At the closing session of Omega Phi Alpha’s 2026 National Convention in Richmond, Virginia, National President Nanda Jayaseelan announced the 2026–2027 President’s Project: Paving Pathways for Education.
Each year, the President’s Project provides members and chapters across the country with a shared service focus, bringing our sisterhood together to make an impact on an issue selected by the National President. This year’s project builds upon a theme that followed members throughout Convention: All Roads Lead to OPhiA.
Every member of Omega Phi Alpha has traveled a different road to arrive in our sisterhood. Along those roads, most of us can identify someone who helped pave the way—a teacher who recognized our potential, a professor who challenged us, an advisor who offered guidance, or a mentor who encouraged us to keep going.
Through Paving Pathways for Education, Omega Phi Alpha will spend the 2026–2027 academic year honoring that impact by helping create those same opportunities for others.
Education Touches Every Community We Serve
Omega Phi Alpha’s purpose calls upon our members to serve the university community, the community at large, members of the sorority, and the nations of the world. Few areas of service intersect those communities as naturally as education.
Education happens far beyond the classroom. It happens when a child discovers a favorite book at the library, when a student has a trusted mentor helping them navigate a difficult year, when an after-school program provides a safe place to learn and grow, or when an educator has the supplies and support needed to create an engaging classroom.
It also happens through the countless educators within our own sisterhood. Many Omega Phi Alpha alumni have dedicated their careers to teaching, mentoring, advising, and supporting students of all ages. Their work demonstrates every day how investing in education strengthens not only individual students, but entire communities.
Paving Pathways for Education gives all of our members an opportunity to be part of that work.
Paving the Way Through Service
Throughout the 2026–2027 academic year, chapters and individual members are encouraged to find ways to support education in their own communities. Because educational needs vary from one community to another, there are countless ways to participate.
Members might volunteer with after-school or tutoring programs, mentor students, support literacy initiatives, read during library story times, assist schools with field days or other special events, collect books or educational supplies, or help educators obtain needed classroom materials by “clearing the lists.”
These are only a starting point.
Chapters are encouraged to connect with schools, libraries, educators, youth organizations, and other community partners to learn where support is most needed. Whether a project serves one classroom or an entire school, every act of service can help remove an obstacle and make the road ahead a little easier for someone else.
Investing in the Roads Ahead
The impact of education often extends far beyond what we can see in the moment. A book placed in a child’s hands, an encouraging conversation with a student, supplies provided to a teacher, or a few hours spent volunteering may seem small—but each can become one piece of a much larger journey.
That is what Paving Pathways for Education is ultimately about: creating opportunities for others to learn, grow, discover their potential, and build the roads that will carry them into the future.
As our members returned home from Richmond to their campuses, careers, families, and communities, our roads once again took us in different directions. But during the year ahead, this President’s Project gives us another opportunity to move forward together through our shared commitment to Friendship, Leadership, and Service.
We cannot wait to see how Omega Phi Alpha members across the country pave pathways for education throughout 2026–2027.
Because when we invest in education, we invest in the future—and in every road still waiting to be traveled!