All About A-Chi-O

Alpha Chi Omega was founded nationally on October 15, 1885 at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Professor James Hamilton Howe, Dean of the Music School, invited seven young women from the school to attend a meeting for the purpose of forming a society. The first appearance of the seven founders - Anna Allen, Olive Burnett, Bertha Deniston, Amy DuBois, Nellie Gamble, Bessie Grooms and Estelle Leonard was in Meharry Hall, wearing scarlet and olive ribbon streamers attached to their dresses.

Sorority Facts

• Alpha Chi Omega was founded as a musical organization and continues to hold strong ties to the arts,    celebrated by members every February for MacDowell Month
• The first man on the moon was married to an Alpha Chi Omega and to commemorate her chapter left her pin on the moon
• Alpha Chi Omega’s badge is on display at a Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. for being chosen as the most beautiful of all sorority badges
• Alpha Chi Omega’s national philanthropy is Alternatives to Domestic Violence and locally the Omega chapter supports Alternative to Violence of the Palouse

Notable alumnae members:

• Melissa Rycroft: reality show star on The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars
• Melissa d’Arabian: The Next Food Network Star winner
• Deidre Downs: 2005 Miss America winner
• Aubrey O’Day: former member of Danity Cane
• Condoleezza Rice: former U.S. Secretary of State
• Trista Rehn Sutter: the original Bachelorette
• Sherron Watkins: Enron whistleblower
• Whitney Thompson: Winner of America’s Next Top Model