aka new member presentation

2022-2026 INITIATIVES

International program overview goals.

Service and sisterhood have been the cornerstone of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated ® since 1908. With the theme Soaring to Greater Heights of Service and Sisterhood , the 2022-2026 administration seeks to build upon Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s rich legacy of service by galvanizing our sisterhood of more than 120,000 active members to lead on the front lines of change, education, and advocacy.

This administration has six initiatives. Strengthen Our Sisterhood will serve as the administration’s “Foundation Initiative” as we strengthen our bonds to support our service mission.

The remaining five initiatives will serve as the “Program Initiatives” which include:

Empower Our Families Build Our Economic Wealth Enhance Our Environment Advocate for Social Justice Uplift Our Local Community

These initiatives are designed to improve the lives of those we serve. We will work collaboratively to maximize our outreach on progressive endeavors and consistently produce leaders who will advance our credo of service.

Strengthen Our SISTERHOOD

For more than a century, our sisterhood has served as the foundation for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority to be an indomitable force for good—in our communities, states, nation, and the world.

We will intentionally take time to fellowship and form lifelong relationships based on affinity, love, trust, respect, and shared goals and interests, while concurrently building on our foundation to serve others.

Areas of focus

AKA Soror Squads

AKA Soror Squads are focused on building greater bonds of sisterhood around common endeavors or activities through intimate small groups.

AKA Pals will allow members to create cross-regional relationships to allow for greater fellowship.

Random Acts of Sisterliness

Random Acts of Sisterliness offer an opportunity for members to share random acts of care and compassion.

“We Are One” AKA Service Day

During our annual MLK Day of Service, all members will join together to volunteer and serve the community side-by-side.

Leadership Development

Undergraduate and graduate members, across all life stages, will engage in a modern, interactive, and high-impact leadership development program.

Empower Our FAMILIES

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority has a strong history of supporting and servicing families, for we understand a healthy family is the foundation of a healthy community.

We will take a multi-generational approach to fortify families within our communities to address child hunger and fortify families within our communities to promote positive youth development and leadership, mental well-being, and senior life. In addition, we will provide food and meals to children in need for charitable purposes.

Childhood Hunger Initiative Power Pack (AKA CHIPP ™ )

AKA CHIPP provides weekend and holiday meals for children within local communities and is targeted to be Alpha Kappa Alpha’s most ambitious childhood hunger program to date.

Youth Leadership Institute (AKA YLI)

AKA YLI is a youth-led and highly interactive leadership development program designed to empower and engage youth, ages 11-13. We will also provide educational services such as conducting Programs, workshops and field trips for middle school youth related to stem, the environment, culture and careers.

Mental Health Awareness

During Mental Health Awareness month, we will use our collective efforts to fight stigma and raise awareness related to depression, anxiety, and trauma.

Our Seniors

Our Seniors focus on ensuring these members can actively participate in all AKA activities. We also will focus on providing educational programs and workshops to support senior members as they navigate senior life priorities.

Build Our ECONOMIC WEALTH

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is launching our most progressive and revolutionary economic initiatives this century. This administration has created institutional-level solutions to combat institutional-level challenges.

We will further encourage and equip our members to place key strategies into action to build personal, organizational, and community economic wealth.

For Members Only TM Credit Union

For Members Only Federal Credit Union will be the FIRST , Black-owned, woman-led , sorority-based, digital banking financial institution in the history of the United States.

Financial Wellness & Planned Giving

Financial wellness and planned giving efforts will assist members with legacy planning supported by expert members and wealth management partners.

Sister Circles

Sister Circles are accountability groups designed to help set and achieve personal savings, investing, and giving goals.

Supporting Women Entrepreneurs

Supporting Women Entrepreneurs will focus efforts to promote, celebrate, enhance, reach, raise visibility and offer access for greater revenue-generating opportunities.

Black Dollar Days

Black Dollar Days will be held during the month of June with a focus on leveraging our collective buying power to funnel revenue to Black-owned businesses and brands.

Enhance Our ENVIRONMENT

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority has the power to galvanize our organization of more than 120,000 active members, create a ripple effect, and make a significant impact on our environment.

We will employ select strategies to optimize our collective ability and to improve and protect the environment at scale. We will prioritize activities that promote the adoption of more sustainable and responsible practices. We will support and sponsor workshops and seminars encouraging and engaging individuals and communities in eco friendly practices to reduce household waste.

Tree Planting

Chapters will track and measure the collective environmental impact of our largest tree planting effort to date.

Community and Home Gardens

Chapters and individuals will create community and home gardens to reduce negative environmental impact and promote sustainable agriculture.

Waste Reduction

Waste reduction efforts will engage individuals and communities in eco-friendly practices to reduce household waste.

Shredding and Electronics Recycling Day

Shredding and Electronics Recycling Day is an annual event to safely dispose of unused electronic devices and securely shred old paper documents resulting in reducing the burden on landfills and natural resources.

Advocate For SOCIAL JUSTICE

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority always has been at the forefront of social justice to promote fairness and equity. We stand in the gap to empower our communities and act in the best interests of all people through social advocacy and justice.

We will equip communities with the tools, knowledge, and support to activate their voices and mobilize self-help to empower communities to help themselves, including by providing information about African American and other women of color currently serving in political leadership positions as well as how to create a pathway for women interested in politics.

Through this program we will also sponsor public policy forums that discuss social justice, politics, and how to engage in them.

Voter Education, Registration, and Mobilization

Voter education, registration and mobilization efforts will empower communities to utilize their most powerful tools of community change and advocacy during local, state, and national elections.

Public Policy Forums

Public Policy Forums will create convenings of non-partisan, open dialogue on policy challenges and the direction of our country.

Candidate Forums

Candidate Forums are non-partisan public events featuring candidates running for office who wish to express their positions on issues.

Public Servant’s Guides

Public Servant’s Guides will provide concise overviews highlighting women of color currently serving in political leadership positions along with information on how to create a pathway for women in politics.

Uplift Our LOCAL COMMUNITY

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority reigns supreme in its mission of “Service to All Mankind.” Given the engagement of more than 1,046 chapters across an international landscape, we have an ongoing history and reputation for making a global impact through local change.

We will celebrate excellence, promote a focus on service, and stimulate effective culture and showcase best practices—”Local Change, Big Impact, and Global Showcase.”

Celebrating Local Community Impact

This recognition and awards program celebrates chapters that have made an exceptional impact in their local community.

Chapter Collaboration Recognition Program

This program acknowledges chapters by providing awards to acknowledge and celebrate the chapters exceptional impact in their community as well as issue awards that acknowledge chapters that have collaborated to combine their resources and efforts to maximize the impact in their community.

Local Community Service Grants

This grant opportunity is for notable local community service projects completed by an individual chapter or chapter collaboration.

News & Events
Member Login
Pay Alumnae Dues
Member Orientation

Member orientation is a four-to-six week introductory program designed to help new members make a successful transition into Kappa Alpha Theta. During orientation, new members can expect to learn the values of Kappa Alpha Theta, responsibilities of membership, and resources and tools to assist them in attaining their highest aspirations during their college and alumnae experience.

Programs & Resources
Member Training

As part of the program, new members will:

Attend in-person modules, sisterhood events, and chapter meetings,
Complete e-learning modules,
Be paired with initiated members who will serve as mentors,
Make meaningful connections with members of the chapter,
Learn about Theta and campus-specific resources available to collegians,
Participate in Kappa Alpha Theta ritual services.

New Member Requirements

New members are eligible for initiation once they complete member orientation, fulfill financial requirements to the chapter, sign the loyalty pledge, and are in good standing. During orientation, new members are responsible for attending new member meetings and chapter meetings.

Academic Mentor Program
Weekly Modules
Ritual Services
Inspiration Week
Theta Beginnings
Intellectual Curiosity
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Widest Influence for Good
Leadership Potential

Mentor & Orientation Handbooks

Serving as your chapter’s chief learning officer, new member director, or are a mentor to a new member? Log in to the Member Portal to review these resources to assist you in serving the new members of your chapter to the best of your ability!

Contact Us

Let us know if you have questions about member orientation.

Welcome to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®

Beta chapter - over 100 years of service , alpha kappa alpha sorority, incorporated, beta chapter, welcomes you to our website. as the second oldest chapter in the sorority, chartered wednesday, october 8, 1913, we have a long legacy in chicago of providing “service to all mankind.” as a city-wide chapter encompassing five schools: university of chicago, loyola university chicago, university of illinois at chicago, columbia college chicago, and roosevelt university, we are committed to addressing the needs of our campuses and the chicago community, and serving as role models for girls and young women. we hope that this website provides you with any and all information to learn more about us and how to support our programs and service events., our mission, alpha kappa alpha’s mission is to cultivate and encourage high scholastic and ethical standards, to promote unity and friendship among college women, to study and help alleviate problems concerning girls and women in order to improve their social stature, to maintain a progressive interest in college life, and to be of “service to all mankind.”, o ur vision, as alpha kappa alpha has grown, it has maintained its focus in two key arenas: the lifelong personal and professional development of each of its members; and galvanizing its membership into an organization of respected power and influence, consistently at the forefront of effective advocacy and social change that results in equality and equity for all citizens of the world., president's message.

Welcome to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated,® Beta Chapter's website. As the 2023-2024 President of Beta Chapter, it is my sincere honor to provide this site as a resource for you to learn about our history, sisterhood, and service initiatives.

Information provided throughout this platform exemplifies the great accomplishments our sisterhood has achieved throughout the Chicagoland area. For over a century, the Beta Chapter has fervently served the city of Chicago and our international community in order to achieve our goal of providing, "Service to All Mankind.”

On October 8th, 1913 at the University of Chicago, five transformative women, with the help and guidance from Founder Beulah Elizabeth Burke, the sorority’s First National Organizer, the Beautiful Beta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® was established, paving the way for perpetuity of our organization.

