Eight ACU students and two faculty sponsors represented the ACU Texas Psi chapter at the bi-annual National Convention of Alpha Chi Honor Society (national college and university honor society), March 31-April 2 in San Diego. The convention, attended by 450 students, featured scholarly, creative, and artistic presentations by more than 260 students. Alpha Chi has some 300 chapters in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Members are selected from the top 10% of juniors, seniors and graduate students in all academic fields. The ACU Texas Psi chapter is one of the association’s oldest chapters, joining the organization in 1922, Alpha Chi’s inaugural year.
Three ACU Honors College students presented their undergraduate research as papers or posters at the convention: junior Nutrition major Monica Parodi of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and junior English majors Elizabeth Bernhardt of Pearland and Kaleigh Wyrick of The Woodlands.
Parodi’s poster presentation was titled “Nutrition Problems in Villages in Togo, West Africa. Literature session presenters included Wyrick, “Plotting Resistance: Mothers and Daughters in American Literature” and Bernhardt “Shining Armor and a World of Shadows: Arthurian Legend in BBC’s Merlin.” Also attending the convention were Dr. Mikee Delony, assistant professor of English, the chapter’s voting faculty delegate and content judge and Dr. Lynette Austin, assistant professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, chapter co-sponsor.
In February, the Alpha Chi Honor Society held a candlelit induction ceremony in Chapel on the Hill. Prepared and hosted by current Alpha Chi officers, the ceremony officially recognized our current officer team and formally inducted 55 of the 179 newly registered members of the Texas Psi chapter. ACU Provost, Dr. Jeanine Varner, the featured speaker, challenged new members to continue their pursuit of excellence and scholarship.