In some cases, sororities may not be typically viewed as service organizations. In fact, media portrayals often stereotype sorority members as popular girls who are only involved to participate in partying and couldn’t care less about anything else in their college career. However, this is not the case for Penn State Behrend’s sorority Alpha Sigma Alpha (ASA).

The first ASA chapter was formed in November 1901 on the campus of Longwood University in Virginia, and the first Penn State Behrend chapter was formed in 1987. This year, twenty-six members strive to follow the sorority’s motto, which is to “Aspire, Seek, Attain.”

“We are an organization on campus that are here to have fun with one another, and we do events all the time that have nothing to do with partying or immature behaviors,” senior Sadee Straight, ASA Vice President of Education, said. “Our organization is really just to work on closer bonds, leadership, personal growth, and empowering young women. It’s not about making poor decisions as a group at all.”

ASA participates in many events each year, including beach clean-ups at Presque Isle, highway clean-ups on the Bayfront Connector, and the Erie Polar Plunge, an event where the members run into Lake Erie in early November to raise money for Special Olympics, an organization that supports young athletes with intellectual and physical disabilities.

“The Special Olympics is one of our most important events,” Straight said. “We volunteer to spend Saturday mornings in Erie Hall working with kids from the Young Athletes Program and teaching them how to play sports and be active.”

Senior Megan Bienkowski, President of ASA, shares Straight’s commitment to helping others. She has been a member of ASA since spring of 2022.

“I believe that the Special Olympics event is the most beneficial to the outside community because of how amazing it is to help children in need,” Bienkowski said. “You get to see them learn and try new things while you’re growing closer with the members in your sorority by teaching them together.”

Gaining new friends, forming special bonds, and growing together are characteristics many of the members feel they have gained through their membership with the sorority.

“Being in a sorority opens your eyes to so many different people; people that I would never have gone up to on my own, and now those people are some of my closest friends,” Straight said. “Joining a sorority can also be very good for people that didn’t have close friendships in high school or even at the beginning of college.”

This perspective was further reinforced by ASA’s Senior Vice President of Recruitment, Skylar Merry, who shared that her personal reasons for joining the ASA sorority were much the same as Straight’s.

“I used to be very quiet and shy before I joined the sorority, but I joined ASA because I wanted an opportunity to make friends and be able to get more involved on campus,” Merry said. “Now I have made long-lasting friendships.”

The relationships were not formed through negative off-campus activities involving immature behavior. Instead, they developed because the members focus on supporting each other and giving back to the community. By helping others, the members feel proud of their decision to join the sorority and are grateful for the bonds they have created.

“I never wanted to join a sorority; I never saw myself as one of those girls,” Bienkowski said. “However, once I attended some events, I felt differently and discovered that I really liked the girls I met which caused me to gather more information about the group before I made my decision to join. Now I’m the president.”

Bienkowski’s journey highlights the power of creating connections within the ASA sorority at Behrend. Similarly, Merry found a sense of belonging that went beyond the mainstream sorority stereotypes.

“I didn’t choose ASA for the stereotype sororities receive,” Merry said. “I chose ASA because it felt like home; it felt like everyone was my sister, and now they are.”