Providing a beacon for young college women throughout the Chicagoland area to gather and address the most pressing disparities in their community, Beta Chapter was founded under the spirit of unity, service, and communal advancement. Our

members have since had the ability to pass their ambitions on to their fellow citizens, their classmates and most importantly, their successors.

Our knowledge, experiences, dedication, and love of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®, are the components that have continued to

propel Beta Chapter throughout generations. Our programmatic focus and activities are designed to support and implement our 2022-2026 International Program Initiatives and overarching theme of Soaring to Greater Heights of Service and Sisterhood. We use our international theme and six programmatic initiatives as a tool to execute service projects, educational programs, and impactful events that aim to alleviate the problems observed in our communities, as well as provide a space for individual and collective growth.

As members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®, we continually rely on our 116 years of service and sisterhood, founding principles, and traditions to guide us in providing novel and sustainable service to society's current problems, both in our local and global communities. We thank you for visiting our site and encourage you to support our programs, service events, and other community relief activities so that we may collectively strengthen and renew our beloved community.

Watch This AKA New Member Presentation From Prairie View A&M University in 2003

The AKAs hold it down in Texas!

We at Watch The Yard recently came across this video of the women of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s Zeta Gamma Chapter unveiling their new members at Prairie View A&M University in 2003.

These ladies definitely put on a show that the audience did not forget!

Watch their show below and enjoy!

Share this on Facebook if you think they deserve to go VIRAL!

To (Not) Be on One Accord: The Ivy Leaf, Footwear, and Mobility in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated

Abstract: In 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA) was established for the educational and social uplift of Black women. Over a century later, now with more than 300,000 members, AKA persists as the largest and most global Black women’s organization in the world. Some research has been conducted by scholars like Deborah Whaley, Paula Giddings, Gregory Parks, and Clarenda Phillips on historically Black Greek-letter sororities (BGLS). However, their work focuses on the sociopolitical and historical legacies of these organizations. Distinctly, this project privileges the everyday embodiments of members within AKA as unique sites of knowledge production for research on Black sisterhood and Black womanhood. Specifically, I utilize mixed ethnographic methods of participant observation, semi-structured interviewing, and oral history to investigate how the Ivy Leaf, heeled footwear, and walking are key aspects to developing the Alpha Kappa Alpha identity. I argue that the Ivy Leaf—importantly, its connections to mobility and stature—is essential to an AKA rite of passage that transforms candidates into both members of AKA and Black women with the physical and mental resilience to face a racialized and gendered world.

Introduction

Ladies, you all need to walk on one accord! I should only hear one foot hitting the ground after another. One line! One sound! [1] Ceaselessly, the Membership Intake Chairman repeats this mantra to the new co-initiates [2] of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA). Co-initiates begin the Membership Intake Process (MIP) [3] as individuals, but over time these eager young women learn to operate together as an impenetrable unit. The first step of this unifying process is their walk. As they practice this rhythmic cadence, they don classic business pumps that are just shy of stilettos. The heel is just high enough to produce a mild level of discomfort for the co-initiate unaccustomed to arching her feet in that fashion. Day by day, co-initiates learn to make this walk feel natural. By the time final Sunday arrives, when they gain full rights and privileges as members of AKA, they no longer must ruminate over which foot to place down where and when. By the end of their MIP, co-initiates have learned how to walk like an AKA.

In this article, I discuss some of the most overlooked, yet illuminating elements of identity, solidarity, and sisterhood within AKA—our feet. I am beginning from the ground-up to place emphasis on the foundation for which Alpha Kappa Alpha women are built. While our Ivies [4] remain steadfast and strong throughout life’s invariable challenges, this resilience is cultivated only through sturdy roots in fertile soil. This article focuses on these resilient roots, specifically how foot placement, heeled footwear, and mobility are key aspects to developing the Alpha Kappa Alpha identity. I argue that the Ivy Leaf—importantly, its connections to mobility and stature—is essential to an AKA rite of passage. Specifically, this rite of passage transforms candidates into both members of AKA and Black women with the physical and mental resilience to face a racialized and gendered world. This marked emphasis on able-bodied-ness—during historical and contemporary pledge processes—forces women with disabilities to forge alternative modes of completing the ritual process and, in turn, negotiating their identities within AKA.

To appropriately tackle all my research questions, I conducted an ethnography—an anthropological research method that emphasizes the use of qualitative measures to collect rich data on a selected population of individuals. This ethnography was informed by feminist principles that pay considerable attention to power dynamics between researcher and contributors, interpretations of data collected, and unique sites of information (Buch & Staller 2007). Guided by feminist principles, I used mixed ethnographic methods that include participant-observation and semi-structured interviews. In employing these various techniques to identify and collect data, as well as in utilizing a feminist epistemological framework, I gain insight into “the contexts of women’s lives, the ways in which women experience and resist gender norms and the ways in which difference is organized across lines of gender, race, class, and sexuality” (Buch & Staller 2007, 194).

Initially, many of my research questions were guided by a desire to understand the literal phenomena that occur in historically Black Greek-letter sororities. Why are certain behaviors and mannerisms regulated in specific ways within the larger organization, and how do these actions embody an understood group identity? The best ethnographic method to tackle these questions on individual and group identity performance is participant-observation—"intensive involvement with a group of people over an extended period of time” (Davis & Craven 2016, 85). As a native ethnographer, someone who is a member of a historically Black Greek-letter sorority and, thus, “conduct[s] their research in familiar settings,” I observed AKA’s public programming, e.g., new member presentations, to collect detailed ethnographic fieldnotes for my project (Buch & Staller 2007, 189). I used these observations not only to help locate further points to probe in in-depth personal interviews and oral histories, but also to provide greater context for understanding the influence of BGLSs on their members.

While participant-observation is helpful for setting the stage of historically Black Greek-letter sororities, semi-structured interviews are more appropriate to tackle members’ specific experiences within AKA as well as how these experiences construct their identity. Particularly, these ethnographic interviews provided the proper space to engage with research questions on how Black women of marginal identities factor into a largely uniform sisterhood framework. In what kinds of spaces within the organization do these members feel that their identities are most salient? These ethnographic interviews were “open-ended … in the sense that they frequently departed from predetermined questions to get more information using probes” (Davis & Craven 2016, 86). In addition, these interviews were “semi-structured” such that these interactions were conducted with a “specific interview guide—a list of written questions that I need[ed] to cover within a particular interview” (Hesse-Biber 2007, 115). Many of these semi-structured interviews began with the following questions:

In what spaces do you feel most pride being an AKA? How would you define Black sisterhood? In what ways does AKA cultivate this? How would you define Black womanhood? Was this definition influenced by becoming an AKA?

As data collection progressed, however, I adapted my questions to address interesting themes that continued to emerge from my contributors’ responses. By maintaining a set of questions that I asked all contributors—questions that were each open-ended enough to allow for “spontaneity on the part of the researcher and interviewee”—my ethnographic interviews had anchoring points so that I could effectively compare the diverse sets of experiences (Hesse-Biber 2007, 115). However, in adapting my questions across individuals, time, and space, my conversations homed in on phenomena that were both fascinating and particularly relevant to my contributors.

Moreover, I employed John L. Jackson’s technique of “calculated dimness,” which involves withholding information about one’s knowledge regarding an issue or subject so as to “avoid conjecture, acquire thorough information from subjects and attend to their circumstances, even at the risk of being considered an idiot” (Munem 2013). As a knowledgeable insider of these organizations, I did not want my own expectations or biases regarding certain questions to sway my contributors from providing an otherwise uninhibited and noncoercive personal narrative. I further utilized other feminist ethnographic interviewing techniques that allowed me not only to capture the words my contributors used to describe their experiences, “but also the spaces between the words, the meanings, the process of meaning-making, the emotion, and even the silence” (Leavy 2007, 158). I paid considerable attention to this silence as it provided “insight into her struggles and conflicts” as well as “indicate[d] that the categories and concepts we have available to interpret and explain our life experiences do not in fact reflect the full range of experiences out there” (Leavy 2007, 159).

My status as an insider within Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated more broadly grants me access to sites of historically Black Greek life; however, relations to members of other chapters across the country grant me both entrance and acceptance into communities of which I am not immediately a part. As a feminist employing ethnographic methods, I “blend with the people and the social context of the research [to] … access the depth of meanings required for adequate and trustworthy qualitative research” (Leavy 2007, 150). While it is important to have an entry point into the field, my deep enmeshment within Alpha Kappa Alpha could have potentially created issues. I did not want to tarnish the close-knit relationships I have with other members, and I did not want to damage the brand [5] of the organization in any way. I paid considerable attention to how I gathered data, ensuring that the lines between myself as a member and as a researcher did not become blurred throughout this process. Further, I ensured that my interpretations of the data were true to the contributors’ original intentions and experiences by allowing my contributors to provide feedback on these interpretations throughout the process. As a member of AKA, I did not want my own biases to impact the ways in which I interpreted the data. By engaging in a process which continuously involved my contributors, I hoped to eliminate any influence of my own beliefs on the data and the final product.

