Alpha Sigma Alpha History

Longwood College in Farmville, Va was the first institution of higher learning in Virginia to accept women for collegiate study. It, naturally, attracted the best of the best in young women, most of them including daughters of professors already familiar with the fraternity idea.

 

Among the students in the Fall of 1901 were five attractive, vivacious, and intelligent women. They had been rushed and bid by many existing sororities. However, if they accepted these bids, it means they wouldn't become sorority sisters.

 

These women were Virgina Boyd Noell, Louise Cox Carper, Mary Williamson Hundley, Calva Watson Wooten, and Juliette Hundley Gilliam.

 

On November 15, 1901 a new sorority was organized by these women and it was called, Alpha Sigma Alpha. 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 model such opinions as will tend to elevate and ennoble womanhood in the world."