ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA — Winthrop University’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi inducted several new undergraduate, graduate and faculty members during a March 7 ceremony in Carroll Hall’s Whitton Auditorium.
The society is the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines.
New members from the junior and senior class who accepted the invitation to join were: Morgan Baxter, Erin Dinlocker, Deanna Gerszewski, Avery Jolley, Mackenzie Luschkowski, Abigail McCrea, Lily Meisten, Morgan Moore, Malgorzata Radziszewska-Petros, Gabrielle Walker, Ebonie White and Julia Wyatt.
Graduate students inducted were: Todd Bernson, Veronika Butler, Amy Cogan, Jalen Conyers, Kendra Cox, Hakim Diaz, Jasminn Foxworth, Steven Gileta, Rhonda Goodale, Anne Hill, Arismel Perez, La J’ai Reed, William Rice, Jessica Rodman, Megan Szalwinski, Faith Watson, Jennifer White and He Zhu.
The Winthrop chapter has not traditionally inducted faculty members but decided to this year. Each dean selected one faculty member to honor, and the chapter officers chose to honor Peter Judge, the outgoing interim provost who also served as the keynote speaker. Other faculty members were: Amanda Hiner, College of Arts and Sciences; Jeremy Mims, College of Visual and Performing Arts; Minnie Mize, Richard W. Riley College of Education, Sport and Human Sciences; and Yi Shen, College of Business Administration.
These honorees are among about 30,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year. Membership is by invitation and requires nomination and approval by a chapter. Only the top 10 percent of seniors and 7.5 percent of juniors, having at least 72 semester hours, are eligible for membership.
Graduate students in the top 10 percent of the number of candidates for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.
Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine and headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Phi Kappa Phi has chapters on more than 300 college and university campuses in North America and the Philippines. Winthrop is one of only six chapters in South Carolina, along with Clemson, The Citadel, College of Charleston, Francis Marion and USC-Upstate.
Its mission is: “To recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others.”
For more information, contact Maria Linn at linnm@winthrop.edu.