Strong, Resilient Ivies

“The challenge for Hedgeman’s committee has been to come up with a symbol that projects strength and endurance. ‘Those few girls [the nine] felt that they had something born within them that they wished to nurture and have grow.’ Hedgeman offers a green enameled ivy leaf, with the Greek symbols AKA engraved in gold in each leaf. The fit is undeniable, and the vote is unanimous.” —McNealey 2006, 22

AKA is defined by the Ivy Leaf. This tenacious, evergreen plant maintains a youthful quality despite acerbic weather conditions and decaying surroundings. It is the symbol of eternal life. Founders like Ethel Hedgeman [6] sought after an emblem that could exemplify a steadfast resiliency against sociopolitical oppression facing Black women of the early twentieth century. The Ivy Leaf could propel them toward a life that they had often imagined but was just out of their reach. The Ivy Leaf could instill strength and fortitude in members to come. Later generations of AKA invoked the notion of the Ivy for a variety of purposes. In the early years, prospective individuals were required to join an Ivy Leaf Pledge Club as a prerequisite for admission into the sorority. Black attorney Lawrence Otis Graham relays his aunt’s experience in the Ivy Leaf Pledge Club:

We had to learn a lot more about the historic beginnings of the AKAs, and we did it by writing long letters of application to the Ivy Leaf Pledge Club—the senior wing of the sorority that regulated the admissions process—and then attending monthly meetings where the older students tutored us on the history (Graham 1999, 96).

These Ivy Leaf Pledge Clubs were a way of lengthening the process of membership for interested individuals while simultaneously instilling determination and resolve for young women about to embark on a rigorous endeavor. With early introductions to the Ivy Leaf, candidates quickly learned what it meant to become trendsetters and visionaries. They learned that it meant to become an AKA.

Ivy Leaf.jpg

Figure 1. The official Ivy Leaf symbol of AKA

Ivy Leaf Pledge Club.jpg

Figure 2. The Ivy Leaf Pledge Club at Wilberforce University in 1922.

Throughout the years, chapters have done away with these pledge clubs, and the Ivy Leaf symbol was transformed into a title for young women who were pledging AKA. Many of my contributors who were initiated before 1990—the year when pledging and hazing were publicly denounced by AKA and other BGLOs [7] —mentioned being referred to as Ivies while they pledged. Linda, who joined the sorority in 1953 at a Southern HBCU, offhandedly explained to me these symbolic designations.

Linda: And we embroidered ivies on the socks because we were known as Ivies at the time. We would go to the dining hall, and we had a special table to sit. [8]

For Linda, pledging operated “above ground,” meaning that pledge activities occurred during a college-sanctioned time frame where the public could observe. Though AKA was the first BGLS to make it onto the collegiate scene, other BGLSs sprung up in the years following. [9] To signify themselves as Ivies, Linda and her line sisters were tasked to adorn their socks with the symbol. Aesthetic choices [10] like this were vital for sororities like AKA to distinguish themselves from their Black Greek counterparts, especially at an HBCU in the 1950s.

(Ivy) Standing in Heels

In a modern context, where acts of pledging and hazing are outlawed within AKA, the concept of the Ivy has transformed into the Ivy Stance. Largely done in public displays like New Member Presentations and Stroll Offs, the Ivy Stance is the phrase given for how twenty-first-century women of AKA must stand. Generally, the Ivy Stance involves a person’s head tilted back, shoulders pressed together, spine elongated, arms pressed to the sides, palms facing parallel to the ground, and feet in third ballet position. By no means is the Ivy Stance a comfortable position. Especially during these public performances, the stance is often held for extended periods at a time without pause. The Ivy Stance demands focus and mental resolve. One wandering thought could potentially allow a Soror to lose her balance, sending her toppling. The Ivy Stance is complicated by the fact that heels must be worn. Contemporary AKA documents on protocol specify heeled footwear in three dimensions: type, height, and color. While there are a variety of heeled shoe options, the ones most appropriate for AKA procedures are the following close-toed varieties: the kitten, pump, and ballroom heel types. Kitten heels are a shorter variety of stilettos with heel height typically around one inch. They were introduced during the mid-twentieth century for young adolescents who could not walk in higher heels (“Kitten Heel” 2019). The pump is a higher heel, typically around three inches in height, that was popularized in the U.S. during World War II as a result of soldier’s fascinations with pin-up girl posters. Importantly, this shoe type began to create meaningful associations between heel height and physical attractiveness of women. Finally, ballroom heels are strappy shoes, typically around two inches in height, with a sturdy heel designed for various dance techniques (“High-Heeled Shoe” 2020).

FA17 New Member Presentation.jpg

Figure 3. An image from a fall 2017 New Member Presentation of a Midwest AKA chapter where members stood in Ivy Stance.

Categories of footwear assessment—heel height, type, and accessories—are often violated by newer members who confuse appropriate heel types with their inappropriate counterparts. Tracy, a member in her 50s from a Midwest graduate chapter, spoke to me about this phenomenon during a private stroll practice.

Tracy: Have you all told these girls what a business heel is? I am seeing some girls wearing a kitten heel while others got on stilettos. And to make things worse, most of them can’t even walk in their shoes. They need to know that those shoes are not appropriate. And, I mean, have they ever heard of breaking a shoe in?

As Tracy suggests in her comments, heel height is one of the leading criteria often misunderstood by new members. Unlike the 1950s, when kitten heels were explicitly created for the use of adolescent women, younger AKAs of the 21st century are expected to wear higher heels than their older counterparts. Kitten heels are exclusively reserved for Golden and Diamond members [11] whose mobility has begun to decline. On the other extreme, stilettos are viewed as immodest and hypersexual—a shoe that is unbecoming of the behaviors and attributes of an AKA. It becomes the job of the undergraduate member to discern a podiatric politic that does not waver on either of these extremes. Black women have always needed to be “savvy cultural negotiators” with regard to their aesthetic decisions (Gimlin 2002, 106). U.S. ideals of beauty have always structurally excluded Black women from a dominant model of femininity. In the lens of most contemporary and historical beauty regimes, Black women are viewed as racialized others capable of womanhood but not femininity (Craig 2002). High-heeled footwear, however, allowed Black women to reconfigure their identities within a dominating, Eurocentric model of aesthetics. The business pump connotes professionalism, class, and femininity for its wearer. Many of my respondents alluded to the ways that AKAs are often marked by “the way they carry themselves.” [12] Indeed, this idiomatic phrase suggests something figurative about the way individuals might conduct themselves in a space. However, I theorize that by donning business pumps, women of AKA literally carry themselves differently. By wearing heeled footwear, Black women are consciously raising their positions within beauty regimes from devalued to valued (Gimlin 2002).

In the short term, heel wearing fortifies the foot through calluses. However, in the long term, the morphology of the foot arch can alter from sustained heel-wearing. Heel wearing is a form of Debra Gimlin’s “body work” that Black women undergo “to repair the flawed identities that imperfect bodies symbolize” (Gimlin 2002, 5). At the turn of the twentieth century, the ideal of femininity in the United States was most accurately depicted by the Gibson Girl—an image of a slender and tall woman with a voluptuous bust and wide hip (“Gibson Girl,” 2019). While feminine ideals have certainly altered over the last century, this feminine ideal of physical attractiveness has made a resurgence through the popularization of modern figures like Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé. Not only does heel wearing allow Black women to appear taller, raising their statures to mirror a sought-after aesthetic, but also the demands of wearing a heel work to lift the rear and accentuate the legs. Advances have been made over the last century regarding the sociopolitical position of Black women. Yet the work is far from done. In a contemporary sociopolitical moment, women of AKA continue this body work to negotiate their identities within a public arena, a continuous process that is iterative across time and space.

Ivies March On (and Off) the Yard

Beyond standing in high heels, walking is an important element to the AKA identity. In the previous section, Tracy wondered whether the stumbling co-initiates had “ever heard of breaking a shoe in.” [13] The phrase “breaking in a shoe” refers to walking around in a new pair of shoes to familiarize and acclimate the foot to the rigid footwear. In undergoing this process, individuals build up their tolerance for wearing an initially uncomfortable shoe over longer periods of time through shorter stints of trial walks. Importantly, Tracy’s comment shifts us to thinking about the role that walking plays in the sociopolitical and historical legacy of AKA. I theorize that the notion of breaking in a shoe maintains relevance for older and younger generations of AKA to develop stamina for a world where their identities are triply oppressed. To begin a discussion on walking, I turn to a consideration of dominant BGLO culture on college campuses during the mid- to late twentieth century. Prior to 1990, pledging was a defining part of becoming a member of AKA. Colleges worked with BGLOs to standardize pledge processes during specific times of the year. Within AKA, the pledge process began with admission into the Ivy Leaf Pledge Club (ILPC). Along with learning the history of AKA, members of the ILPC took part in a university-sanctioned letter-writing period—a time when AKA hopefuls wrote letters to current members of the chapter. Madge, a member in her 50s who joined in 1983 at a Southern HBCU, described to me the content of her letters.

Madge: Hi! How are you doing, so and so? I hope you are enjoying your summer! Are you at home? You would tell about what you were doing, kind of just introducing yourself to them. I remember only two of them wrote me back. I remember their names to this day, the only two who wrote me back. [14]

Indeed, this letter writing took place before the advent of personal computers. In my conversation with Lisa—a member in her 50s who joined in 1985 at another Southern HBCU—she jokingly recalled having to use a typewriter, restarting her letter from the beginning each time an error was made. [15] A tedious process, letter writing was one way that current members asserted their power over potential candidates of AKA. Letter writing placed prospective members in a position where they began to “experience what it is like to be low,” instantiating current members’ dominance over prospective members and initiating an early step in Victor Turner’s classic rite of passage (Turner 1969, 97). Additionally, current members of the chapter asserted their authority over candidates—and, effectively, engaged them in a process of pre-pledging [16] —through visits. Visiting required AKA hopefuls to walk to the homes of Sorors on and off campus and introduce themselves to current members of the chapter. Visiting was a necessary part of pre-pledging. If a prospective candidate did not visit enough members within the chapter, they were denied entrance into the sorority. These visits often came with a variety of challenges:

Madge : You used to have to visit. You would have to find out who was in [the apartment], where they live … You would go visit, and you were told always take a notebook. They would give you assignments when you would do visits. I remember this girl had a little teddy bear—a big teddy bear holding a little teddy bear. Her teddy bears’ names were Sugar and Spice (her boyfriend had given it to her). I [was] also told not to go by [my]self because you could kind of get [mixed up]. But somehow, I was there by myself. She was nice. [But then she goes], What about my bears? And I said, Oh, yeah. Your bears? Your boyfriend Calvin gave them to you. And she said, Which one is Sugar, and which one is Spice? I didn’t know. And she said, Don’t guess. If you don’t know, just find out and you can come back and tell me. And I said, OK . The visiting was interesting because if you were foolish enough to go by yourself, they would get on the phone and call all the other [Sorors], and you could really get put on a trip. You didn’t go visiting until you knew the person’s name (first and last), where they were from, what their major was, when they pledged, what was the name of their line, and their [line] number. That was baseline data. You didn’t go to visit anybody without knowing that information. [17]

In heels, young women might walk as far as two miles off campus to visit current members in the chapter. An anxiety-ridden endeavor, visiting required individuals like Madge to be resourceful enough to locate all “the baseline data” and resilient enough to withstand seemingly impossible queries.

