Tri Sigma was started at Longwood College (now University) in Farmville, Virginia in 1898. Inspired by their Greek-letter friends at nearby Hampden-Sydney College, our eight Founders first cemented their ties of friendship by forming the S.S.S. Club while at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University). A year later, surrounded by candlelight and purple violets picked from the nearby woods, Sigma Sigma Sigma held its first initiation on April 20, 1898. By the next decade, Tri Sigma had grown to eight collegiate chapters in five states, and 18 alumnae chapters.
The circle of friendship that began in the 1890s, with eight women sharing common experiences, now encompasses more than 80,000 women representing the diversity found on the college campuses of today. The growth and change that occurred in the many decades to follow always stayed true to the ideals of friendship espoused by the Founders.