With a current membership of over 150, the co-ed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega (APO) has a formidable presence on the Homewood Campus and is involved in activities with the local community.
APO President Harry Ngai explained that APO’s emphasis on service and giving is what chiefly sets APO apart from the Panhellenic sororities and Interfraternity Council (IFC) fraternities on campus.
“We are also co-ed, and we accept any interested Hopkins students, as long as they fulfill our service and other requirements. Our brothers find that this has allowed our chapter to exhibit an extremely inviting atmosphere, and our members tend to be extremely friendly to anyone and always willing to help each other out. As we are all passionate about service, we have a pervasive bond with each other, and this has allowed us to grow as a fraternity and individually,” Ngai wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
APO’s Kappa Mu (KM) chapter at Hopkins was established in 1952 when the campus was all-male. According to the unofficial document “Chapter 1: The History of Kappa Mu at Johns Hopkins,” there is no clear founder of the KM chapter. This document outlined some of the chapter’s activities, which included blood typing, leading campus tours and holding a used book sale.
Although the fraternity lost activity in 1977 and was re-chartered in 1998, it has been guided by consistent principles throughout its time at Hopkins, according to Ngai.
“Leadership, friendship and service are our cardinal principles here at APO, and we hold these three values at our highest standards in everything we do,” Ngai wrote.
According to Ngai, APO members try to equally balance these three principles.
“We are united by our desire to selflessly give back to our college, community, fraternity and nation, and through our various service events, we strive to do just that,” Ngai wrote. “Our service projects are ever-changing, and we always strive to improve on what we do so that we can serve even better. We strive to be a leader and an example to other people on campus in the way we carry ourselves and the principles we adhere to.”
The KM chapter’s service projects include tutoring and cooking for soup kitchens. APO also collaborates with other groups on campus, including Remington Outreach, Squashwise and Cooking 4 Love.
“We have also co-hosted Friday Night Films with the HOP, Dorm Wars with [the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity], and we regularly volunteer to help run the SAC fair,” Ngai wrote. “We also consistently have one of the strongest showings at Dance Marathon, Relay for Life, President’s Day of Service and even various intramural sports, and because of our high number of active members, we are able to establish a strong reputation on campus that has allowed APO to become synonymous with community service.”
APO has had service at its core since it was founded at Lafayette College in 1925 by Frank Reed Horton. The fraternity aims to equally represent four strands of service: that of the college, community, fraternity and nation. On its website and in its pledge manual, the fraternity cites itself as “the single most represented intercollegiate service organization in the United States.”
The Hopkins APO chapter’s commitment to friendship, another of its core principles, is evident in its compilation of over 75 non-service fellowship events for the current academic year. Members are required to attend at least six of these events, which include the Commemoration Ball, a “Study Party” and a “Mid-Season ‘Scandal’ Premiere,” in addition to ski trips and dinners.
Maggie Weese, a sophomore, feels that APO allows strong bonds to form between its members.
“Within APO there is also a huge sense of brotherhood,” Weese said. “When I joined APO my freshman fall, I was new on campus and just starting to make friends. Now, as a sophomore, a majority of my friends were either already members of APO or joined because of how much I love it.”
APO’s pledge classes have grown over time, and the fraternity now receives over 50 new members each semester. Ngai hopes this trend will continue.
However, junior Caitlin McDonald, the co-vice president of fellowship of the service fraternity, cited the fraternity’s large membership as a problem for retention rates. Weese also stated that the huge number of members detracts from the intimacy of the fraternity, although the executive board organizes activities to remedy the problem.
Other members agree that APO provides a variety of service projects available to everyone.
According to junior Marco Petrozzino, many members fulfill more than the mandated 20 service hours.
“You’ll see many genuine people in APO that go above and beyond this requirement,” Petrozzino said.