Visiting also required leaving the familiar campus environment for places that were foreign to the prospective member (e.g., an off-campus apartment). During the visiting period, prospective members took part in Turner’s first phase of rites of passage: separation. This initial phase is marked by “symbolic behavior signifying the detachment of the individual or group either from an earlier fixed point in the social structure, from a set of cultural conditions (a ‘state’), or from both” (Turner 1969, 94). For these candidates, the social structure was the life on an HBCU campus (during the 1980s for Madge and Lisa, in particular). These trips disrupted the typical routine of a college student, limiting (and dictating) how their free time was spent outside of studies. Visiting involved movement across the boundaries of the campus to the broader community. Importantly, the mechanism by which this movement occurred was walking.

Eventually, candidates graduated (in a sense) from the Ivy Leaf Pledge Club and could apply for admission into the sorority. For those who were selected to be “on line,” [18] they began what the college understood as the official pledge process. As Linda mention in her anecdote on embroidered socks, pledges of AKA were collectively given the title Ivies. While there were many ways that Ivies could be identified, [19] they largely demonstrated their unity through their walking patterns.

Madge : I knew that my family members were in sororities and fraternities, but I didn’t really understand the way they maneuvered on the campus. And I remembered that we walked on an open line. I remember, I would see the Ivies. It was the first line I saw. It was twelve of them. [20]

As one might infer from the phrase that pledges were “on line” together, Ivies literally walked in a line across the campus. Whether it was to the cafeteria hall in the mornings [21] or to the library in the evenings, [22] Ivies marched in a single-file line everywhere they went.

Not only did Ivies walk in line across the campus, they also marched in unison. Like a military unit marching in time, Ivies' were synchronized in foot placement, spacing, and timing. If the Ace [23] placed her right foot down, every Ivy behind her placed their right foot down in that same instant. The Ace set the pace. It was the job of every pledge following her to anticipate her next step (or pause). Ivies were required to walk in step such that an outsider could close their eyes and hear only one pair of heels hitting the ground rather than twenty. Additionally, there needed to be close, equivalent spacing between pledges as they walked. It needed to be tight enough that a Pyramid [24] could not barrel through but spaced enough so that Ivies were not stepping on each other’s heels. If Ivies allowed their line to be “broken,” this suggested that there were chinks in their collective armor—a protection that was paramount to navigating the world of BGLOs specifically as well as a dominating White patriarchal world more broadly. The walk taught Ivies the importance of leaning on one another against classed, raced, and gendered oppressions (Collins 2002).

This level of precision is nothing short of spectacular. A group of individuals transforms into a unified collective, “ground down to [the] uniform condition” of an Ivy (Turner 1969, 95). The feat is even more complicated by the fact that Sorors routinely instituted additional guidelines for the Ivies’ walk.

Madge : Yeah, when [the Sorors] skee wee ’d, [25] we had to skip. I remember, you might see a Pyramid slowly strolling around the campus … But Ivies are what?! Snappy, Big Sister! [26] Snappy, Big Sister! That’s why Portia’s line name is Curad because she was skipping, and her feet got twisted up and she fell. Oh, she fell several times! That’s why her line name was Curad: The Ouchless One. [27]

Requiring pledges to skip every time a Soror skee wee ’d was a way to remind, Ivies of their lowly positions in the social structure of AKA. “The ordeals and humiliations, often of a grossly physiological character, to which neophytes are submitted represent partly a destruction of the previous status and partly a tempering of their essence in order to prepare them to cope with their new responsibilities and restrain them in advance from abusing their new privileges.” (Turner 1969, 103). With Ivies like Portia skipping a beat in the literal sense of falling, notions of individual achievement and high status dissipated. Ivies were required to view themselves as dependent upon each other. Due to the proximity with which they marched, if one person fell, it affected the line in its entirety.

Visibility was central to the Ivies’ march. It was not simply that Ivies walked in a line across the yard, [28] but rather that their march could be seen by a broader public. As “public intellectuals” who were invested in the “general social condition of the race and the possibilities of social improvement,” AKAs were tasked to be visible in the public sphere fighting for the advancement of Black people (Cooper 2017, 17). Jada, a politically active member in her 50s who pledged at a Southern HBCU in 1985, alludes to the impetus of civil rights for members of AKA.

Jada: We were protesting apartheid because that’s when apartheid was happening … We did the march on Washington and that was [with] the city-wide AKAs … We went to D.C., and we marched in the parade for Martin Luther King’s birthday. I mean, Stevie Wonder was there. It was amazing how many people were there. They were within [arm’s reach]. [29]

The stamina required to complete a rigorous pledge process—much of it cultivated through an emphasis on walking—translated to a life as members at the cusp of a social revolution. Sorors had developed the mental resolve to withstand setbacks ranging from harsh weather conditions to arrest by the local police. [30] Ivies walked across the yard so that Sorors could march for their communities.

Ivies (Who Cannot) Stroll

While pledging—and its associated activities like walking in line across a college campus—is banned in the contemporary AKA model, connections between walking and visibility persist through “strolling.” Otherwise known as party walking, strolling is an exclusively BGLO phenomenon where members move forward in a line while executing a series of dance motions and steps. It requires the careful combination of music, stepping, and stylization of each BGLO. Importantly, strolling, as opposed to stepping, [31] is a more contemporary feature to BGLO culture–one that I theorize developed from the Ivy march in a modern time where forging space and negotiating identity remain vital for Black students on college campuses where they have been historically excluded.

Strolling is a way that marginalized individuals can garner social capital during the undergraduate experience. Alice, a member in her 20s who joined at a Midwest chapter of AKA in 2017, alluded to the importance of strolling in our conversation.

Alice: Going to stroll practice and things for parties, that was fun … The thing with undergrad, there comes a certain amount of social clout that people want to get, or expect to have, with strolling, being seen. [32]

Alice is a Black woman who attends a predominantly White institution (PWI). She explained that as a minority subject, her identities are often overlooked in the eyes of the University. However, strolling allows individuals to construct spaces of Black collectivity within a White environment. Strolling is disruptive. The spontaneous eruption of synchronized step and dance—coupled with the bright color combination of salmon pink and apple green—begs the attention of a University public. Through strolling, Alice and other AKAs render themselves visible to a PWI as well as creating spaces where Black students feel a sense of belonging and pride.

Up until this point, I have focused on the experiences of able-bodied Sorors—those who can walk, march, and stroll. Indeed, the Original Nine [33] —in their collegiate days—were all able-bodied women. Sacred rituals that pertain to initiation and Ivy Beyond the Wall [34] ceremonies, for example, demonstrate how the organization designs sorority rites of passage around bodies with a certain degree of mobility. Membership, however, is not contingent upon being able to party walk or Ivy stand: “Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated does not discriminate in its membership selection practices on the basis of race, color, age, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, creed, marital status or disability” (“Prospective Members” 2020). Particularly in the twenty-first century, young women join AKA from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. How do these members “develop an intense comradeship and egalitarianism” with their co-initiates when they do not undergo the collective toils of marching across a college campus or of learning a complicated stroll routine (Turner 1969, 359)?

Over the course of collecting this research, I was introduced to Lucy—a newly initiated Soror in her 20s with a rare genetic disorder. Her condition is characterized by abnormal skeletal development of the spine that greatly decreases her mobility without some external assistance (i.e., a wheelchair or golf cart). She utilizes a motorized wheelchair to maneuver around her environments, one of which is a densely populated HBCU in the South. After hearing about the project, one of my contributors invited me to attend a New Member Presentation where Lucy was one of 58 co-initiates being welcomed into AKAland. Fortunately, I was able to be in town to witness the presentation in person.

The show was nothing short of spectacular. A long line of girls in coordinating pink dresses and green masks marched onto the main floor of a packed University arena. The room was teeming with excitement, adulation, and, of course, piercing skee wees . From the precision of their walk to the crispness of their transitions—oftentimes, in and out of Ivy Stance—it became evident from the onset that this presentation was one to be remembered. The chapter had found a way to utilize the respective strengths of co-initiates to construct a performance that was innovative yet classic, a testament to both the chapter’s and AKA’s respective legacies. While there were many captivating theatrics throughout the show, one of the most fascinating elements was how the chapter found ways to locate Lucy’s identities in an environment that seemed to over-emphasize embodied-ness and mobility.

As the co-initiates marched one-by-one onto the main floor, Lucy rolled at a similar pace beside them. When the main line stopped, Lucy halted. Her coordination of the motorized device was impeccable. It appeared that she could anticipate when the line would stop or start their procession, when they might turn toward or away from the crowd. With each movement the line made, so too Lucy maneuvered in similar fashion. I was impressed by how seamlessly each transition was executed with an overwhelming sense of ease and confidence.

