Leadership. Friendship. Service.

These are not just words to members of Alpha Phi Omega, a coeducational national service fraternity, but they’re founding principles that are translated into actions.

With nearly 400 members, the APO chapter at The University of Illinois is the largest in the nation and for 80 years has offered members the opportunity to serve the community, build friendships and practice leadership, said Nicole Kinnerk, executive board member and junior in Business.

The RSO is especially dedicated to service, Kinnerk said.

“There are different organizations around campus and in Champaign that we go to every single week,” she said. “Like on Wednesdays we do Salt and Light, which is a food and clothing bank in Champaign. We go there and put together bags for families. Saturday mornings we do refugee tutoring which is out of the Church in Urbana and its kids from Vietnam and the Congo, and we sit there and tutor them and make sure they’re getting by okay in school.”

Other service groups APO works with include Books to Prisoners, The Salvation Army, Daily Bread, and the ETC Coffeehouse at the Wesley Foundation. Members also serve at nursing homes and daycare centers every week.

“APO for me was an amazing experience to meet people who are looking to make a difference in others lives,” said Laura Carroll, APO member and sophomore in LAS. “The people you meet in APO are some of the most dedicated and driven people who manage to do so much for others while being a student at the same time.”

In addition to serving the community, members build friendships and feel part of a larger community, Kinnerk said.

“There have been a couple times when I’m at home walking around downtown and I’ll have our letters on and get stopped by a couple people like, ‘Oh hey, you’re in APO? I was in that in college too,’” she said. “Even though it’s so large, it’s so small at the same time.”

Members not only get to know each other through service projects, but also through social events in which they earn fellowship points. They also hold bonding activities such as high rope courses.

“We had amazing pledge trainers who brought us together right away,” said Haley Soehn, APO member and sophomore in Media. “They were encouraging and so welcoming. Because of that, our whole class is very close. We’re all friends and still have reunions.”

Both pledges and actives must meet certain requirements every semester in each of the three categories of leadership, friendship and service. These include 20 service hours, six leadership points and four fellowship points for pledges, while actives must complete 24 service hours, eight leadership points and six fellowship points. Members must also attend meetings, pay semester dues and attend elections.

“(You get) leadership points doing anything from being in charge of a service project to doing team building activities,” Kinnerk said. “Fellowship points are things that we do outside of APO, just like get together, hang out, watch movies, get food, things of that nature.”

APO does understand that people are busy, however, and allows its members to complete half of their requirements with a written statement to the chapter as to why they could not complete them all, she added.

APO accepts new members every semester, and will have a booth at Activity Day on Jan. 24 in the Union. They will also have recruitment information meetings on Jan. 25 and 26.

“We want to get the word out more on campus and try to get more people to join,” Kinnerk said. “I mean, granted, we’re already a very large chapter, but just being able to put aside that service to not only organizations around the community but we help out a lot with campus organizations. It’s really cool to say I’m in APO.”