Dean Peter J. Awn, Vice President of the GS Division of the New York Delta Chapter, began the ceremony by welcoming the candidates, declaring that they are exemplary of GS accomplishments as a whole, specifically highlighting their diversity of paths to Columbia.
"I am in awe of the extraordinary academic inductees present today. You demonstrate that excellence is not embedded in any particular background," said Awn.
Professor Deborah B. Mowshowitz, President of the Delta Chapter, went on to trace the development of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, from its origins at the College of William and Mary to its presence today at 286 colleges and universities with over 500,000 living members. The GS Division was established in 1952.
GS Division secretary, Dean of Academic Affairs Victoria Rosner, gave a snapshot of the inductees’ profiles. Students are notable not only for their high grade point averages but also because of where they come from, their previous education, and the personal challenges they had to overcome to arrive at where they are today.
“A number of these students left fascinating careers to attend Columbia. You see before you former fashion designers, software engineers, hoteliers, soldiers, and rock stars,” Rosner said.
The student who best represents Phi Beta Kappa’s ideal of intellectual integrity, tolerance for others' views, and a broad range of academic interests, received the Phi Beta Kappa award. This year, the award went to GS Class of 2016 Valedictorian Christina Cheung.
The award presentation was followed by the Phi Beta Kappa address, delivered by Charlotte E. Binns '01. Binns is Business Development Director at Blue State Digital, a digital strategy agency working to build communities that take action. Before coming to GS she travelled to Guyana in South America to restore a leprosy hospital and build a school. In her speech entitled "Seeing to Sweating: The Visionary Grind," she recounted lessons learned when facing naysayers and the dot com boom in the early stages of her post-Columbia career.
“It has taken me longer to find my place and passion. The combination of a deep love for all things new, with a tenacious commitment to seeing things through. I believe those are the ingredients to overcome the obstacles I have encountered,” Binns said.
Following Binns’ speech, the candidates were initiated into Phi Beta Kappa by Professor Mowshowitz and current members. As their names were called, inductees signed the chapter register and received their certificate and pin. To close, Dean Rosner formally inducted the candidates and offered her congratulations to the now fully-fledged members of the New York Delta Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa academic society.
Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa is the nation's oldest academic honor society, and its initials represent the society's motto: "love of learning is the guide of life." Roughly ten percent of U.S. institutions of higher learning have Phi Beta Kappa chapters, and among those institutions, only about ten percent of arts and sciences graduates are selected for membership, making it one of the highest academic honors for undergraduate students in the nation.
To be inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society, students must be recommended by faculty who work closely with them and are members of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. Recommendations are based on the students' academic programs and their ability to support the society's ideals of academic, social, and community-based programs.