After the show, I learned from the Graduate Advisor [35] that not only was Lucy keeping up in pace with the line, but also that she was keeping up in place with her position in the line. During the “reveal” [36] portion of the evening, audiences learned that she was the Deuce—a coveted title referring to the second person on the line. In this emotional moment, Lucy was given the opportunity to speak directly to the audience:

Lucy: My … name … is … [Lucy]! I am from a city where all of [the chapter] will neverrrr forget—Douglasville, Georgia. I am the deuce of this line! And my sorors will foreverrrr call me … they will foreverrrrrrrrrr call me, God speed!

Lucy dragged out the last phrase, emphasizing the notion that she would always be called in to AKAland—that her identity had become sutured to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. “The ritual subject, individual or corporate, is in a relatively stable state once more and, by virtue of this, has rights and obligations vis-à-vis others of a clearly defined and ‘structural’ type” (Turner 1969, 94). To combat the notion of invisibility that often gets placed upon Black disabled bodies—particularly, within the inaccessible environments of college campuses—Lucy utilized AKA as a means of instantiating her identity within both the sorority and the larger University.

The Ivy Leaf, heeled footwear, and walking are three elements paramount to the way that AKAs cultivate and maintain collective identity. Through the Ivy Leaf, Sorors are challenged to develop characteristics of strength and endurance paramount for both completing service as AKAs and existing in a highly racialized and gendered society. While it began as a symbol to cultivate unity amongst members, the Ivy Leaf has expanded to represent both progress within the sorority and identity transformation. Importantly, this AKA rite of passage—from candidate to pledge to member—occurs through a marked emphasis on walking and mobility. Collective movement, particularly while donning harsh footwear, further reifies the notion of unity and mutual cause amongst members. It is through walking that Sorors learn how to depend on and develop trust in one another—factors that are paramount to lifelong sisterhood. It is also through walking that Sorors become public leaders on issues affecting their campus communities and beyond.

On the other hand, an emphasis on heeled footwear and mobility limits the incorporation of disabled individuals into an authentic sisterhood. Sorors who do not undergo a rite of passage—one that incorporates collective movement—must construct alternative methods to complete the ritual process and generate a sense of collectivity with newly initiated members. For Lucy, this looks like maneuvering alongside her Sorors in ways that mimic and complement their movements, but also diverge in ways that are unique to her condition. Lucy must navigate her identities within the sorority in ways that her newfound Sorors may never understand. In one of her Instagram posts, however, Lucy commented on her commitment to creating space for her identity—and identities like hers—within AKA:

Lucy: November 24th, 2019 an Alpha Kappa Alpha woman was born. I’ve prayed and fasted for this moment. Faith without work is dead. It’s been a long time coming but they finally freed the deuce! The Sweet [Chapter Name] will forever be embedded in me. I just want to be an inspiration to others. I didn’t let ANYTHING stop me from pursuing my dreams! Let me inspire you to go chase your dreams. Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and Sweet [Chapter Name], I hope y’all are ready to go to the next level quick and in [a] hurry because “God Speed” has been born and I’m ready to get the ball rolling!

Like the founders, Lucy is a trailblazer in her own right, paving the way for more inclusivity and belonging within AKA. For her, this looks like being one of the first undergraduates to undergo a highly embodied membership intake process while seated in a wheelchair. Indeed, Lucy’s methods of integrating herself within the sisterhood will diverge from individuals who follow her.

In my own experience, these assumptions that surround the ability status of largely undergraduate members extend beyond what is visible. I am a 22-year-old Black woman who suffers from chronic back and tailbone pain. Some of my younger contributors shared with me their physical impairments ranging from scoliosis to carpal tunnel to plantar fasciitis. Frequently, we have discussed how our conditions have impacted our experiences within the sorority. AKA must recognize that ability is a temporary condition for all its members as well as learn to expand certain sorority practices to include individuals of all (dis)abled backgrounds. While this process can begin with footwear and walking, it must extend beyond those activities to create more just and equitable spaces for all its members.

[1] More colloquially known as the Dean of Pledges or DP, the Membership Intake Chairman is responsible for imparting the knowledge and wisdom of AKA to new members and executing the full Membership Intake Process.

[2] Co-initiates refers to individuals who underwent a Membership Intake Process (MIP) together. Historically, they are often referred to as pledges. However, I refrain from using the term pledges for its connections to a history of hazing. Later in this chapter, I utilize the term pledges because I am both referring to an era when that term was routinely used without negative connotations as well as referring to conversations with older contributors who still use that term.

[3] This refers to the official, standardized process of becoming a member of AKA. This process was carefully developed by the governing body of the Sorority in recent years to decrease the potential for discrimination and hazing in chapters across region and time.

[4] This is the official symbol/plant of AKA. A three-leafed plant, the Ivy represents strength, endurance, and vitality for members.

[5] Safeguarding the brand is something that members of AKA are taught upon their entrance into the organization. As members, our personal behaviors can easily be interpreted as representative of the larger organization and its ideals. It is for this reason that members are urged to maintain a positive and productive self-image—engaging in behaviors that do not reflect poorly upon AKA—to ensure the longevity of AKA.

[6] There were nine original founders of AKA: Ethel Hedgeman, Anna Easter Brown, Beulah E. Burke, Lillie Burke, Marjorie Hill, Margaret Flagg, Lavinia Norman, Lucy Diggs Slowe, and Marie Woolfolk.

[7] This ban was instituted as a direct response to incidents of hazing that occurred in each organization’s history. Due to the controversy this ban sparked, it was discussed heavily in newspaper media: Barbara Bradley, “A Pledge of Change from Alpha to Omega; Blacks Worry Greek Reforms May Go Too Far,” The Commercial Appeal , November 15, 1990; Michelle Collison, “8 Fraternities and Sororities Announce an End to Hazing, The Washington Post , February 19, 1990; Michel Marriott, “Black Fraternities and Sororities End a Tradition,” The New York Times , October 3, 1990, B8; David Mills, “Fraternity Violence: The Pledging Debate: The Greeks: There Is a Move Afoot to Do Away with Hazing and the Traditionalists Are Outraged and Vow to Fight,” Los Angeles Times , July 24, 1990; David Mills, “The Wrongs of the Rites of Brotherhood; Leaders of Black Fraternities Move to End a Cruel Tradition of Violent Hazing,” The Washington Post , June 18, 1990, B1, B6.

[8] This was excerpted from my oral history with Linda.

[9] Delta Sigma Theta, Zeta Phi Beta, and Sigma Gamma Rho were founded in 1913, 1920, and 1922, respectively.

[10] In another work, I discuss in greater detail the marked emphases on maintaining and manufacturing a certain appearance within AKA.

[11] These members have been a part of the organization for at least 50 and 75 years, respectively.

[12] This was explicitly stated in my interviews with Madge and Cynthia.

[13] This was excerpted from an interview with Tracy.

[14] This was excerpted from an oral history with Madge.

[15] This was paraphrased from an interview with Lisa.

[16] This refers to pledging activities that took place before the college-sanctioned pledge period.

[17] This was excerpted from oral history with Madge.

[18] This is a phrase referring to individuals undergoing a pledge process by a BGLO. The terms “on line” will be explained in greater detail in this section.

[19] In another work, I expand upon a politics of aesthetic that AKA women employed to garner sociopolitical capital. These aesthetic decisions ranged anywhere from their hair to the colors they wore to their speech.

[20] This was excerpted from an oral history with Madge.

[21] In my interview with Lisa, she fondly recalled lining up with the Ivies in the wee hours of the morning to beat the pledges of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated (DST) to breakfast. Since AKA was founded first, Ivies also needed to be first.

[22] In my oral history with Madge, she emphasized the amount of time Ivies spent together studying in the library.

[23] This is the title given to the first person on line. Lines are typically ordered according to height such that the ace is usually the shortest person on the line.

[24] This is a colloquial term to refer to a line of DST pledges. The Greek symbol for Delta is a triangle, very similar to the pyramid.

[25] The skee-wee is the high-pitched, official sound of AKA.

[26] Big Sister is a colloquial term that pledges used to refer to current members of the chapter. A similar term used by members in other chapters during this time was Prophyte.

[27] This was excerpted from an oral history conducted with Madge.

[28] The yard refers to both the literal green space of an HBCU as well as a broader college or community setting where Black Greek-life proliferates.

[29] This was excerpted from an interview with Jada.

[30] In another part of the interview, Jada mentioned being arrested in front of a local grocery store for protesting to urge the company to divest its funds from South Africa.

[31] Stepping (or step dancing) is a “percussive dance in which the participant’s entire body is used as an instrument to produce complex rhythm and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word, and hand claps” (“Stepping,” 2020). While it is not exclusive to BGLOs, stepping does originate from BGLOs from as early as their inception. African American studies scholar Deborah Whaley gives a nice analysis of stepping in her book chapter, “Stepping into the African Diaspora: Alpha Kappa Alpha and the Production of Sexuality and Femininity in Sorority Step Performance” (2010).

[32] This was excerpted from an interview with Alice.

[33] This refers to the nine junior and senior women who founded AKA in 1908, before they enlisted seven sophomores to the group.

[34] This designation refers to Sorors who have passed away. Ivy Beyond the Wall ceremonies are the sorority’s official rite of mourning a Soror’s death as well as ensuring safe passage of the Soror into the afterlife.

[35] The graduate advisor is a member of the sponsoring graduate chapter whose job is to supervise and advise the undergraduate chapter.

[36] The reveal refers to the part of New Member Presentations when the mask, in this case, comes off and the public learns the identities of the newest members of AKA. Each new member introduces their new AKA self to Greek and non-Greek audiences.

“Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.” 2020. Wikipedia, 31 Jan. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Kappa_Alpha.

Bradley, Barbara. 1990. “A Pledge of Change from Alpha to Omega: Blacks Worry Greek Reforms May Go Too Far.” The Commercial Appeal , 15 Nov.

