Sigma Kappa (ΣΚ, also known as SK or Sig Kap) is a sorority founded on November 9, 1874 at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
In 1871, Mary Caffrey Low Carver became the first and only female student at Colby College in Maine until Elizabeth Gorham Hoag, Ida Mabel Fuller Pierce, Frances Elliott Mann Hall and Louise Helen Coburn were admitted and enrolled in 1873.
They were instructed by the college administration that they would need to present a constitution and bylaws with a petition requesting permission to form Sigma Kappa.
[2][3] Expansion began in 1904 at Boston University,[2][4] and in 1905, Sigma Kappa joined the National Panhellenic Conference.
Her parents, Ada Woodruff and Oliver Perkins Anderson, gave a lodge to the chapter on Puget Sound, used up until 1919.
Its second philanthropy, begun in the aftermath of WWII in 1946 had an international focus, supporting the American Farm School of Thessaloniki, Greece.
In 1924 Sigma Kappa established its first national headquarters in Reading, Massachusetts, which would move to Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1936.
[9] The Sigma Kappa coat-of-arms includes the symbols of the sorority: the dove, violet, Greek letters, and colors.
[9] Adopted in 1911,[3] the coat-of-arms consists of a maroon shield with a diagonal gold bar on which are five lavender stars.
The current membership badge is a one-inch jeweled triangle with Greek letters Σ and Κ.
In 1954, gerontology was adopted as another main philanthropy of Sigma Kappa, with members encouraged to volunteer with the elderly.
According to the Foundation's website: "Since becoming a Platinum National Walk team in 2016, Sigma Kappa has consistently raised more than $1,000,000 annually.
As with all National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) sororities, women may join Sigma Kappa if they attend as an undergraduate a university with an active chapter from which they receive a membership offer.