 |
 |
 |
|
History Philanthropy Announcements Events Achievements Sisters Recruitment Reasons To Be a TPA! TPA In The News! Sorority Quotes Scrapbook FAQ In Memory Of Contact Us Kean University Guestbook Sign |View |
 |
|
|
 The Founding Sisters of Theta Phi Alpha is a story of a group of young friends, not unlike the memebers today. They were faced with myraid of challenges and issues on their campus. By joining together, they provided support and friendship to one another, to meet the challenges that they faced and to create an organization that would enable future generations to share that sisterhood. We recognize the contributions of the sisters who have gone before us and asknowledge that, without them, our experience today would be very different. In 1912, a small, local fraternity of Catholic women at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, was struggling. The organization had originally been formed by Father Edward D. Kelly in 1909, when he was pastor of the student chapel at the University. He believed that there should be some kind of home life provided for young Catholic women who attended the University and he realized that a sororoity offered such a society, friendship, and atmosphere. Several women students were originally very interested in joining, partly because Catholics were not always welcome in the otehr Greek-letter sororities on campus. By founding this new sorority, Catholic women had sorority life opened to them. Unfortunately, however, by the late spring of 1912 membership in Omega Upsilon was low and the treasury was unable to support the activities of the group. By this time, Father Kelly had become Bishop of Grand Rapids, but he retained his dream of an organization which, ritual and in practice, would help shape the lives of young college women. He enlisted the aid of Amerlia McSweeney, an 1898 graduate of the University of Michigan and a women prominent in educational and civic life in Detroit. She and several alumnae of Omega Upsilon felt that a fraternity for CAtholic women was a pressing need and believed that many of the problems Omega Upsilon were perhaps a result of the operations of the chapter being left completely in the hands of undergraduate members. The alumnae felt that, with their guidance in matters such as finances and housing, a new organization for Catholic women would be quite successful. Throughout the summer of 1912, Amelia McSweeney, seven other alumnae, and two undergraduate women worked tirelessly, meeting at the home of Dorothy and Katrina Caughey, to prepare the plans for the new organization. May C. Ryan contributed the name, motto, and original coat of arms, and the membership selected the Fraternity's flower, jewels, and colors. Two undergraduate members of Omega Upsilon became memebers of Theta Phi Alpha. They were Eva Stroh, a sophomore, and Otilia Leuchtweis, a senior, who became Theta Phi Alpha's first Chapter President. Plans for the coming school year were completed on August 30, 1912, and Theta Phi Alpha began operations on the campus of the University of Michigan. Theta Phi Alpha revers these ten women as its founders: Dorothy Caughey Phalan Katrina Caugher Ward Mildred Connely Selma Gilday Amelia McSweeney Camilla Ryan Sutherland Helen Ryan Quinlan May C. Ryan Eva Stroh Bauer Everson Otilia Leuchtweis O'Hara  OUR MASCOT  OUR MOTTO "Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring" ~ St. Catherine of Siena OUR JEWELS Sapphires & Pearls OUR COLORS Blue, Silver, and Gold OUR FLOWER  OUR CREST  OUR PLEDGE PIN  OUR LOGO  OUR NICKNAME Theta Phi |
