The sisterhood of Sigma Omicron Pi was established at San Francisco State University in 1930 by ten Asian American women pursuing the interest of teaching. They chose the Greek letters, S, O and P to represent themselves as the "Sisters of Pedagogy." The Constitution was derived from an existing "Honorary Society of Education."

The sorority was active in the Asian Community for the next 15 years. At the advent of World War II, the organization was forced to become inactive. In 1946, a group of women from UC Berkeley re-established Sigma Omicron Pi on their campus. Since its inception, SOPi has grown in membership with student chapters at:

Beta Chapter - San Francisco State University, 1988
Gamma Chapter - San Jose State University, 1992

Delta Chapter - UC Davis, 1993
Epsilon Chapter - Sacramento State University, 1993
Zeta Chapter - UC Santa Cruz, 1995
Eta Chapter - University of Maryland, 1997
Theta Chapter - UC Irvine, 2001
Iota Chapter - Pennsylvania State University, 2001
Kappa Chapter - UC San Diego, 2002
Lambda Chapter - Baltimore, Maryland, 2002
Mu Chapter - UC Riverside, 2003
Nu Chapter - Binghamton University, State University of New York, 2008