Middlebury Phi Beta Kappa Chapter Inducts 10 Students

The Middlebury College Phi Beta Kappa chapter inducted 10 students as new members at a ceremony at Kirk Alumni Center on Saturday, Oct. 25. The ceremony and reception took place over the College’s Fall Family Weekend.

The students, all seniors, include: Taylor Custer ’15, Leah Fessler ’15, Jamie Lee ’15, Kevin Liang ’15, Xiner Liu ’15, Michael Martini ’14.5, Kristen Meredith ’15, Katie Paradies ’15, Kyle Slugg ’15, and Danny Zhang ’15. 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.

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.

Reporting by Stephen Diehl; Photos by May Mantell