The USC chapter of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi—the oldest all-university honor society at the University of Southern California—initiated 244 new members at an online ceremony hosted by the USC Libraries on May 13, 2021.
The ceremony featured a welcome from chapter president William Holder, dean of the USC Leventhal School of Accounting, as well as a congratulatory message from USC president Carol Folt, who acknowledged the honor society’s long and distinguished history.
“The university’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1924, which means that you stand shoulder to shoulder alongside nearly a century of great scholars at USC,” Folt said. “These are Trojans who earned exceptionally high GPAs and have gone on to do great things in the world.”
Emily Anderson, professor of English and dean of undergraduate education at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, delivered the keynote address. In her remarks, Anderson reflected on the honor society’s motto, “May the love of learning rule humanity.”
At one point, Anderson zeroed in on the word “love.” “This is a ‘love of learning,’ of course, but to join the emotional experience with the intellectual endeavor here is an important step,” she said. “We can have an attachment to learning, this motto suggests, akin to the bonds we might feel to a partner or child... What does it mean to love the work we do? I think of this feeling when I reflect upon the companionship I have felt with my reading, my writing, my research. I think of this feeling when I realize how, when I’m tracking down ideas, I never feel alone.”
The entire ceremony is available for streaming through the USC Libraries’ YouTube channel:
Phi Kappa Phi (PKP), which makes its administrative home at the USC Libraries, honors academic excellence and service to the USC community. This spring’s 244 initiates include undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, and faculty and staff:
Aisha Abdullah
Hannah V. Abrahim
Joleena Pauline Acolola
Lynn Adrian
Austin Adye
Shawn Afvari
Maira Ahmad
Kiarra M. Akiyoshi
Erika L. Alcantar
Diala Alhousari
Matthew Alison
Fahad Alolayan
Kathrin Altmann
Heidi R. Ansorge
Vusala Aranjo
Arjun Aron
Melania Aslanian
Barry Ayala
Johnathan E. Bailey
Louisa Balayan
Sarah-Elisa Bangerth
Dan Barr
Sam Angelito V. Barrozo
Brandee Beiriger
Adele C. Binni
Heather L. Bittner
Gabriela Blanco
Flor M. Bojorquez
Jamie L. Bone
Yasmin Borhani
John-Micah Braswell
Shanden Brutsch
Marin Burns
August K. Burton
William Canon
Michael Gregorio Casalenuovo
Pei-Yu Chen
Tiana L. Cheung
Joseph K. Cho
Deborah Choe
Claudia Chow
Matthew G. Chu
Brandi A. Clarke
Lisa Collato
Hannah E. Cook
Christopher J. Correa-Henschke
Miranda Costigan
Lisa M. Crosta
Jaclyn J. Cutler
Cindy F. Daniel
Rijul Dhir
Meghan Doherty
Cheyenne Donatello
Amanda A. Douglas
Breanna K. Dungca
Erin A. Dunlap
Lan Duong
Eleanor F. Dykstra
Gabriel Elizalde, Jr.
