By Dinah Alobeid

When Danielle Ouellette, a member of Campus Girl Scouts (CGS), first heard about a sorority completely dedicated to community service, she was immediately interested.

“I thought it seemed like a good way to be able to be involved in community service besides Campus Girl Scouts,” said Ouellette, a sophomore journalism major and member of the new sorority.

The sorority, Epsilon Sigma Alpha (ESA), which pledged its first 20 members at the end of the spring semester, is non-Greek and not a part of the Panhellenic society. Instead, the sorority will be dedicated to community service, said Eynat Cohen, president and founder of Northeastern’s ESA chapter.

“ESA has been around for 75 years and is located all over the world, however, ours is the only chapter in Massachusetts,” the junior history major said. “I decided to bring ESA to Northeastern because there is no group currently on campus that offers the same services that our sorority does.”

Last semester, Cohen went to a CGS meeting at Northeastern, and spoke to the members about starting a branch of ESA on campus. Most of the ESA members, including Andrea Mutz-Mercier, a junior computer science major, said they found out about ESA through CGS.

Ouellette said she attributed her interest in ESA to word-ofmouth from friends in CGS.

ESA has created over 1,000 chapters around the world since its beginning in 1929, according to their Web site, www.esaintl.com. The organization’s purpose is to help community education, service and philanthropy.

For the fall, Ouellette said the group has been considering starting a program with the 5- to 12-year-old boys at the after school program at St. Francis/St. Phillip Parish in Roxbury.

“The boys are always asking us ‘Do we get to do Boys Scouts’ and ‘Can we come to Girl Scouts,’ so it would be nice to be able to develop a program through the sorority because they are so adorable and it would be great for the kids in the after school program,” Ouellette said.

Cohen said she hopes to entice more women to join next year.

The focus of the group right now, members said, is to build the sorority’s membership and develop its mission.

Cohen said she wants to take ESA to a place no sorority has been at Northeastern.

“While there are many community service clubs and many sororities on campus, none bring both together in the depth we plan to. We plan to enroll in many walks for AIDS and breast cancer as Team ESA, as well as participating in local events for the Boston community.”