Buch, Elana D. & Karen M. Staller. 2007. The Feminist Practice of Ethnography. In Feminist Research Practice , ed. Sharlene Nagy, Hesse-Biber, Patricia Lina Leavy. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412984270.n7.

Collins, Patricia Hill. 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment , 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. Taylor & Francis E-Library.

Collison, Michelle. 1990. “8 Fraternities and Sororities Announce an End to Hazing.” The Washington Post , 19 Feb.

Cooper, Brittney. 2017. Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Craig, Maxine Leeds. 2002. Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race. New York: Oxford University Press.

Davis, Dána-Ain and Christa Craven. 2016. Feminist Ethnography: Thinking through Methodologies, Challenges, and Possibilities. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.

“Founders.” Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated , aka1908.com/about/founders.

“Gibson Girl.” 2019. Wikipedia, 17 Oct. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibson_Girl.

Gimlin, Debra. 2002. Body Work: Beauty and Self-Image in American Culture . Berkeley: University of California Press.

Graham, Lawrence Otis. 1999. Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class . New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

“Hedera.” 2019. Wikipedia, 23 Dec. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedera#Cultural_symbolism.

Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy. 2007. The Practice of Feminist In-Depth Interviewing. In Feminist Research Practice , ed. Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, Patricia Lina Leavy. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. dx.doi.org/10.4135/978141298270.n7.

“High-Heeled Shoe.”2020. Wikipedia, 4 Feb. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-heeled_shoe.

“Kitten Heel.” 2019. Wikipedia, 18 Aug. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitten_heel.

Leavy, Patricia Lina. 2007. The Practice of Feminist Oral History and Focus Group Interviews. In Feminist Research Practice , ed. Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, Patricia Lina Leavy. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412984270.n7.

Marriott, Michel. 1990. “Black Fraternities and Sororities End a Tradition.” The New York Times , 3 Oct., B8.

McNealey, Earnestine Green. 2006. Pearls of Service: The Legacy of America’s First Black Sorority . Chicago: Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Mills, David. 1990. “Fraternity Violence: The Pledging Debate: The Greeks: There Is a Move Afoot to Do Away with Hazing and the Traditionalists Are Outraged and Vow to Fight.” Los Angeles Times , 24 Jul.

—.1990. “The Wrongs of the Rites of Brotherhood: Leaders of Black Fraternities Move to End a Cruel Tradition of Violent Hazing.” The Washington Post , 18 Jun., B1 & B6.

Munem, Bahia. 2013. Identifications, Differences and Silences in Fieldwork. In Conference on Religious Alternatives in Latin America , Porto Alegre. ufrgs.br/xviijornadas/cd-virtual-textos-completos/.

“Stepping (African-American).” 2020. Wikipedia, 22 Feb. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepping_(African-American).

Turner, Victor. 1969. Liminality and Communitas. In The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure . Chicago: Aldine Publishing.

Whaley, Deborah. 2010. Disciplining Women: Alpha Kappa Alpha, Black Counterpublics, and the Cultural Politics of Black Sororities . Albany: SUNY Press.

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2023-2024 Program for Chapter Activities

Objectives of the program for chapter activities.

The Program for Chapter Activities (PCA) serves as a guide to each chapter in planning its own programs and activities. The chapter programs and activities should reflect each chapter's unique student membership and environment.

The Program for Chapter Activities establishes guidelines for a minimum level of chapter activity as well as guidelines for chapters who seek recognition for outstanding performance. In addition, the Program for Chapter Activities incorporates features designed to:

Encourage chapters to fulfill the objectives of Beta Alpha Psi and prepare members for careers as financial information professionals,
Identify chapters needing assistance from Chapter Advocates and Professional Partners, and
Recognize chapters excelling in serving its members, campus, community, and/or profession.

The Program for Chapter Activities applies to both current and petitioning chapters. Petitioning chapters are eligible for award status, but requirements will not be prorated for petitioning chapters who begin the petitioning process during the reporting year.

CHAPTER REQUIREMENTS

Chapters must meet certain requirements depending upon the desired achievement level (bronze (mission-based), silver, gold). The requirements include submission of the following:

Professional Activities
Reaching Out Activities
Service Activities

Chapters not meeting the mission-based requirements (see below) are placed on probation for the subsequent year.

MINIMUM ACTIVITIES REQUIRED BASED ON CHAPTER ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL

*Award seeking chapters must include at least 1 mandatory "Essential Skills* session (Refer to Essential Skills topics under Professional Activities).

All chapters seeking Gold and Platinum status must attend either the Annual Meeting or a Mid-Year Meeting. To win Platinum, you must submit for the competition (formerly known as the Gold challenge).

CHAPTER ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS

In planning for each year, a chapter should organize activities to meet the requirements of one of the following chapter achievement levels:

Bronze (Mission based) chapter
Silver chapter
Gold chapter

Chapters striving for the silver, gold and platinum levels are considered award-seeking chapters.

RECOGNITIONS FOR AWARD SEEKING CHAPTERS

Annually, Beta Alpha Psi recognizes outstanding achievement as follows:

Up to 10 chapters receive the Platinum Challenge Award and a financial award contributed by KPMG and the KPMG Foundation.
Gold Chapters receive a financial award contributed by KPMG and the KPMG Foundation and a recognition plate.
Silver Chapters will be recognized by Beta Alpha Psi.
Best Practices Awards sponsored by Deloitte are given each year based on criteria established by the Board of Directors.
Beta Alpha Psi Inclusive Leadership Awards sponsored by EY are available to approximately four chapters who made an impact on diversity and inclusiveness within Beta Alpha Psi and/or its respective school/community.
Project Run With It sponsored by Moss Adams LLP furthers the community service component of Beta Alpha Psi. Each chapter represented on a first-place team (three first place teams) receives a plaque (bearing the name of the participating student and chapter) and a cash award.
AICPA & CIMA provides an annual award for the AICPA Medal of Inspiration.
Chapters nominating winners of the Business Information Professional of the Year Awards receive an award.
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) awards recognize achievement in the preparation of tax returns through an Internal Revenue Service program.

APPEALS OF CHAPTER ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL

Award seeking chapters will be notified of accomplished award status no later than July 1. A chapter may appeal its awarded level of achievement. Appeals must be in writing (e-mail is acceptable) and must be received by the Beta Alpha Psi Executive Office within 10 business days of the receipt of notification of award status. The letter of appeal should include evidence in support of the appeal. Any appeals will be forwarded by the Executive Office to the Chapter Advocacy Council (CAC). The CAC review the appeal and vote to uphold the award level or award a higher chapter achievement level based on the facts and circumstances of the appeal. All decisions of the CAC are final.

ACTIVITY TIME & ATTENDANCE

For the purpose of measurement of an activity’s time, an hour consists of a 50-minute session. Thus, an activity lasting 50 minutes will be awarded one service or professional activity point. All activities need to be reported in the Reporting Intranet, but only activities with 20% attendance or higher will count as a point towards award status.

CHAPTER REPORTING

REVIEW THE REPORTING INTRANET RESOURCES GUIDE

Prior to reporting, please review the Reporting Intranet Resources Guide to become familiar with the reporting process. A reporting guide and webinar recoding are available on the BAP.org site under "Resources".

BEGINNING-OF-YEAR REPORT

All U.S. chapters must submit a Beginning of Year Report by October 15.

All Oceania Region chapters must submit the Beginning of Year Report by June 15.

To complete this report, go to the “Enter Beginning of Year Report” tab in the Reporting Intranet and:

Update the Chapter Profile. This section lists current officers, Faculty Advisor, and other information.
Enter the Plan of Activities, including dates and programs (either planned or anticipated) detailing the chapter's plan for fulfilling the mission-based activities.
If the chapter bylaws have changed from the previous year, attach a copy of the revised bylaws. If the bylaws have not changed, click on “No Changes Needed.”
Pay annual chapter maintenance fee online by credit card or by check payable to Beta Alpha Psi. Once the payment has been confirmed, the Executive Office will check off this box as “received.” An invoice may be printed from the Reporting Intranet.

MID-YEAR REPORT

All US chapters must declare themselves as award seeking (if applicable) on the Chapter Profile page by December 15 and complete fall semester reporting by December 15.

In addition, ALL petitioning chapters are required to complete a midyear report, whether award seeking or petition based.

All Oceania Region chapters must declare themselves as award seeking and complete mid-year reports by October 1.

END-OF-YEAR REPORT

All US chapters must prepare and submit an End-of-Year Report by June 1.

All Oceania chapters must complete the End-of-Year Report by December 15.

NOTE: Failure to file the End-of-Year Report by the deadline will result in a $100 late filing penalty.

A reporting guide and webinar recording are available under Reporting Intranet Resources .

Submitting End of Year Report: Go to the “Enter End of Year Report” tab in the Reporting Intranet and:

Update the Chapter Profile page.
Attach the chapter’s Statement of Financial Position and Statement of Activities. See the Financial Reporting Guide for more information. These statements may be attached in Word, Excel or PDF format.
Complete the chapter reporting including updating all professional and service activities.
Complete the Faculty Advisory Sign-Off (must be completed by the Faculty Advisor, logged in under his/her password).

This sign-off requires the Faculty Advisor to:

Verify both the Beta Alpha Psi and Non-Beta Alpha Psi activities reported by the Chapter
Chapters with revenue less than $50,000 submit the online 990n e-Postcard filing and include the submission ID from the Acceptance screen. Please also forward a screen shot of the Acceptance screen to the Executive Office ([email protected]). Please be aware you will not receive an email confirmation from the IRS. You must login to the IRS site after you have filed to check the status.
Chapters with average gross receipts for the past three years exceeding $50,000 must also download the Over $50K spreadsheet can be downloaded from the Financial Reporting Guide.
Complete the financial statement sign-off. If you indicate your chapter had gross receipts over $100,000 for the past year, you must also attach an auditor’s report. See the Reporting Intranet Resources for more information.
Submit the entire sign-off by June 1. In order to qualify as an award chapter, all required chapter reporting must be completed by US chapters by June 1.

