Cottey is the only nonsectarian college in the United States owned and supported by women for women. The College has been owned by the P.E.O. Sisterhood since 1927 when Virginia Alice Cottey presented her life’s work to the organization as a gift. As a philanthropic organization, P.E.O. supports six philanthropies including the ownership of Cottey College and five programs that provide higher educational assistance through scholarships, grants, awards, and loans.
In acknowledging the Sisterhood’s acceptance of her college, Virginia Alice Cottey said, “At the time the P.E.O. Sisterhood was beginning to foster the education of women, in a little town in Missouri I was struggling toward the same goal.” She also pointed out that the founders of P.E.O. selected yellow and white as the colors and the marguerite (daisy) as the flower to represent the organization; the same colors and flower were selected by the first group of Cottey students.
Virginia Alice Cottey believed that the College would be an asset to the educational purpose of the Sisterhood. In addition to supporting Cottey, the organization is committed to providing educational opportunities for women through five projects: the P.E.O. Educational Loan Fund, established in 1907, makes loans available to women pursuing higher education; the International Peace Scholarship, initiated in 1949, provides grants-in-aid for women from other countries for graduate study in the United States and Canada; the P.E.O. Program for Continuing Education, established in 1973, is a grant program providing financial assistance to women who have previously discontinued their education and wish to resume studies due to changing demands in their lives; the P.E.O. Scholar Awards, approved by the Sisterhood at the 1991 Convention of International Chapter, gives scholarships to women who are pursuing advanced degrees or are engaged in advanced study and research; and the P.E.O. STAR Scholarship, established in 2008, provides an award to high school senior women who wish to pursue post-secondary education. Cottey College and the five projects reflect the primary goal of the P.E.O. Sisterhood—to assist women in pursuing their education. However, the essence of the organization lies in its original purpose. The Sisterhood was founded in 1869 at Iowa Wesleyan College by seven young women who were interested in perpetuating the bonds of their friendship. Those young women selected “general improvement” as their goal. The organization, through its programs and projects, searches for excellence. P.E.O. members continually strive to improve themselves and society and are loyal to five basic virtues—faith, love, purity, justice, and truth. Members maintain high ethical and moral standards, personal integrity, and respect for others.