustainability, an initiative to end global poverty and hunger, economic development and security, and addressing social justice issues including human trafficking and domestic violence, services for children with incarcerated parents, youth aging out of foster care and children in homeless shelters. The sorority also works on voter empowerment, lobbies for access to technology, trains parents as advocates of healthcare and educational needs of children and is a strong supporter of the arts. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. founded the job corps, eventually partnering with the U.S. government to make it a national program for the benefit of the U.S.
Happy Founder’s Day to an illustrious organization of women of the African Diaspora committed to serving all mankind.
To see photos of famous members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., visit Huffington Post.
*In the interest of full-disclosure, The Burton Wire’s founder and editor-in-chief has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. since 1991.
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