Published: June 30, 2008 09:36 am            

Local chapter wins national recognition

Local members of the country’s oldest Native American sorority received national recognition for their community service efforts earlier this month at the organization’s national convention.

Gamma Chapter, an undergraduate chapter of Alpha Pi Omega Sorority, Inc., at Oklahoma State University, received the chapter Busy Bee Award for the 2007-2008 school year.

The chapter’s four active members completed more than 300 hours of community service during the school year. They will share the award with Delta Chapter at the University of New Mexico.

Jessica Moore, a landscape architecture senior and Gamma Chapter president, won the sorority’s PI of the Year Award, given annually to an outstanding member. Criteria include community service, grades and extracurricular activities. Moore, the 2007-2008 Miss Indian Oklahoma, is the second Gamma Chapter member to win the award.

Additionally, leisure studies senior Ashley Morris was elected the sorority’s national board. The current MGC president, Morris will serve a two-year term as the organization’s national community service chair. She is the sixth Gamma Chapter sister elected to the national board and the first to serve while still in undergraduate school.

The country’s oldest Native American greek organization, Alpha Pi Omega was founded in 1994 at UNC-Chapel Hill and expanded to Oklahoma State University in 2002. With more than 300 sisters representing 70-plus tribes, the sorority has chartered chapters in five states and interest groups in three additional states and the District of Columbia. Four OSU alumnae are currently on the sorority’s national board.

        

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