AEPhi was founded by seven Jewish women; Helen Phillips, Ida Beck, Rose Gerstein, Augustina "Tina" Hess, Lee Reiss, Rose Salmowitz and Stella Strauss; at Barnard College in New York on October 24, 1909. This sorority would endeavor to foster lifelong friendship and sisterhood, academics, social involvement and community service, all the while providing a home away from home for its members. "It was her [Helen Phillips'] idea and her persistence more than anything else that brought Alpha Epsilon Phi into existence," one founder wrote. "I sometimes think that some of those ties were more necessary to Helen than to the others in this group because Helen had no mother and no sisters or brothers, and to her a group of adopted sisters was more of a need and had more significance." The dream that was born in a dorm room at Barnard College in 1909 continues to succeed, prosper and thrive on over 50 college and university campuses nationwide. AEPhi welcome hundreds of new members each year and seeks not only to live up to the ideals and goals of its original founders, but to exceed them.