At a May 14 ceremony in USC’s Bing Theatre, 229 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.
In her remarks welcoming students and their families, chapter president Karin Huebner shared the pride she and the executive board felt in the accomplishments of this year’s PKP initiates.
“We are confident you will continue to live out our traditions of excellence and a love of learning throughout your personal and academic lives and your professional careers,” said Huebner, academic director of programs at the USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study and adjunct assistant professor in the USC Department of History.
The 229 student initiates, each of whom received a PKP lapel pin, hail from 75 different majors, programs, and departments across the university.
USC president Carol Folt was also initiated into the honor society after delivering the keynote address.
“As I think more about all the magical things that happen here at USC,” Folt said, “I'm reminded of Phi Kappa Phi's motto: ‘Let the love of learning rule humanity.’ In my experience, we professors and administrators learn just as much from you, our students, as you learn from us.”
In addition to Folt, four USC faculty members were inducted into the honor society: Rotem Gilbert, vice dean of the research and scholarly studies division in the USC Thornton School of Music; Melissa Just, dean of the USC Libraries; Jason King, dean of the USC Thornton School of Music; and Urbashi Mitra, Gordon S. Marshall Chair in Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
Earlier in the ceremony, Huebner announced three PKP summer scholarships to support research or creative projects over the university’s summer break. The recipients are:
- Ava Grosley, who will explore how modern adaptations of classic fairy tales help shape contemporary ideas of childhood.
- Isabel Jansen-Montoya, who will examine early Reformation texts to trace the spread of Martin Luther’s theology and its role in the era’s political transformations.
- Vera Wang, who will research innovative approaches to wildfire risk management and policy reform in California, including predictive modeling and alternative insurance strategies.
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. For more information, visit libraries.usc.edu/pkp.