Mortar Board is an American national honor society for college seniors. Mortar Board has 233 chartered collegiate chapters nationwide and 15 alumni chapters. History Mortar Board was the first national honor society for college senior women and continues to promote women's interests in higher education today. The organization coalesced by agreement of four local women's honor societies. Founding locals were: Der Hexenkreis, Cornell University Mortar Board, Ohio State University Mortarboard, University of Michigan Pi Sigma Chi, Swarthmore College These and other chapters continue the tradition of adopting unique, historical or symbolic local names as their chapter designations, and do not use traditional alphabetized Greek Letter names as are common among other honor societies. The Society was originally unnamed. One of the predecessor locals (at OSU) had been called Mortar Board, using two separate words, and it was noted that they and the group at Swarthmore both wore pins in the shape of a mortarboard; from this, a pin representative of a mortarboard was adopted at the first national convention on , and finally, the name Mortar Board was adopted at the second convention, a year later. The Society grew quickly, adopting a district governance structure by 1923 when it had already grown to 18 chartered chapters. By 1925 the Mortar Board Quarterly was established as the official publication, now called the Forum. The Society admitted men in 1975 as a ramification of Title IX, at which point a clause was added in the Purpose to include "to promote and advance the status of women." This was further revised the following year to read, "...to emphasize the advancement of the status of women" as well as "to promote equal opportunities among all people." Mortar Board today has 233 chapters in 45 states. Notable alumni More than quarter of a million members have been initiated nationwide, with established careers in numerous fields. Some of the notable alumni are: Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State Judith Resnik, space shuttle Challenger astronaut Aron Ralston, mountain climber and author Drew Brees, NFL player Bruce Littlefield, author and lifestyle expert Additionally, numerous community and international leaders have been named honorary members, including: Sandra Day O’Connor, Supreme Court associate justice Maya Angelou, poet Jimmy Carter, U.S. President Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York. Sally Ride, first female U.S. astronaut Fred Rogers, educator, minister, and host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood National structure Mortar Board, Inc. is