This is one of my new favorite photos. It was taken about 100 years ago. These women are recently initiated members of a college sorority. In fact, as charter members, they are the entire chapter.
All of these women are gone. The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organization to which they took an oath of membership is thriving. And it, along with the 25 other NPC groups, continues to provide today’s women with leadership opportunities, philanthropic endeavors, sincere friendship and the chance to be a part of something much greater than themselves.
While the 2013 version of this picture includes women in sundresses and t-shirts, the feelings they show are much the same. Look at the pure joy in the faces of the women standing on the fence in the back row, or at the seriousness of purpose of the women in the middle row, and the happiness of the women in the front. These same emotions can be seen in the photos taken this fall after recruitment.
I implore the women of the 2013 new member classes to remember that there were young women who came before them – women who faced many challenges while earning a degree, joining the workforce, and/or raising a family. The way of today’s women has been paved by the women no longer with us, contemporaries of the women in this photo. The organization you joined needs you, the 2013 new member, to remember that you will graduate and other young women will follow in your footsteps. Work for your organization, giving of your time, talent, and treasure, for you are but one little link in a very, very long chain of women who have taken the same oath of membership.
(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.
