The society aims to promote core values of scholarship, leadership and service
By EMME DUNNING — features@theaggie.org
There is a certain stereotype associated with honors societies. Historically, they have followed in the footsteps of many societal biases, overrepresenting men and often perpetuating elitist and exclusionary views. Despite this history, the reality of modern honors societies is quite different. UC Davis Prytanean Women’s Honors Society has been at the forefront of this change on the UC Davis campus.
Prytanean Women’s Honor Society was founded at UC Davis in 1952 and is recognized as the only women’s honors society at UC Davis. The name Prytanean is said to originate from the Greek word “Prytanes,” which loosely translates to “a representative.”
The society consists of nearly 100 women at UC Davis, who meet regularly for general meetings, networking, socials and service events. Together, these meetings hope to fulfill Prytanean’s three core values — scholarship, leadership and service.
Sophia Strohmeyer, a third-year animal science and management major, serves as the current president of Prytanean. She joined the society during her first year and asserts that it has been transformative in her undergraduate experience.
“Prior to coming to college, I didn’t have any service experience,” Strohmeyer said. “Being a part of this community has allowed me to realize how big service is in the community and how helpful it can be.”
In addition to gaining a sense of the importance of service, Strohmeyer has enjoyed connecting with like-minded women in Prytanean.
“What I’ve gained the most is a community,” Strohmeyer said. “I think the type of community Prytanean offers is something that is pretty rare.”
Chloe Even, a fourth-year sociology major, has also found some of her closest friends through Prytanean.
“I felt like I had community at Davis, but I wanted a broader group of people who really understood what I was going through,” Even said. “Prytanean was really able to do that. It’s really just a close-knit community where we can all come together and share our experiences and foster really great friendships.”
As the current historian of Prytanean, Even’s main role is to document the events of the society, as well as to ensure that current activities are in line with the historical roots of Prytanean. Even has also played a major role in coordinating their main winter quarter event — Dinner for Ten.
The event encourages current members of Prytanean to invite professors, faculty and other mentors for a night of food and networking. The dinner is part of a larger goal of Prytanean to aid their members in creating strong relationships with faculty and more broadly preparing them for professional success after graduation.
“The professional development I learned in Prytanean I will be using every day in my future,” Even said. “It’s really just a great opportunity to develop skills in a low-stress and low-stakes environment.”
Joshlyn Aguirre, a fourth-year communications major, joined Prytanean this past fall. Although she is fairly new to the organization, she expressed that she has already reaped the benefits through her involvement.
“I think that what I’ve gained for sure is a better understanding of how to have relationships with staff and faculty,” Aguirre said. “They do a really good job of connecting us with mentors, as well as shaping us into being mentors.”
Aguirre also noted that Prytanean being a women-specific honor society brings members together in ways that might not otherwise be possible.
“There’s a certain sense of responsibility, especially in affinity groups,” Aguirre said. “You have the responsibility to be there for each other in ways that a non-affinity group wouldn’t. We’ve been through certain things in life that make us see things differently than others, and I think that it’s really important to have these spaces as ambitious women who want to succeed and do very well in life.”
For Aguirre, this unique nature of Prytanean has been encouraging in a society where the voices of women are not always heard.
“There aren’t a lot of women in the room sometimes,” Aguirre said. “To have a room full of a hundred women, as someone who went to an all-girls school, is pretty comforting.”
Written by: Emme Dunning — features@theaggie.org
