The arrival of Alpha Phi has provided more than 100 ISU women the chance to be founding members of a new sorority and promote a new philanthropic cause.

During a week in September, Alpha Phi set up various booths around Central Campus and in the Memorial Union. They handed out flyers and talked to students to promote Alpha Phi as they bring the sorority back to the ISU greek community. 

Alpha Phi made the decision to leave Iowa State in 1998 because greek life was not as prominent as it is on campus now, said Megan Eckerle, educational leadership consultant for Alpha Phi. This led to a steady decline in membership for Alpha Phi.

“Overall, we are so excited to bring in something new, with a whole new group of girls who are enthusiastic to get involved,” Eckerle said. 

For a week the women handed out water bottles, hair ties and sunglasses to get their name out on campus. 

Alpha Phi’s philanthropy is bringing awareness to heart disease — the number one killer of women in the United States, according to the American Heart Association. 

The sorority will be participating in a few philanthropic events this year. Once they figure out all the details for their first event, they will begin to advertise for that event.

“We are continually promoting more ways for the community, and the greek community to get involved and support women’s heart health,” Eckerle said.

Next semester, Alpha Phi will host their Red Dress Gala event to raise money for heart disease awareness. The Red Dress Gala is Alpha Phi’s signature philanthropy around the nation. Some chapters choose to have a guest speaker, live entertainment, etc. 

“We’re really excited that [Alpha Phi’s] philanthropic endeavor is for heart awareness,” said Katy Cran, assistant director of Greek affairs. “It serves as a great opportunity for us to talk about the number one killer of women. Bringing awareness to that is extremely important, since we do not have a lot of organizations on campus that do that.”

Some of Alpha Phi’s values include sisterhood, scholarship, character development, loyalty and leadership.

The sorority is not building a house this year, but is in the house-hunting stage. As soon as the group solidifies a location, they will inform the greek community to move on with the next steps.

Alpha Phi does not have a temporary house location, but hosts regular meetings on Sunday evenings at the Alumni Center.

“I’ve always wanted to be involved in the greek community, and I thought this would be a great time to try it once I saw the signs around campus for Alpha Phi,” said Bridgett Konradi, junior in event management, and new member of Alpha Phi.

During rush week, women from the University of Minnesota, Alpha Phi chapter came to Iowa State to participate in the open house round of recruitment. The University of Minnesota women gave the ISU recruits a preview of Alpha Phi.

“We will be participating in all of the greek events, and all of the other fun traditions that go along with being a part of the greek community,” said Stephanie Tripi, educational leadership consultant for the sorority.

The ladies participating in formal recruitment could choose to continue with regular recruitment, or choose to wait for Alpha Phi’s recruitment in September.

“I felt like I was going through the same recruitment process,” Konradi said. “We had social activities where we got to know the girls, we learned about the Alpha Phi foundation, their philanthropy, and even had a preference night. They really tried to make it as formal as possible.”

Alpha Phi waited until mid-September to start their formal recruitment week because it gave them the ability to market to their perspective new members. Their emphasis was on advertising Alpha Phi and getting the word out to the Iowa State community.

Holding recruitment during mid-September worked well for the university, and the space they had at the time.

“Alpha Phi is more than excited to join the greek community, and bring something new to the table, while still being one with the greek community,” Tripi said.

Alpha Phi has the opportunity to recruit up to 157 girls. As of Wednesday, they had about 135 members.

“I am thrilled with the interest and enthusiasm of our women,” Tripi said. “As we add new girls, who are just as excited and willing to get involved to lead the pathway for the future.”