Lambda Sigma
American college
Lambda Sigma (ΛΣ) is an American college honor society for second-year students. Originally named the Society of Cwens, the society was established at the University of Pittsburgh in 1922 as a women's honors society and became a national organization in 1925. The society is "dedicated to the purpose of fostering leadership, scholarship, fellowship, and the spirit of service among college students, and to promoting the interests of the college or university in every possible way".
History
Society of Cwens
In the early 1920s, Thyrsa Amos, dean of women at the University of Pittsburgh, saw the need for a society for outstanding sophomore women. She met with students Elizabeth Zeigler and Jean Ballou on November 3, 1922 to discuss the idea. At an organizational on November 7, 1922, twelve sophomore women responded to invitations and met at Heinz House, electing to found Society of Cwens to sponsor activities for all freshmen and sophomore women and to "select for membership in the spring those freshman women who displayed the finest Pitt spirit, showed good scholarship and expressed interest in activities through fine participation in them".
The founding members of the Society of Cwens were Jean G. Ballou, Agnes T. Hewitt, Elizabeth Highberger, Louise M. Hoge, Theresa Kahn, Frances M. Koenig, Stella Mulligan, Mildred Pickrell, Margaret Porch, Elizabeth D. Seville, Sarah M. Stoughton, and Elizabeth G. Zeigler. Hewitt was the society's first chair.
The group's name, Society of Cwens, come from the word cwēn, meaning "lady" or "queen" in Anglo-Saxon. Its emblem selected was a golden crown resting upon a scepter.
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