History & Facts

Purpose:

"The intellectual ambitions of the Fraternity shall be the attainment of highest scholarship. The social aim of the Fraternity shall be to exercise the widest influence for good. The moral aim of the Fraternity shall be the standard of love."

Theta History:

Bettie Locke Hamilton, Alice Allen Brant, Betty Tipton Lindsey, and Hannah Fitch Shaw founded Kappa Alpha Theta, the first Greek-letter fraternity among women, on January 27, 1870. They formed the organization as a form of support for women at Asbury University in Greencastle, Indiana (now known as DePauw University). In the past 140+ years, Kappa Alpha Theta has grown to over 120 chapters throughout the United States and Canada, and over 170,000 initiated members to date.

Fun Facts:

• Kappa Alpha Theta's colors are Black and Gold
• The kite is our symbol
• Our flower is the black and gold pansy
• The first women admitted to Phi Beta Kappa were Thetas
• Theta was the first women's fraternity to establish a chapter outside the USA
• The first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in her own right was a Theta

Traveling to Convention, 1913
Kappa Alpha Theta Archives