At a May 13, 2026, ceremony in USC’s Bing Theatre, 160 students were initiated into the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (PKP). The organization's USC chapter, housed at the USC Libraries, is the university's oldest fully interdisciplinary honor society.
James Bullock, dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and an astrophysicist specializing in galaxy formation and dark matter, delivered the keynote address. Drawing on his own path from a childhood glimpse of the moon through a backyard telescope to his work with the James Webb Space Telescope, Bullock encouraged students to embrace the spirit of PKP’s motto—Philosophía Krateítõ Phõtôn, or "Let the love of learning rule humanity"—as a lifelong practice.
“The love of learning is what makes you willing to stay in that unfamiliar place long enough to enjoy what’s there,” Bullock said. He advised initiates, as they advance to the next stage of their careers, to “keep being curious.”
Earlier, in her remarks welcoming students and their families, chapter president Karin Huebner reflected on the 102-year history of the USC chapter and the long line of scholars it has recognized.
“Today we honor you; and like the generations of PKP initiates before you, we recognize in you the power to better the world and elevate humanity,” said Huebner, who also serves as academic director of programs at the USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study.
The student initiates each received a PKP lapel pin at the ceremony.
In addition to those students, Dean Bullock and two other USC faculty members were initiated: Leana Golubchik, the Stephen and Etta Varra Professor of Computer Science and director of the USC Women in Science and Engineering program at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering; and Shaun Harper, University Professor and Provost Professor in the USC Rossier School of Education, the Marshall School of Business, and the Price School of Public Policy, and founder and chief research scientist of the USC Race and Equity Center.
Earlier in the ceremony, two students were awarded the Carl and Sterling Franklin Scholarships, which support recipients in their first year of graduate or professional study. Carson Chivers, a cognitive science major at USC Dornsife with a minor in dance at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, will continue his research on movement and cognition as a master’s student in biokinesiology at USC. Bright Lee, a USC Dornsife graduate with double majors in cognitive science and political science, will pursue a master’s degree in Regional Studies–East Asia at Harvard University. Lee was also nominated as USC’s entrant in the national PKP graduate fellowship competition.
Four other students received PKP Summer Scholarships to support research or creative projects over the university’s summer break: Katie Fourtner, Susie Liu, Dilan Setiya, and Vera Wang.
The ceremony also marked the transition of PKP chapter leadership, with Velina Hasu Houston of the USC School of Dramatic Arts succeeding Huebner as chapter president in the coming year.
PKP was first established at the University of Maine in 1897, and its membership now numbers more than 900,000 across the globe. The USC chapter was founded in 1924.
The PKP initiation ceremony is one of several ways USC Libraries celebrated student success this Commencement week. On Thursday, May 14, the USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study held its own induction ceremony for incoming Harman Fellows. (Among them was PKP Franklin Scholarship recipient Carson Chivers.) Also this week, current and past recipients of academic honors at USC were invited to attend a special Wall of Scholars open house inside Leavey Library, where their names will be etched into glass in the library’s Weingart Reading Room.
For more information about Phi Kappa Phi at USC, visit libraries.usc.edu/pkp.