About

We’re glad you decided to learn more about Alpha Iota and all of the great benefits that come with joining a winning team! The California Community College System offers students membership in Alpha Gamma Sigma (AGS). AVC’s local chapter is named Alpha Iota and functions as a campus club. Students may join the club at any point in their college career as long as they meet the GPA requirement and remain in good standing. The club hosts many events and holds weekly meetings, providing experiences in fund raising, community service, club events and campus activities.

The club elects its own officers, adheres to our constitution and Bylaws, and is able to recommend students for AGS scholarships: the Walsh Award for outstanding community service and the Katherine D. Loly Scholarship for academics. In addition chapter scholarships are given to students who earned the most service points and a student with the highest GPA, as well as honor roll recipients. Every active member in the club receives an AGS badge and a certificate of membership. The highest honor of the organization is permanent membership, an honor bestowed on both active and inactive members and recognized at the Leadership and Achievement Ceremony.

History of Alpha Gamma Sigma

“Dr. William T. Boyce was, in 1925, Head Administrator of Fullerton Junior College, and he is the man chiefly responsible for the formation of the California Junior College Honor Society which eventually became the Alpha Gamma Sigma we know today. Here is a quote from his book:

“In 1925 I conceived the idea of promoting a state-wide junior college honor scholarship society. I saw in it an intellectual stimulus, comparable to that of Phi Beta Kappa in the higher colleges. Superintendent Louis E. Plummer supported the idea. With his backing, I invited Merton Hill, Chaffey Junior College administrator, and Dr. K. Hammond, administrator for Santa Ana Junior College, to come to Fullerton to join Plummer and me in a consideration of the proposal. I emphasized specific advantages in the plan as follows:

• It would be an incentive to study and strive for scholastic honor.
• It would be an inter-junior college enterprise in scholastic achievement.
• It would commend the junior colleges to the higher education institutions.
• It would add luster to commencement exercises to recognize the graduating student who had qualified for membership.

The proposal was heartily endorsed, and I was asked to formulate the plan and present it for adoption by all the junior colleges in California. The response was approval, adoption, and the formation of chapters…….

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In 1940, Alpha Gamma Sigma became incorporated under California law. The articles of incorporation give the official name of the society as “ALPHA GAMMA SIGMA, THE CALIFORNIA JUNIOR COLLEGE HONOR SCHOLARSHIP SOCIETY.” The purpose of the organization are stated in the articles of incorporation as follows:

“To promote, recognize, encourage, and foster scholarship and educational attainments among students of the junior colleges of the State of California;To recognize students attaining high scholastic records;

To make students more conscious of the advantage of high scholarship;

To bring together students attaining high scholastic records for their mutual benefit.”