I’m not really making good on my 2015 promise to recognize all Founders’ Days. I’ll keep plugging along, promise.
Sigma Lambda Beta International Fraternity founded at the University of Iowa. During the start of 1985-86 academic year, Baltazar Mendoza-Madrigal thought about establishing a Latino-based fraternity and started to research the possibility. A meeting held on March 7, 1986. The plans for the organization were finalized on April 4, 1986.
Today, the fraternity is represented on more than 100 college campuses in 29 states. 1992 was an important year for the fraternity. It was the first Latino-based fraternity at an historically black institution, Prairie View A&M University. It reached from coast to coast when chapters were established at California State University-Dominquez Hills and SUNY-Stony Brook on Long Island. That same year, Sigma Lambda Beta joined the North-American Interfraternity Conference.
Sigma Beta Lambda’s website includes moving tributes to members who are now part of Omega chapter. One of those brothers, Victor Correa Ortiz, inspired the creation of the Victor Correa CPR Awareness Day efforts. While visiting his parents in Puerto Rico, he drowned. Bystanders did not know how to administer CPR. Sigma Beta Lambdas are encouraged to become CPR certified and to provide an opportunity for others to be certified through the Victor Correa CPR Awareness Day.
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A Happy Belated Founders’ Day to Delta Tau Lambda and Alpha Sigma Rho, both founded on April 2.
Delta Tau Lambda was founded at the University of Michigan on April 2, 1994 by Darilís García and Maria Victoria Ramos. It is a Latina-based sorority with ten collegiate and six alumnae chapters.
Alpha Sigma Rho, an Asian interest sorority, was founded at the University of Georgia on April 2, 1998. Its founders are Irene Chien, Young Jeon, Juliette Taylor, Jessica Yoo, Suzanne Yoo, Jasmine Yu, Sandra Chu, Debbie Kwon, Angela Lu, Lynn Nguyen, Anne See, and Anna Suh. Its colors are white, red, and silver. The calla lily is its flower, the swan its mascot, the opal its gemstone and its symbol is “Nu,” the Chinese symbol for woman.
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© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2015. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/