Alpha Xi Delta Alumni

As a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority at Frostburg State College, Norma Sue Morgan ’65 learned the value of service early. Though her involvement with AZD, she read to students at the old Lincoln School, collected money to fight cancer and participated in numerous service projects with her sorority sisters, experiences that helped her forge friendships that would last a lifetime. She also learned the value of having help paying for college. “When we went to school, they were trying to get teachers in Maryland,” Morgan said, who taught for 34 years after she graduated. “We were able to go to college with no tuition. We all worked hard for an education, and now we know it’s even harder.”
In 2011, Alpha Xi Delta was planning a big celebration of the 50th anniversary of their Gamma Psi chapter. The timing of this anniversary, along with some healthy Greek competition, inspired Morgan and her sisters to consider how they could help current Frostburg students pay for their education. “The biggest impetus for us was that Sigma Tau Gamma was talking about setting up a scholarship,” Morgan said. “And ‘scholarship’ was always stressed very heavily by our national sorority. They gave awards for scholarship and recognized scholarship at national conventions.” Working with the FSU Foundation, Morgan and 10 of her sorority sisters set up the Alpha Xi Delta Scholarship, reaching out to their strong network of Frostburg AZD alumnae and organizing a table with information about the scholarship at the 50th anniversary celebration. “I am a person who doesn’t like to ask for anything, but I believed in this scholarship, and everyone I asked agreed,” Morgan said. “It was a very positive experience for me.”
Soon Morgan and her sisters had raised enough to make the Alpha Xi Delta Scholarship available to Frostburg students. The scholarship reflects the cornerstones of the sorority: scholarship, leadership and service.
“Education is very important. … I see students working 40 hours a week and still going to school. I don’t know if I could have done that, and I admire them,” Morgan said. “Our purpose in doing this was to help someone … hopefully a lot of someones … to get an education.”
[Published Spring 2013]