As Alpha Kappa Alpha embraces its centennial year and beyond, there remains a keen interest in membership in the organization, and likewise a continuing desire to know something about AKA's background, history, and the early founders and members. Nellie Quander was at the heart of all of that, and the details of her life are now being related in Nellie Quander, An Alpha Kappa Alpha Pearl, a book by Judge Rohulamin Quander, family historian and Founder of the Quander Historical Society. A substantial portion of the net proceeds from the book are being donated to Alpha Kappa Alpha scholarships.

Graduating from the Miner Normal School in 1900, a forerunner of the University of the District of Columbia, she was appointed on May 1, 1901, to teach in grades one and two in the D.C. Public Schools. After teaching for several years, Nellie Quander enrolled in Howard University and majored in history and political science, while still maintaining a full time teaching position. She earned an A.B. degree, Magna Cum Laude, in 1912.

While matriculating at Howard, she met several classmates who were members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, a fledgling organization founded on January 15, 1908. Already 30 years old, and a woman established in what was one of the very few available career opportunities for women at that time, she still found time to be inducted into the sorority in early 1910, and to serve two terms as president in academic year 1911- 1912.

There was no Alpha Chapter in those days, just one group of mostly privileged women at Howard University, who had drawn up a ritual for induction, and sponsored several social and cultural affairs for their friends and invited guests. There was no incorporation, only an emerging thought of making the sorority a national or international service oriented organization, and little seriousness of purpose.

Some Alpha Kappa Alpha coeds questioned the lack of social service, urging extending a helping hand to the less privileged. They also suggested that the name should be changed to make it more clearly Greek in appearance, and that the initial colors of salmon pink and apple blossom green likewise be abandoned. For much of the second half of 1912, there were rumblings in the sorority about what should be done.