Middlebury Phi Beta Kappa Chapter Inducts 11 Students

The Middlebury College Phi Beta Kappa chapter inducted 11 students as new members at a ceremony at Kirk Alumni Center on Saturday, Oct. 12. The ceremony and reception took place over the college’s Fall Family Weekend.

The students, all of whom are members of the Class of 2014, are Ellery Matsuko Berk, Emily Amanda Colton, Rebecca J. Crochiere, Lindsey Derrick Hunt, Alexandra Kathleen Kennedy, Madeline Wren Mailly, Sarah Henry Pollnow, Mary Katherine Robinson, Connor Daniel Wakayama, Tian Xue and Lindong Zhou. They have qualified to be Phi Beta Kappa members based on their academic records for the past three years.

At the ceremony, each of the students wears an historic Phi Beta Kappa key from alumni, the oldest of which is the Jeremiah Atwater key dating back to 1793.

Phi Beta Kappa, founded in 1776, is the nation’s oldest academic honor society. The Middlebury College chapter, the Beta chapter of Vermont, was established in 1868 and is the 13th oldest Phi Beta Kappa chapter in existence.

Additional members of the senior class may be elected to Phi Beta Kappa in May, on the basis of their academic work during the last four years.

As one of the “charter chapters,” the Middlebury chapter is free to establish its own criteria for the election of students to Phi Beta Kappa, and is not governed by election rules established by the national society. The members of the Middlebury chapter are those members of the Middlebury faculty who were themselves elected to Phi Beta Kappa by their undergraduate institutions.

Photos: May Mantell