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Editor’s note: alpha Kappa Delta Phi Sorority, Inc., purposely does not capitalize the “a” in Alpha.

It’s been quite a year for the Tau Chapter of alpha Kappa Delta Phi Sorority, Inc. (aKDPhi) at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

aKDPhi, an Asian-American interest sorority, was established at the University of California at Berkeley in the Fall of 1989 and was recognized by the College Panhellenic Association a year later.

According to its national Website, aKDPhi’s mission is “to provide sisterhood among women, scholarship, leadership and Asian awareness in the University and community.” The above mentioned are the sorority’s pillars.

Founded 12 years ago, Tau Chapter has worked hard to uphold the goals and mission of its sorority. This past year, the chapter has been recognized with several prestigious awards by both Cornell University and the sorority’s national board.

At aKDPhi’s 2008 National Convention, Tau Chapter was awarded the “Cultural Awareness Award” by its national board. The award recognizes one chapter annually who excelled tremendously in the sorority’s goal of teaching others about Asian culture.

Later, in fall 2008, the chapter won the “Outstanding Dedication to Service Award” for its dedication to service in Cornell’s campus and to the Ithaca community. The award was given to the chapter by Cornell University’s Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, the African Latino Asian Native American Students Programming Board and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

Jane Yang, who served as Vice President of Service during the 2007-08 academic year, said the chapter was proud and glad to be recognized but that they’re definitely going to continue working on their service.

This past spring, the chapter was awarded the “Cultural Awareness Award” by its National Board Northeast Governor. Melissa Yee, the chapter’s current president, said Tau Chapter hosted over 20 cultural programs that educated Cornell’s student community about aspects of the Asian culture such as its holidays and traditions.

The sorority’s National Board Northeast Governor also awarded the chapter with “Chapter of the Year” 2009 for its overall excellence in aKDPhi’s mission and goals. Both awards won by the Northeast Governor recognize only one of the eleven chapters that currently make up aKDPhi’s Northeast region.

Yee said that although it was nice for her chapter to be recognized with awards, it was nothing out of the ordinary; it is their goal as an organization.

“It’s just what we always do as a chapter,” she said.

Yee herself was awarded the “IRIS Award (In Recognition of Inspirational Sisterhood)” at the sorority’s National Convention last year by aKDPhi’s National Board Northeast Governor. The award recognizes up to 2 sisters from the region for their excellence in leadership, scholarship, Asian-awareness, and community service.

Yee said aKDPhi’s members try to promote the sorority’s pillars within their chapters, their regions and throughout the nation. She said they help each woman in school, with their career goals and with whatever goes on in their personal lives.

“It’s really just about helping each other to do that,” she said. “It’s just the really strong support network for women so we can impact each other and ourselves.”

Yee added that this network helps develop each member as a whole.

“And then after that, we are strong as women,” she said.

Tau Chapter also works to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, which is aKDPhi’s national philanthropy. Up until about a year ago, Tau Chapter had a tradition of hosting coffeehouse events where they invited guests to speak about breast cancer while the chapter sold pastries and coffee to attendees.

In spring 2008, the chapter wanted to switch things up. Instead of hosting another coffeehouse event, they decided to host a carnival instead.

“We did a carnival so that our target population would be more intrigued to attend,” Yang said.

The Biannual Breast Cancer Awareness Carnival includes games, performances and a lecture from a local cancer researcher, among other things. The chapter members sell breast cancer cupcakes which they bake themselves. They also raffle off prizes at the event, which brings in more funds.

According to Yang, Tau Chapter raised almost 1,000 dollars in 2008.

“That was pretty successful- it drew in a lot more people,” Yang said.

All these accomplishments did not come easily, however. Yee said the biggest challenge for the chapter this year was funding. She said this was especially difficult because the chapter was working to go from associate chapter status to a full-fledged chapter status and were taking on a lot more work than they normally would had they not been trying to achieve that.

The chapter earned the title during their national convention this summer.

Yee remains very optimistic about the future of alpha Kappa Delta Phi.

“Since we are a relatively young organization, we’re really lucky to still be in the development stages,” she said. “We’re still at a place where we can make decisions that’ll change the direction of our sorority. We’re really lucky to have that.”

Source Information:

http://www.akdphi.org/index.html

http://www.cornellakdphi.org/

http://www.akdphi.org/about.html

Amaris Castillo is a recent graduate of the University of South Florida with a Bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism.  Her interests include independent films, chocolate and spoken word poetry. She hopes to become both a magazine editor and a respected author whose books will be studied in college writing courses long after she has passed.