Founded in 1924, Alpha Lambda Delta (ALD) is an honor society for first-year college students that was strictly for women for nearly 50 years before becoming coeducational in response to Title IX. ALD was launched at the University of Illinois and soon after spread to Purdue University and the University of Michigan, among other postsecondary institutions. Today, there are more than 280 ALD chapters and in excess of 1 million students have been initiated into the organization.
In addition to recognizing the academic achievements of first-year students, ALD distributes thousands of dollars in scholarships and fellowships annually. For undergraduates, it awards 50 scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $6,000. It also awards 20 study-abroad scholarships.
ALD also provides financial support to graduate students through 28 graduate fellowships with scholarship awards ranging from $2,000 to $7,000. Each of these awards are named after those who have contributed greatly to the growth of ALD. Below is a look at seven of the graduate fellowship namesakes.
Maria Leonard
The dean of women at the University of Illinois when she founded ALD in 1924, Maria Leonard is the namesake of ALD’s lone $7,000 graduate fellowship award. Leonard maintained involvement with ALD into her retirement and passed away at 96 in 1976.
She is also the namesake of the Maria Leonard Senior Book Award, a program through which the graduating member with the highest GPA at each participating institution receives a predetermined book. Adam Grant’s Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know is the 2022-23 Maria Leonard Senior Book Award.
Mary Jane Stevenson
Mary Jane Stevenson, the namesake of the lone $5,000 graduate fellowship, passed away in 2010 following an esteemed career in academia. Stevenson spent more than 40 years working in education and was dean of women at Albright College, Westminster College, and Bucknell University. She also worked at the Pennsylvania State University and Ohio University.
Stevenson spent a decade as ALD’s executive director before retiring in 1981. Outside of her involvement with ALD, she also belonged to Kappa Delta Pi, Psi Chi, Mortar Board, and the Susquehanna Valley Branch of the American Association of University Women.
Dean Dorothy Anderson
One of ALD’s four $4,000 graduate scholarships is named after Dean Dorothy Anderson, a Susquehanna University alumna who served as the school’s dean of students, dean of freshmen, and assistant dean of women. She also worked in the Dean of Students Office at Syracuse University, where she was a student assistant, hall director, and program coordinator.
She held a variety of leadership roles, including secretary and vice president for chapter relations and expansion, with ALD from 1983 to 1997. She became the organization’s 14th president in 1991 and served in this capacity until 1997. She maintains affiliation with ALD to this day as the installation officer for prospective chapters in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Margaret Berry
Another $4,000 ALD graduate scholarship is named after Dr. Margaret Berry, a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) who later served the school as the associate dean of women. Dr. Berry held several educational administrator roles until her retirement in 1980 and was elected the ninth ALD national president in 1976. She passed away in 2017, but is remembered at UT Austin, where the Student Activity Center is named in her honor.
“When in her presence, students absorbed her combined passion for them as individuals and for her beloved University of Texas, producing better human beings, a better university, a better world,” said one of her former students, Clare Buie Chaney. “She inspired confidence in them that their unique attributes could live up to any challenge; and they’d be having an adventure in the process.”
Betty Jo Hudson
A graduate of Ball State University, Betty Jo Hudson performed graduate work at The Ohio State University and was the university ombudsperson from 1972 to 1988. She was named the 13th ALD national president in 1988 and served three years in that capacity. A champion of diversity and inclusion on campus and in the community, Hudson passed away in 2013.
Barbara Quilling
A graduate of the University of Arizona who worked as the vice president for student affairs at Hanover College, Barbara Quilling spent 15 years as the ALD executive director from 1981 to 1996. She was in part responsible for growing ALD from a home office operation to a national organization with full-time staff. Outside of ALD, Quilling served as the president of the Madison Chapter of the American Association of University Women, Altrusa Club of Muncie, and Indiana Association of Women Deans, Administrators, and Counselors.
Dr. Martha Wade
One of the four namesakes of ALD’s $3,000 graduate scholarships, Dr. Martha Wade graduated from The University of Tennessee before earning a PhD from Vanderbilt University. She held a variety of administrative roles at colleges, including Stephens College, Southern Colorado, and the University of Maryville in St. Louis. She was a chapter advisor with ALD and spent two years as the editor of its national magazine.