Alpha Psi Lambda
20 years of tradición y familia
By Leslie Dunstan

“Anytime a group can rally around a common foundation, they will stand strong and move forward.” Anyone who has ever been a part of an organization or team of any sort understands these wise words spoken by Joel Diaz, a former President and Treasurer of Alpha Psi Lambda. Alpha Psi Lambda’s importance to the Latin@ community is significant, as it is the nation’s first co-ed Latin@-interest fraternity. The idea for Alpha Psi Lambda originated at a Spring Hispanic Leadership Conference 20 years ago, and after much hard work and planning, Alpha Psi Lambda was founded by 13 members on Feb. 11, 1985 at the Ohio State University campus. Two decades later, Alpha Psi Lambda represents a strong family of 1,300 members and 16 collegiate chapters in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Texas.

Alpha Psi Lambda recently celebrated its twentieth anniversary on March 12, at the Columbus Athenaeum. Speaker Josué Cruz, Jr., current Dean of the College of Education and Human Ecology at Bowling Green State University, spoke about the exciting origins of the fraternity and how it has grown and shaped the Latin@ community, starting in Ohio and spreading throughout the nation. He spoke to the current and future members of Alpha Psi Lambda, paying tribute to the founders and all the other members who have committed time and dedication to the fraternity. “As time moves on, so will this fraternity. Remember, you may lose your sight, but you will always have your vision. A vision that is firmly set on the shoulders of those that came before you with passion, perseverance, and purpose,” he said.

Academics plays an integral part of the fraternity’s focus, of course, but being a Latin@-interest fraternity means that other aspects, such as culture and diversity, are also prominent and evident in Alpha Psi Lambda’s mission statement: “To promote continued personal and collective growth of our membership, success and unity through education, leadership, cultural awareness and community service.” Alpha Psi Lambda strives for many things, including the promotion of Latin@ culture, bringing Latin@s together, providing a social and academic network that spans the nation, and much more. However, one word was continually repeated by those interviewed for this article, both former and current members of the fraternity: familia.

Greek organizations are well-known for their pledges of brotherhood and sisterhood, and Alpha Psi Lambda has taken this bond to a whole new level. As a Latin@-interest fraternity, there is a strong sense of family that is echoed again and again by its members, including National President and current school teacher in Dallas, Texas, Raúl Avila: “Instead of just having a brotherhood or a sisterhood we wanted to go beyond that and create a family, because in real life you have both males and females, we have that dynamic….that dynamic is what makes APL different.” Erica Lerma, Internal Vice-President of the Alpha chapter at OSU agrees, stating: “We are truly a familia. When we call each other brother and sister, we are being sincere.” As a native Texan transplanted to Ohio State in 1992 and the current Director of Media Services at McGraw-Hill Education, Israel Najera points out the benefit of Alpha Psi Lambda as a surrogate family. “In college you move away from your family and you need that sense of familia, and Ohio State is so big, with 50,000 students. At that time, you want a family and that’s what APS provided me…a familia away from home,” he said.

Besides this focus on family, Alpha Psi Lambda also offers the unique aspect of being a co-ed fraternity, which provides a real world environment where members of both sexes have the opportunity to grow and work together, something Gilbert Diaz, a Gamma chapter member from The University of Northern Illinois at Dekalb, says caught his attention: “(It’s) great because in the (working) world, you work with both guys and girls.” Founding member Tammy Harris, an English teacher in Westerville, Ohio, says the reason Alpha Psi Lambda chose to be a co-ed organization was to keep the doors as wide open as possible to potential members, since no one knew how big Alpha Psi Lambda would eventually become.

As so many members stated over and over, Alpha Psi Lambda is a family and a support system. For Erica Lerma, her hermanas y hermanos were a huge factor in convincing her to stay in school when she wanted to leave her sophomore year. She couldn’t be happier with that decision now. “I can honestly say that come June 12th, as I graduate, I will know deep down that mi familia is responsible for my success,” Erica said. Fellow sister Ana Serafin, a junior at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, could not agree more, citing an improved GPA after joining Alpha Psi Lambda and getting involved on campus. Plus, Ana says the networking she has been able to do through the organization helped her to reach both personal and future long-term goals, such as meeting many members of the Latin@ community.

It is amazing to see how an idea that originated 20 years ago has grown to the extent Alpha Psi Lambda has: a “seed” being “harvested from generation to generation,” as founding member Saddy Rivera, who works in the pharmaceutical industry in Puerto Rico, calls it. Fellow founder Marisol Lugo, who runs her own advertising agency in Puerto Rico, concurs: “It’s flattering to see an idea that, for some time, was a little bit crazy, and the idea has been growing and growing and now there are 16 chapters in the United States. That’s a fast-growing process… a success!”

Alpha Psi Lambda has made history in the Greek community, not only for its title of being the nation’s first co-ed Latin@-oriented fraternity, but also through its continued call for diversity, service to the community and for being a venue for unity and growth in the Latin@ community in particular, and its continual striving toward excellence. Just as its motto states: “Together We Shall Seek the Noblest,” Alpha Psi Lambda and all of the members who have made it the historic organization that it is today certainly have reached the noble goal of uniting a community and of giving it a very special voice.

Leslie Dunstan, ¿Qué Pasa, OSU? Assistant Editor, is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Spanish and a minor in International Studies of Latin America. Leslie can be reached at dunstan.4@osu.edu.