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LITTLE ROCK — On Sunday, March 13, at 3 p.m., the 10 metro Arkansas chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® (Alpha Kappa Alpha) will host a virtual commemoration of the sorority’s 114th Founders’ Day with the theme “Persevering in Unity and Sisterhood during Unprecedented Times.” South Central Regional Director Joya T. Hayes, representing the sorority’s second largest region of more than 14,000 women comprising Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas, is the keynote speaker. The event is open to the public and can be viewed at Facebook.com/DOOAKA.

The Alpha Rho, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; Alpha Alpha Rho Omega, Saline County; Beta Pi Omega, Little Rock; Chi Eta Omega, Conway; Chi Nu Omega, Arkadelphia; Delta Omega Omega, Pine Bluff; Epsilon Phi, UA Little Rock; Gamma Alpha, Philander Smith College; Theta Eta, Henderson State University; and Theta Mu, University of Central Arkansas chapters will celebrate members of 25, 50, 65 and 75 years as well as memorialize members who have passed in the last year.

In 1908 on the campus of Howard University in Washington, DC, Alpha Kappa Alpha began as the vision of nine college students. Since then, the sorority has flourished into a globally-impactful organization of 320,000 college-trained members in ten countries, 44 states and one U.S. territory. Today, under the leadership of International President Dr. Glenda Glover, Alpha Kappa Alpha continues to meet its mission to cultivate and encourage high scholastic and ethical standards, to promote unity and friendship among college women, to study and help alleviate problems concerning girls and women in order to improve their social stature, to maintain a progressive interest in college life, and to be of service to all mankind.

Its current international program, “Exemplifying Excellence Through Sustainable Service,” advances the mission of Alpha Kappa Alpha and underscores the commitment to sustainable service in these five areas: HBCU for Life: A Call to Action; Women’s Healthcare and Wellness; Building Your Economic Legacy; The Arts!; and Global Impact. Additionally, over the last four years Alpha Kappa Alpha has raised more than $1 million in a day for a total of more than $6 million to benefit the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Notable Alpha Kappa Alpha women include Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris, film and television director Ava DuVernay, actress Tracee Ellis Ross, astronaut Mae Jemison, hidden figure and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, civil rights activist Coretta Scott King, members of the Little Rock Nine Thelma Mothershed-Wair and Minnijean Brown Trickey, the creator of the U.S. Navy’s first computer-drafted ship Raye Jean Montague, and the first female Chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Carolyn Blakely.