AEPhi Centennial

The 2009-10 school year marks the Phi Kappa Chapter of Alpha Epsilon Phi’s (AEPhi) 100th anniversary of its national foundation at Barnard College.

“We still have the same values, rituals and purpose,” said AEPhi President Heather Burke. “We are a network for one another, while striving to make a difference within our college community. Dedication is a quality that all of the girls within AEPhi share.”

The AEPhi motto, “Multa Corda Una Causa” or “Many Hearts, One Purpose” embodies the solidarity among the sisters, according to AEPhi’s Vice President of Programming, Krystle Erickson.

“We are a group of girls that all have different personalities and talents, but together, in my opinion, we make up a strong organization,” Burke said.

Erickson said that this has been a “year of celebrating” for the sorority in that it contains both their 100th national anniversary in the fall as well as the 25th anniversary of its establishment at Rowan in the spring.

AEPhi began its year of festivities by setting up a table outside the Student Center at Rowan’s “Meet the Greeks” event on Sept. 8. According to Burke, the sisters plan to hold a luncheon in November.

Burke said that her sorority has been on the Rowan University campus since May 7, 1985, where it was founded by 22 female students. The original AEPhi was formed by seven Jewish women in an attempt to “foster lifelong friendship and sisterhood” in October 1909, according to Erickson.

Erickson and Burke attended the sorority’s centennial celebration last June in Miami, where they met the national president, alumni and sorority sisters from all over the country. At the convention, Rowan’s Phi Kappa chapter of AEPhi received the following awards for the 2008-09 school year: honorable mention for Beth Kersten Saul Panhellenic Award, second place for Elizabeth Meyer Glaser Community Service Award and Exceeded All-Sorority GPA.