Xavierites celebrate AKA’s “Phirst Klass” Founders event

January 30, 2024

By Xavier Carter, Staff Writer

There is nothing like a powerful collective of strong Black women. The sisters of the Epsilon Tau Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. hosted an event to celebrate their Founder’s Day on Jan. 19. In the University Center, the members set up booths to promote health, history, wellness, and creative clothing and material brands founded by different members, all while being served with good food and music.

“To be an AKA is to be a woman of high standards. It’s to be a woman who is focused on her goals and the things she wants to achieve. It’s really to set the standard and to show other people what it means to be sophisticated and to be hardworking and intelligent,” said Jasmine Christopher, a Mass Communication junior, and a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

This “Phirst Klass” Sorority event brought out students to educate, network, and invest in other HBCU students, and to invest in the first steps into making the world a healthier space. Women of the sorority attempted to teach what they preach at each stand and presented a way to learn from the given information.

“Being in a sorority you deal with a lot of people all the time and I think one thing that I learned was to sit back and to be a follower and a listener at times,” Christopher said.

Women of the organization chose to show their creative passions throughout the event. There was a booth set up for custom knit-made hats in different colors for stylish versatility. The booth was not only promoting knitted hats but was promoting self-love and to be oneself in anything you do, to promote personal success no matter the obstacles.

“My success isn’t so much of an occupational thing but more of a transformative thing for myself as a person,” said senior Kiersten McCollum, a Mass Communication major, and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

The members said they hoped to make the founders of the AKA sorority proud, as they marked this day with celebration, to spread love, communion, and an all-around learning experience. There were ways to learn about changing habits for the world and ways to learn to love ourselves. Being who you are leaves a space for special individuality, the member said, but spreading to do so, stepping out into the world while forming as a strong-willed human aligns the colors of a true AKA.

“Being a part of any Divine Nine organization transcends the colors,” said junior Karleigh Landry, a Biology major and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.