ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA — Winthrop University’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi inducted new undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members during a March 6 ceremony in Vivian Moore Carroll Hall’s Whitton Auditorium.
The society is the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. The keynote speaker for the event was Nick Grossoehme, dean of the new Honors College which begins this fall.
New members from the junior and senior class who accepted the invitation to join were: Muhsanah Alshaman, Israel Bellinger, Laura Bennett, Christie Bradley, Madelyn Brooks, Kendall Crossley, Morgan Dukes, Hannah Gandell, Emma Krashner, Jennifer Needham, Porsha Nesbitt, Ryan Noblett, Abbigayle Pontes, Andrea Samaniego, Maria Torres Bastidas, Olivia Whitfield and Collin Wylie.
Graduate students inducted were: LeTerria Bigbee, Alaysia Blanding, Alan Blinzler, Sandra Daws, Tonya Foulks, Shanen Ilg, Crystal Johnson, Maranda McKenzie, Ashleigh Neilsen, Shevelle Porter and Zion Smith.
Each dean selected one faculty member to honor, and the chapter officers chose to honor Scott Amundsen of the College of Arts and Sciences for his longtime volunteer service to the organization.
The deans’ selections were: Amy Clausen, Richard W. Riley College of Education, Sport, and Human Sciences; Quintell Gwinn and Justin Isenhour, both of the College of Visual and Performing Arts; Nicholas Moellman, College of Business and Technology; and Brent Woodfill, College of Arts and Sciences.
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.
The organization’s 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, director of institutional research and a member of the chapter’s executive board, at linnm@winthrop.edu.
