History

     Alpha Phi Omega was founded on December 16, 1925 at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. It has grown to be the largest collegiate fraternity in the United States, and it also has chapters in the Philippines, Australia, and Canada. Alpha Phi Omega was founded by Frank Reed Horton and several former Boy Scouts, and is officially recognized by the Boy Scouts of America. In 1976, fraternity membership was fully opened to women, making the fraternity co-ed. All members of the fraternity are referred to as "brothers," which we use as a gender-neutral term. There are now over 350 active chapters at colleges within the United States.

     Our chapter was founded on December 18, 1964. We are a strong chapter of enthusiastic and active members, and regularly perform between 1,500 and 2,500 hours of community service each semester. Our members have grown to be leaders not just in our chapter, but as PLAs, supervisors on campus, and leaders in other clubs and greek life at WPI. After graduation, our alumni continue to uphold our values of leadership and community, and they go on to do exceptional work in industry, volunteering, and public service.

     The Omicron Iota chapter has also established itself as a leader within the greater Alpha Phi Omega network. At Regional events such as Conclave and Leadership Development Day, we’ve been grateful to receive numerous awards for our programs in all three of Leadership, Friendship, and Service. At our most recent Conclave, we earned the Road Tripper award, which is granted to the Chapter whose members travel the greatest distance to perform service with the fraternity (of course, this travel was done before the onset of COVID-19). Our chapter’s work has also been recognized at a national level. We are the most recent recipient of the Earle M. Herbert Friendship award, which is given every two years to the Alpha Phi Omega chapter that is judged to have the strongest training and fellowship activities. Furthermore, in both 2019 and 2020 we received the Chapter of Excellence and Pledge Program of Excellence awards at the Diamond level, which is the highest possible degree of distinction. These awards are given by Alpha Phi Omega’s National office to recognize chapters with exceptional Leadership, Friendship, and Service programs in their general operations and new member programs. These honors reflect our chapter’s dedication to those core principles, and we will continue that commitment despite these challenging times.

     Our chapter has also made a name for itself through the regional projects we’ve taken on over the years. In keeping with our fraternity’s origins in scouting, Omicron Iota is perhaps best known for our annual Merit Badge University (MBU) event. MBU is a program run by Scouts BSA and Alpha Phi Omega that gives scouts the opportunity to earn Merit Badges through courses taught by college students with firsthand experience in the Badge fields. Omicron Iota’s version of MBU has a strong reputation as an established and professional program, and we have even helped other chapters coordinate their MBU events in the past. You can learn more about MBU at WPI here. Outside of MBU, we have had the great honor and pleasure of serving as a big-brother chapter to Bentley University’s Alpha Theta Zeta chapter, which was officially chartered in November 2018. Our chapter’s other notable work includes our collaboration with the Phi Epsilon chapter to run their annual Pinewood Derby at Maine Maritime Academy, as well as our annual Halloween fundraiser with WPI’s chapter of Phi Kappa Theta.

Have any questions? Contact the Historian at apo-historian@wpi.edu!