Sigma Omicron Pi () is an Asian American interest

sorority In North America, fraternities and sororities ( and ) are social clubs at colleges and universities. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Greek life or Greek-letter organizations, as well as collegiate fraternities or collegiate sorori ...

. Founded in 1930 at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

, the college

social organization In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, struc ...

has active chapters on twelve campuses in the United States. The stated objective of the sorority is to "further the awareness of women in

Asian culture The culture of Asia encompasses the collective and diverse customs and traditions of art, architecture, music, literature, lifestyle, philosophy, food, politics and religion that have been practiced and maintained by the numerous ethnic g ...

" and "to promote unity, lifelong friendships, leadership, and

community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community contributing to a noble cause. In many cases, people doing community service are compensated in other ways, such as gettin ...

History

In 1930, ten

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used fo ...

women came together on the campus of

to form a sorority for women who were interested in teaching. They adopted the Greek letters ΣΟΠ or Sigma Omicron Pi to represent "Sisters of Pedagogy". It was the first Chinese sorority on that campus. Elizabeth Ling-so Hall was a founder and the sorority's first president. Sigma Omicron Pi expanded to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

campus in 1936. The main archive URL i
The Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage
The sorority became active in the Asian community. Annually, they held a fashion show to raise scholarship money with the UC Chinese Alumni Association. However, both chapters were forced to become inactive during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilisin ...

. Sigma Omicron Pi was revived at the

in 1946. The educational focus fell away, changing to providing fellowship, philanthropy, and cultural awareness for and among Asian American women of many Asian backgrounds. In 1994, the sorority created an Inter-Chapter Council with six elected officers to help unite the various chapters. By 2025, the sorority had chartered fifteen chapters. Its national office is in La Jolla, California.

Symbols

The Greek letters ΣΟΠ or Sigma Omicron Pi were selected to represent "Sisters of Pedagogy". The sorority's colors are green and gold. Its flower is the daisy and its jewel is the pearl.

Chapters

Active chapters are in bold. Inactive chapters are in ''italics''.

Notes

Notable members

* Tiffany Lam –

Miss Hong Kong Miss Hong Kong Pageant (), or Miss HK () for short, is an annual beauty pageant organised by local Hong Kong television station, TVB. The pageant was established in 1946, and acquired by TVB in 1973. Regulations Recruitment All participants ...

2002,

Miss Chinese International Miss Chinese International Pageant ( zh, 國際中華小姐競選, formerly 國際華裔小姐競選), or MCI ( zh, 華姐) for short, is an annual international beauty pageant, organized and broadcast by TVB, a network television station in Hong ...

2003 runner up, and TVB actress

References