Only under extreme circumstances will exceptions be considered by the Board.

IMPACT ACTIVITY POINTS

An Impact Activity is a Professional or Service Activity that demonstrates a strong effect has been made to your university or community. Impact activities earn an extra point toward award status (i.e., an extra professional or service point). Impact activities may include but are not limited to the following elements:

Media Promotion (TV or Print)
Financial Volunteer Support (donating accounting or bookkeeping services)
Sharing business/college knowledge (e.g. volunteering with high school, incoming freshmen, and undeclared students)
VITA (Impact Requirements Below)
Community College Associate Candidates
AACSB Societal Impact Goal for your business school

IMPACT EXAMPLES

Chapters are encouraged to generate impact points in ways that are best suited for them but are welcome to use the below suggestions to earn impact points.

Media Promotion or Tutoring Impact Point

Your chapter conducts a school supplies drive for a local elementary school (20% attendance = 1 Service point). Add media promotion or a tutoring session to that activity for young children in reading or math and earn an Impact point. The addition of media promotion or tutoring provides 2 points for one Service Activity.

Your chapter volunteers to provide a presentation to undeclared freshman students at our university or high school seniors who are not familiar with the benefits that the accounting, finance, business analytics or IS professions offer. (20% attendance = 1 Service point). Invite a local business professional and/or business school dean and feature the event in a local paper or local TV station. Earn 2 points for one Professional Activity.

Your chapter offers to conduct tutoring sessions with local community college students. The tutoring sessions should be reported as one activity for fall and one activitiy for spring semester.

Earn 2 points for each session for more than 5 community college students tutored. Students can include enrolled two-year students and four-year transfer students.

Mentorship Impact Point

Conduct a case study or financial literacy activity with a group of high school, university or underrepresented students (20% attendance = 1 Professional point). Add a “Pay it Forward” component where the engaged students conduct the same activity with other students. The addition of the Pay it Forward component provides 2 points for one Professional Activity.

Financial Volunteer Support Impact Point

Your chapter volunteers at an animal shelter by socializing the animals and cleaning the kennels (20% attendance = 1 Service point). Assisting the shelter with financial support or bookkeeping services would provide 2 points for one Service Activity. (Financial Volunteer Support Impact Point). Consulting or compensated services will not qualify for this Impact point.

Sharing Business/College Knowledge Impact Point

Your chapter volunteers through Junior Achievement at a local high school (20% attendance = 1 Service point). Provide students with information on selecting and applying for colleges to earn 2 points for one Service Activity.

Volunteer to assist incoming freshmen with the FAFSA application through your school (20% attendance = 1 Service point). Provide a presentation on the job opportunities for attaining a degree in accounting, finance, business analytics or digital technology to earn 2 points for one Service Activity.

VITA Impact Point

We encourage all chapters to participate in VITA, but to earn the VITA impact point, chapters must meet the following requirements:

The VITA event must be BAP/University sponsored
The chapter must meet the 20% participation rule
Chapter must complete the VITA report form found here and submit by the designated deadline. If the report is not submitted by the deadline, the chapter will not earn the VITA impact point.

Community College Associate Candidate Impact Point

Your chapter conducts a professional activity with a local community college (20% attendance = 1 Professional Activity point). Include local community college students to attend as associate candidates to your on-campus meetings or at the participating community college campus and earn 2 points for one Professional Activity.

AACSB Societal Impact Point

If your business school has defined a Societal Impact Goal for their AACSB standard 9 accreditation requirement, and your chapter hosts a service activity that meets that specific Societal Impact goal, (20% attendance) your chapter may earn 2 points for one Service Activity.

REPORTING IMPACT POINTS

Utilize the dropdown function in the Reporting Intranet to report Impact Points and complete the Wufoo form with evidence of impact (e.g., descriptive paragraph, attestation, photos or videos) demonstrating how your activity meets the impact points guidelines above.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

All chapters must report at least six professional activities per year meeting the following requirements:

Participation by at least 20% of the active members/candidates for the semester, and
the activity must be at least 1 hour (50 minutes) in duration
These activities must be reported on the online Report Activity screen in the Reporting Intranet. See Reporting Intranet Resources for help with reporting.

Award-seeking chapters (Silver and Gold) must conduct one mandatory professional session devoted to "Essential Skills". Professional activities may be conducted on campus, virtually, as a chapter, or individually. Attendance from each member/candidate professional session (on-campus or online) should be reported as:

Chapter Professional Development Meetings (identify if Essential Skill)
Independent certificate course
Independent webinars that are at least 50-minutes
Recorded professional development sessions via the Alumni and Member Network
Virtual Professional Meeting (reported the same as any on-campus professional activity). Chapters can pick and choose professional topics from the list below.

Chapter professional development meetings:

Activity or meeting with a professional organization
Webcast and Webinar Resources from our Professional Partners (available on our website)
Joint meetings with professional organizations
Joint meetings with on-campus organizations
Local seminars/workshops (not those involving “paid” tuition)
Field trips and office visits
Meet-the-Firms Night or Activity (must be a single event where multiple firms are represented and the purpose is to provide a significant number of students with information about various firms and industries. This should not be strictly a recruiting event)
Excel Certificate Program (available on the Alumni & Member Network)
Publications (articles or news notes for newsletter; copy of publication must be submitted to the Executive Office for credit)
Executive-in-Residence/Professor-for-a-Day programs
Mock interview activity (must be an event where multiple firms are represented and all member/candidates are eligible to participate, not a recruiting event)
Social activities with professionals – up to two activities per year with a maximum time of 1 hour (50 minutes) per activity
Student Driven Professional Sessions – Chapters can invite professionals to attend a BAP meeting (in-person or virtually) where the students present various technical topics.

Credit is not given for prospective candidate meetings, chapter orientation meetings, chapter organizational meetings, chapter business/planning meetings, firm information sessions, initiations and other similar activities that provide no professional component.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

Many students seek to obtain internships and full-time job opportunities through Beta Alpha Psi; however, once they have the job, they must develop their “essential skills” in order to succeed professionally. To aid this development, award-seeking chapters (distinguished and superior) must conduct one mandatory professional session devoted to “Essential Skills.”

Essential Skills activities must be entered into the Reporting Intranet as: ES-Topic Title

A list of Essential Skills topics is provided:

Business Writing Skills – Business writing skills are different from academic writing. This session conveys the basics of business writing skills that include standardizing, streaming, and reinforcing a company’s corporate culture by communicating in a professional manner.
Facilitation Skills – This session helps students learn what to expect in a professional situation involving a group discussion format. Learn how to create an inclusive environment to achieve group goals.
Managing Distractions – Emails, phone calls and co-workers stopping by your desk to talk creates distractions. This session covers how to handle inevitable disruptions and remain focused and productive.
Ethical Decision-Making Skills – Accountancy is based on trust. This session distinguishes one’s core values and ethical decision-making.
Negotiation Skills – Negotiation skills are extremely important in maintaining focus in one’s career. This session covers the basics of negotiations, information gathering, learning to listen, leveraging the situation, goals of the negotiation, costs of the negotiation, the bargaining phase and closing the negotiation process.
Conflict Management – Conflict in the workplace is a reality professionals encounter at some point in their careers. This session includes tips on how to quickly identify conflict, assess the issue, managing oneself and the parties involved and professionally resolving the issue.
Change Management – This session assists students in understanding what to expect and how to deal with change in the work environment whether it will be a departmental change or organizational change.
Emotional Intelligence – Studies have shown people with high emotional intelligence have greater mental health, exemplary job performance, and more potent leadership skills. This session includes identifying a person’s EQ and how to improve EQ.
Interpersonal Skills at the Workplace – Working with others is essential to networking and engaging with coworkers and clients. This session focuses on developing these skills and applying them to the workplace.
Diversity and Inclusion – At the workplace there are many diverse voices. Inclusion is respecting and valuing those voices. This session defines diversity and inclusion and states aspects for managing and building diversity.
Accepting Feedback – The ability to accept feedback and learn from it is essential to individual development and growth. This session includes tips and strategies for accepting and delivering healthy feedback.

SERVICE ACTIVITIES

All chapters, regardless of achievement level, must report two service activities during the year meeting the following requirements:

the activity must be at least 1 hour (50 minutes) in duration.

Definition of Service Activities

The service category is intended to be flexible and adaptable to the needs and desires of individual chapters. Service is the giving of one’s time, energy and talents to benefit either the campus or local community. Community service involves making a difference to these entities through the actions of caring for others by the chapter and/or its members and includes direct service or indirect service. Direct service actively involves the chapter with a community group or organization (either on or off campus). Indirect service provides help or resources through a “round-about” approach and includes preparation time for charitable events, raising funds for charity, or assisting with “back office” functions such as accounting or computer systems. In evaluating community service, we suggest that the chapter consider the following questions.

How does this activity benefit the organization/individual(s) being assisted?
Why are we (am I) doing this?

To be reported as a service activity sponsored by Beta Alpha Psi, the event either:

must be organized and carried out by the Beta Alpha Psi chapter or
must involve participation by the members of the Beta Alpha Psi chapter as a group (in which case the chapter agrees to participate as a chapter and has promoted participation in the event).

Any money received from a service activity must be donated to a charitable organization or used for a charitable cause.

Chapters seeking Distinguished or Superior award levels must meet the required number of designated activities for each award recognition status. Service activities to report are:

Silver chapters: 4 service activities for the full reporting year
Gold chapters: 6 service activites for the full reporting year.

