More than 200 GW students were inducted into the nation’s oldest academic honor society Friday at a ceremony in Lisner Auditorium.
Phi Beta Kappa was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary to honor excellence in liberal arts and sciences. Now, the elite group has over half a million members and chapters at 280 U.S. colleges and universities.
GW invites students who are in the top 10 percent of the senior class and in the top 1 percent of the junior class to join its Phi Beta Kappa chapter, which was founded in 1938. This year, 195 seniors and 37 juniors became members.
They learned the secret handshake too.
“Historically it’s the most prestigious honor society in the U.S.,” says Caitlin Downs, a GW senior.
Ms. Downs, who majored in political communications, was inducted last year as a junior and thinks it gave her a competitive advantage when applying to law school this year.
“It was a huge thing to put on my resume. It’s one of the highest honors to receive as an undergraduate,” says Ms. Downs, who graduated with summa cum laude honors today. “It really distinguishes you from other students.”
Ms. Downs will be attending the GW Law School this fall and hopes to pursue civil rights law.
Barun Aryal, a GW senior, is proud to know he’s in the top 10 percent of his graduating class.
“It’s really nice to have an organization that recognizes you based on scholastic merit,” he says.
After graduation, Mr. Aryal will be working at the National Institutes of Health for a one-year fellowship, conducting research in cell biology. He plans to apply for medical school next fall and is thankful he’ll be able to put Phi Beta Kappa on his application.
“I’m sure it’s going to help me out tremendously in the future,” says Mr. Aryal.
Chris Avellaneda, another GW senior, is looking forward to the networking opportunities that come with being part of Phi Beta Kappa.
“It tells employers that you graduated at the top of your class,” says Mr. Avellaneda, who will be starting law school in the fall at Harvard.
Shoshanna Levine, B.A. ’07, credits her Phi Beta Kappa membership with helping her get a job at the NIH after graduating from GW.
“It distinguished me from other applicants. It says that I have the aptitude and drive to accomplish my goals,” says Ms. Levine, who majored in psychology and minored in Italian.
At the NIH, Ms. Levine works as a research coordinator for stroke diagnostics and therapeutics where she screens acute stroke patients for clinical and observational research trials.
In the fall, she will be leaving the NIH to pursue her master’s in public health at Columbia University, and she believes having Phi Beta Kappa on her resume made her stand out.
“It is such an honor because it is such a competitive society that is internationally known for academic excellence,” she says.