Sigma Alpha Iota provides women with opportunity to serve, form friendships

Sigma Alpha Iota, a national music fraternity, provides Lipscomb women with opportunities to serve others through music and form friendships outside of Lipscomb. SAI members are active in Lipscomb’s music department — many are involved in the University Wind Ensemble and A Cappella Singers. Although SAI is a music organization, members are not required to be music majors or minors. Majors in Lipscomb’s chapter range from elementary education to chemistry to pre-law. SAI is smaller than most Greek organizations on campus, with only nine collegiate members, but the chapter is growing, having more than doubled its membership in the past three years. This semester’s member-in-training class alone will increase the chapter’s size by more than fifty percent. The small chapter size is augmented by SAI’s status as a national organization. Lipscomb’s chapter frequently collaborates with chapters from other colleges in the Middle Tennessee area such as Vanderbilt, Belmont and MTSU. This experience of sisterhood outside the Lipscomb campus provides SAI members with a unique experience not offered by campus social clubs. Lipscomb’s chapter, Zeta Omicron, was established in 1974 and celebrated its fortieth anniversary last fall. SAI meets once a week to plan service projects, performances and formals. The club holds a musicale at least once each semester in which members demonstrate their musical talents. Different fundraisers held throughout the year benefit music-oriented philanthropies supported by SAI. The philanthropies are dedicated to meeting various musical needs such as providing musical instruments to children in developing countries and providing Braille and large print sheet music to visually impaired musicians. Photo courtesy of Kristin...