Examples of Service Activities

Community Impact page on BAP.org site
Volunteer Income Tas Assistance - VITA training time may be counted as a Professional Activity and VITA tax preparation volunteer time may be reported as a Service Activity. Each chapter reporting VITA as a service activity will be required to submit the VITA Summary Report. You can find the report here .
Volunteer to serve as a Host Chapter for the 2024 Mid-Year Meetings
Tutoring business school students and/or community college or high school students
Volunteering for non-profits such as: Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers/big Sisters, Junior Achievement.
Organizing and/or participating in a charitable event such as: fundraising projects for charity, food drives ( note: must organize, not just donate ), blood drive or walk or bowl-a-thons.
Volunteering to assist with university events such as career fairs, etc.
Hosting a financial literacy event
Mentoring business school students and/or community college or high school students

Activities not constituting community service include:

assisting friends or family
volunteering to participate in events where the underlying purpose is recruitment.
activities for which members receive course credit (with the exception of VITA) are not considered service activities.
donating non-perishable food items to a non-profit organization cannot serve as a substitute for a service activity. We suggest chapter events that include organizing and working at a food drive event. Creating pantry packs and providing words of encouragement with the pantry packs is encouraged.

REACHING OUT ACTIVITIES (ROAs)

All chapters must participate in Reaching Out activities during the year. The following number of activities are required for each achievement level:

Bronze (Mission Based) - 3 activities
Silver (formerly Distinguished) - 8 activities
Gold (formerly Superior) - 11 activities

Reporting Reaching Out activities: Chapters should update the “Report Activity > Reaching Out Activities” tab on the Reporting Intranet by December 15 and June 1. Even though more than one chapter member may attend an event, such as a Mid-Year Meeting, only one credit is received for the Reaching Out activity. Most activities also result in participation (professional or service) for the individual(s) attending the event.

These activities should be recorded on the online activity reporting screens in the Reporting Intranet.

The following list includes items qualifying as a Reaching Out Activity (ROA):

Executive Office Sponsored ROAs

2023 Annual Meeting Attendance (In-Person)
2023 Annual Meeting - CID presentation attendance & participation in Back-to-School supplies drive.
2023 Annual Meeting - (In-Person) Presentation/Best Practices and/or Chapter Operations
Live Virtual Chapter Reporting 101 attendance
Live Virtual Diversity & Inclusiveness event attendance (one ROA per academic year)
Live Virtual Initiation (Fall or Spring - one ROA per academic year)
Hosting or co-hosting 2024 Mid-Year Meeting – verified by Chapter Advocate
2024 Mid-Year Meeting Attendance
2024 Mid_Year Meeting Presentation (Best Practices and/or Chapter Operations)
Nomination for 2024 Business Information Professional of the Year
Nomination for 2024 Outstanding Dean
Nomination for 2024 Project Run With It
Nomination for either the International Alumni Advocate or Regional Advocate roles
1st round winner for EY Inclusive Leadership Award
Social Media Engagement - Chapter must schedule with the Executive Office
Donation of 100 books to support literacy. A description of the event is required.
Mentoring a Developing Chapter – this mentoring relationship should be approved and supervised by the Chapter Advocate for your region.
1st round winner in Grant Thornton (GT) Ethics Award – To be determined
Promotion of Executive Graduate Honor (EGH) with an introductory email introducing the chapter advisor, the graduate school administrator, and the BAP Executive Director, [email protected]
All current members join the Alumni & Member Network
View 2 podcasts produced by Beta Alpha Psi Alumni Advocates

All chapters seeking Gold status must attend either the Annual Meeting or a Mid-Year Meeting.

In addition to the items listed above, BAP chapters may sponsor Reaching Out Activities.

For each Reaching Out Activity sponsored by the chapter, upload a brief paragraph describing the activity on the Reporting Internet.

Chapter Sponsored ROAs

This event emphasizes living well at home and may include virtual fitness classes, mindfulness sessions, weight management and nutrition sessions, importance of sleep and exercise sessions, health and wellness webinars.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion awareness event (may include professional speaker or panel) – requires uploaded description of event (one ROA per academic year)
The career orientation program(s) or activities should be directed toward minority students at the high school level or undecided minority university students.
Career materials are available from a variety of professional organizations. These presentations are intended to be group sessions. Booths at career fairs, activity fairs, "rush" events, or regular chapter meetings do not count in this category.
AICPA Diversity and Inclusion
NABA student programs
Societal Impact Goal (AACSB) at your business school service event – requires uploaded description of event
A professional or service activity co-sponsored with another Beta Alpha Psi chapter. In order to promote interaction between chapters, this co-sponsored event should involve at least 20% of each chapter’s current membership. Virtual multi-chapter events are welcome. BAP allows one “multi-chapter webcast” meeting per year. Chapters who conduct a webcast meeting will have to provide documentation demonstrating it incorporated controls to ensure members who logged in participated and were engaged in the webcast.
Chapters may report 2 events per year
This includes career orientations related to accounting, finance and information systems presented to pre-decision college students, college students from other majors, or junior high and high school students. Beta Alpha Psi events or programs presented to prospective Beta Alpha Psi candidates which are designed primarily to promote the areas of accounting, finance, and business analytics or digital technology to undecided students but that have as a secondary effect promoting Beta Alpha Psi are acceptable. Virtual career fairs are acceptable to include online students from AACSB accredited online programs. Beta Alpha Psi orientation sessions for members/candidates do not qualify.
Any chapter that dedicates a meeting to promote careers in accounting, finance, and IS, while also advocating for Career Launchpad to new associate candidates, can now claim a "reaching out activity." In the Reporting Intranet, under the Reaching Out Activity screen, provide us with the session date and the number of participating associate candidates. Career Launchpad is a valuable resource available to all AICPA student affiliate members, and we urge every college student contemplating their first job to explore its offerings.
An Alumni event to promote communication between alumni and their alma mater. 20% chapter participation is required.
Literacy and/or College Application (or similar) Program
9/11 Day of Service - We will accept service events that take place during the month of September.
American College Application Campaign - is an organization that organizes events at inner city or rural high schools where volunteers will help student complete college applications in the fall. BAP students would be a great resource for high school students to understand the application/college process.
Second initiation - All initiations should be reported in the Reporting Intranet and the second initiation should be reported as a Reaching Out Activity. This may include the spring virtual initiation.
Community College Accounting Club Mentorship Program
Identify a Title I school in your area and schedule a presentation to the students about careers in accounting, finance, business analytics or digital technology
May help mentor high school students with college applications.

For 2023-2024, chapters may elect to hold an in-person initiation or participate in the Executive Office's Virtual Initiation for Fall 2023 and Spring 2024. All chapters must attend at least one formal initiation\installation or virtual initiation event each year. During the event, officers will be installed and new members will be initiated using the procedures defined on the BAP website (https://www.bap.org/initiations). Initiations "in absentia" will only be allowed under extreme circumstances approved by the Board President.

Chapters may choose to have a second initiation\installation event during the academic year. This event qualifies as a Reaching Out Activity (ROA). All installations and initiations are to be reported to the Executive Office.

INITIATION AND MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATE PROCESS

Verify that the candidate meets the eligibility requirements prior to the initiation. When a candidate is initiated, the student record needs to be moved from Active Candidate folder to the Submit for Initiation folder in the Reporting Intranet. This serves as a notification to Executive Office to have membership certificates printed. If the chapter wants to receive membership certificates in time for the ceremony, Executive Office must be notified at least two weeks prior to initiation. Requests for certificates to be sent overnight delivery will cost $50.

Candidate Payment Process

Candidates should be entered into the Reporting Intranet on a monthly basis. Do not enter the candidates into the system until the $75 fee has been collected.
Chapters can either pay online via credit card or by check. Checks must be made payable to Beta Alpha Psi and mailed to the Executive Office - 220 Leigh Farm Road, Durham. NC 27707.
A list of candidates for whom the check relates should accompany the check. Invoice with the list of candidates may be printed from the Reporting Intranet.
For payments made after 60-days, a late fee of $20 per candidate will be charged to the chapter.

Transfer Members

Chapters must contact the Executive Office in writing for verification of transfer members. Once the Executive Office has confirmed the transfer student is a member of BAP, the new chapter will enter them into the Reporting Intranet as a new candidate. The Executive Office then credits the $75 fee. If the transfer member requests a certificate from the new chapter, the chapter must pay the $15 processing fee.

The Online Student

The online student can meet service requirements via the same model as students on campus, only their hours would be recorded as “BAP-Service Activity for Online Students.” Examples of service hours they could report include:

Tutoring other online students in accounting, finance or business analytics and digital technology
Tutoring high school students in math
Tutoring Community College students in accounting, finance or business analytics and digital technology
Working with a local Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program

Pass this quiz and earn a Reaching Out Activity (ROA) Point

You must complete an 80% pass rate to earn the ROA - Take Quiz Now

Founded in 1919, Beta Alpha Psi is an honor organization for financial information students and professionals. There are over 300 chapters on college and university campuses with over 300,000 members initiated since Beta Alpha Psi's formation. All of our chapters are AACSB and/or EQUIS accredited. We are not a fraternity or sorority but an honors organization.

2023 Annual Report

Throughout this report, you will find that Beta Alpha Psi is proud of the members, alumni, faculty advisors, Professional Partners, Board of Directors, Chapter Advocates and every volunteer that contributes to the success of this organization. Learn more here.

Connect With Us

Hear what our Professional Partners think about BAP!

UWorld Roger CPA Review values Beta Alpha Psi students' commitment to learning, strengthening professional connections through networking, and participating in service projects within their communities. We recognize Beta Alpha Psi students are future leaders in accounting, finance, business analytics and digital technology. With the skills they acquire during their time with Beta Alpha Psi, they will play an essential role in the continued growth and advancement of these accounting and business industries.

Karina Khadaran UWorld Roger CPA Review

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