“My Mom was a Sigma Delta Tau but the majority of my older Houston friends were in Alpha Epsilon Phi so this choice fit for me.” Being a legacy doesn’t mean that the legacy must continue in the same path, but can branch off to blossom on its own. Pam Jarrett has created a legacy of her own by joining the AEPhi Omega chapter at The University of Texas at Austin, which led to her becoming the Houston Alumnae Panhellenic Association (HAPA) President for 2008-2009, Houston Alumnae Panhellenic Foundation (HAPF) President for 2011-2013 and 2023-2024, a HAPA Citation Member in 2009, and Honorary Board Member Emerita. Pam has been an active member in HAPA and HAPF, but this was not a starting point of her activity in her community as she has been active since her school years.
Before college, Pam kept busy in her community and high school:
“At Bellaire High School, I was President of the Anchor Club as well as playing basketball. At the time, there were High School Jewish Youth Groups for the boys and girls. I was a member of Sigma Theta Pi which had been founded in 1909. We were active volunteering at Texas Children's Hospital at the snack bar as well as participating in activities at the Jewish Community Center.”
Being active in the community helped her meet many other people who are also from Houston that attended UT Austin and went through sorority recruitment. Pam participated in “formal rush,” which is known as primary recruitment today, where 29 women she knew of from the Houston area “pledged” sororities. She was “a bit nervous going through Rush as everyone was” but knew many of the older women due to having an older brother at UT and being a “sweetheart of the High School Boys Group, Sigma Alpha Rho.” Among one of the women was Esther Slipakoff Polland, a friend that Pam currently plays mahjong with and was an attendant at her wedding in 1971, who joined Sigma Delta Tau. Pam joined AEPhi in 1968 with 28 other women, eight of those being from Houston.
During her time at UT Austin and AEPhi, she would serve “Panhellenic representative as well as served as the secretary of the Panhellenic Council” which included sometimes missing dinner at the sorority house. She recounts this memory about those nights:
“…as I walked back to our chapter house where I lived, a hamburger dive called Moore Burger was on the corner of Rio Grande and 19th and it would be my stop.”
While also serving as panhellenic representative, Pam also met her first husband through the fraternity her brother was a member of and soon married and moved to El Paso. She ended up finishing her degree in Education in 1972 at the University of Texas at El Paso. But not only did Pam finish her degree at UT El Paso, she was a part of the College of Education Dean's List and Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society. Even though she transferred from UT Austn, she still is close with her sisters and reflects on her memories from the time:
“I adored my Big and Little sisters in the sororities. So many of my sorority sisters from 1968 live in Houston and many had daughters who attended UT Austin so we all have shared those times together.”
Pam did eventually move back to Houston, but the AEPhi Alumnae group was no longer active:
“AEPHI lost their lead in having an alumnae group after my high school years. Mrs. Maxine Weinstein had been head of the Houston alumnae Group for many years and it seemed that no one would take the lead after she retired from Panhellenic.”
Although not having a group for her sorority, she decided to seek out other avenues. She attributes her becoming active with HAPA as follows:
“I felt that the Jewish groups needed representation so honestly, I became a member of HAPA to be that conduit.”
Since her joining HAPA and HAPF, she has held multiple positions such as HAPA President, HAPF President, Citation Member, and Honorary Board Member Ermerita, with more recent positions including HAPF Development Chair, Wine Tasting Co-Chair, and HAPA Corresponding Secretary. Although there isn’t a local AEPhi alumnae group, Pam finds HAPA to be her home:
“The ladies of HAPA became a true friendship family for me. My first introduction to Recruitment was when Roundtable was held at the newly opened Episcopal High School. I met Lyn Flynt and Kay Newman for the first time. How I admire these two ladies to this day.”
Pam is well known in HAPA and the work she’s done can be felt and seen in all aspects of the organization. She has created a legacy with the work she’s done and the friendships she has made. She started as a Sigma Delta Tau legacy to then starting a legacy within Alpha Epsilon Phi with her daughter serving as “Rush Captain,” now known as VP Recruitment in most sororities, and then chapter President of the Omega chapter at UT Austin.
Sorority recruitment can be overwhelming and cause doubt in whether joining a sorority is worth it, but finding your home and where you belong makes it worth it in the end. For anyone thinking about joining a sorority, Pam provides her outlook:
“Lives are so busy and challenging for our young women today and their educational pursuits are so varied. Membership in a sorority gives you a home base of friendship and source where you can find who you are. The leadership skills that are learned being an officer of your group leads to open doors on one’s campus as well as in the pursuit of one’s future goals. Of course, it is not for everyone and many campuses do not have this available but I feel it is a place that offers so many opportunities as well as find those who will continue to be a part of your adult life.”
Written by Robyn Daiss, Publicity Chair (2023-2025) on February 4th, 2025 for use by the Houston Alumnae Panhellenic Association and their website.