Lauren F. Ellis
Kim Espinosa
Sara M. Evanoff
Ashley Evins
Nicole R. Ewan
Diba Farokh Hamedani
Daniel Fausto
Tessa Ferrall
Daniel Patrick Fields
Jake Finkelstein-Boim
Riley M. Flynn
Michael Fong
Samuel Frazer
Molly Frizzell
Eduard Galumyan
Anna Gard
Ewa-Solange S. Geisler
Gemma R.L. Geist
Golriz Ghiassi
Emily Gibson
Joshua E. Gibson-Altrock
Lee A. Godwin
Ross Edward Goldberg
Jacqueline Gomez
Anna Goncharova
Enrique Gonzalez
Katrina J. Gressett
Marcel Roberto Guerra
Enedina N. Guerrero
Karina L. Gutierrez
Caitlin Guevarra Gutierrez
Alejandra Guzman-Schafer
Zhixian Han
Elli M. Hanson
Chantiel J. Harden
Kevin P. Harris
Amy E. Hinz
Janet S. Hong
Qinruo Hu
Mara Hyman
Selen Iskenderoglu
DeAndra Johnson
Rushabh P. Kapadia
Emone R. Khan
Solomon Kim
Sangeun Kim
John A. Kimble
Emma Kirkman-Liff
Chrysa Kovach
Matthew A. Krell
Jonathan A. Kubiak
Michael Kwan
Mary J. La Blanc
Katie Laase
Byron S. Lainez
Jessica Landes
Tekaysha K. Larkins
Timothy Lau
Kent Lee
Amanda S. Leong
Molly Louise Lift
Tiffany Lim
Eunice Lim
Michael D. Limbo
Zhen Lin
Zhewei Liu
Marissa J. Lombari
Sophia M. Lopez
Chrissa Loukadakis
Can Lu
Qilin Lu
Yuanhao Lu
Jeffrey Ly
Khishigt Manlaibayar
Morgan E. Maring
Caitlin M. Marinovich
Elizabeth Martinez
Samantha K. Martinez Hansen
Kashyap M. Master
Caroline McDonough
Paola A. Medina
Bryna M. Mills
Cailey A. Milton
Marques E. Montgomery
Katlin E. Morales
Hayley K. Moss
Nisha Nagaraj
Samantha Noor
Melanie Tom Nou
Kelly M. OBrien
Jeffrey H. Oehler
Tanya C. Oliva
Demimae Nicole Ong
Michael Orenstein
Masashi Otsuka
Kumara Oyao
Lori Patel
C Craig Patterson
Ananya Paul-Majumdar
Tasha Perdue
Brittany N. Pfalzgraff
Bahar Pishdadian
Ava R. Pomerantz
Cameron Pomerantz
Shaina Purser
Natalie Quinlan
Puranjay Rajvanshi
Adithya Venkat Ramanan
Courtney Labatt Randle
Logan Read
Andrew V. Recker
Charlotte Reed
Cynthia Regis
Jessica Rivas Acuna
Mya J. Roberts
Sylvia Rodarte
Ivana M. Rodriguez
Melanie Romero
Michele Root
Kimberly C. Rosen
Melinda K. Ryan
Grace S. Ryu
Ashley Sadowski
Patrick J. Sammons
Melodie Saremi
Carissa R. Saunders
Hannah D. Scofield
Ravi Kiran Selvam
Lexee T. Shapiro
Jiwon Shin
Kristine E. Shipman
Kylie Sloan
Ivy Song
Cherre M. Stoneham
Molly N. Sulzer
Yifan Sun
Rachael L. Sutcliffe
Dinah C. Sylvester
Farhad Tajali
Felicia I. Tejawinata
Mosima Thema
Taylor J. Thibodeaux
Madison I. Thompson
Chaza Toulain
Serena Trice
Oksana Trifonova
Richelle M. Triglia-Mancini
Fatime Uruci
Sirena Y. Van Epp
Lauren Vargas
Rosanna Villalobos
Mary M. Vonderlieth
Rushita J. Vora
Meghan A. Wainwright
Gwenan L. Walker
Vic Walton
Junru Wang
Zirui Wang
Yuzhe Wang
Zheng Wen
Stacie Whalen
Jonathan N. White
Christian C. Williams
Noah L. Winnick
Nicholas Witham
Sandra Wohali
Alexander M. Wong
Mei Wu
Julia Xiao
Mingyao Xiong
Jiaxin Xu
Minghong Xu
Zhengyu Yang
Guowei Yang
Su-Min Yeu
Victoria K. Yu
Yeli Yuan
Sekinat J. Yusuf
Zaharah A. Zaidi
Lilit Zakaryan
Yihang Zhang
Michael Zhao
Liangjie Zheng
Xuan Zhou
Beth Zollars