Sigma Lambda Upsilon celebrated its 10th year on campus Saturday evening with a banquet in Briscoe Residence Hall.
Sigma Lambda Upsilon is a Latina sorority nationally founded in 1987 at Binghamton University in New York, co-founder Adriana Zamora said. The Alpha Eta chapter of the sorority at IU was established in 2006.
For the banquet, Sigma Lambda Upsilon president Monica Calderón said she made it a priority to reach out to the president of all four greek councils at IU. She said all four provided significant support to her sorority.
“Tonight is about giving back to everyone who has helped us,” Calderón said.
The banquet featured music, food and a speech from Ana Luz, the sorority’s founding line at IU’s Dean of Academics. At the end of the dinner and discussions, attendees danced with one another to popular Latin American music.
After the banquet, Sigma Lambda Upsilon put on an after party at Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Bloomington.
The theme of the banquet was “reflecting on our past, embracing the future,” Calderón said. One way Sigma Lambda Upsilon reflected on the past was by inviting founding mothers Zamora, Cynthia Santiago, Carmen Ibeth Garcia-Quiñonesand Carol Elizabeth Torres to the banquet.
Sigma Lambda Upsilon also invited the entire sisterhood of the sorority, Calderón said. Individuals from Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky, New York, Illinois and Connecticut were invited.
To embrace the future, Calderón said Sigma Lambda Upsilon would be giving out the first Apoderando a nuestra juventud, which translates to “empowering our youth,” scholarship at the banquet.
This scholarship offers $500 for a female high school senior who exemplifies the values and ideals of the sorority.
“We’re basing it on individuals who hold the same goals, values and achievements as us,” Calderón said.
The recipient this year was Maria Gonzalez Diaz, a student at Bloomington High School North.
Values and ideals of Sigma Lambda Upsilon include doing community service and spreading Latina culture, Zamora said. The sorority works to promote literacy among students to help them get through school.
“We’re really big on giving back to the community, as well as cultural appreciation,” Calderón said.
Sigma Lambda Upsilon has opened 38 chapters across the United States since the sorority’s founding in 1987. Zamora said while the core values of the organization are still intact, the spreading of them has led to more diversity in maintaining these values.
“I think the quality of this organization is that everyone is so individual that we all have our own missions,” Zamora said.
Sigma Lambda Upsilon currently has nine undergraduate members. Since it was established in 2006, the chapter has had 27 sisters, to whom the sorority refers as hermanas.
“To us, it’s all about the quality of the people, not the quantity,” Calderón said.
The most recent member of Sigma Lambda Upsilon is freshman Erika Vazquez. She said she greatly admires her current sisters, as well as past members of the sorority.
“I look at the hermanas, and I see these strong, independent women, which is something I myself want to be,” Vazquez said.
Vazquez said the hard work put forth by her sorority makes her appreciate not only the events more, but the sorority as a whole. She said she plans on remaining with the sorority throughout her college career.
“This is something I’m going to carry with me for the rest of my life,” Vazquez said.
Almost 30 years after founding the sorority, Zamora said she is very proud of her sisters and how far Sigma Lambda Upsilon has come.
“When you’re in college, it’s a support system, but it has now has gone beyond that,” Zamora said. “You make lifetime friends through here.”
