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| ALD adviser and psychology professor Michael Nichols (far left) and ALD adviser, associate dean of the college and biology professor Kathleen Jagger (far right) pose with new ALD inductees. |
LEXINGTON, Ky.—Sixty-eight Transylvania University first-year students were recently inducted into the inaugural class of Transylvania’s chapter of Alpha Lambda Delta, a national honor society. Transylvania’s chapter is the organization’s 325th chapter.
Celebrating its 85th anniversary in 2009, the national society recognizes students who have maintained a 3.5 or higher GPA and are in the top 20 percent of their class during their first year or term of higher education.
To have an Alpha Lambda Delta (ALD) chapter at an institution, the school must first have its own honor society for first-year students. Most of the 68 Transylvania students were inducted into the Transylvania First-Year Honor Society last spring. Transylvania then applied for an ALD chapter and once it was granted, these students, plus a few more of their peers, were inducted into the national honor society.
Sophomore Joshua Edge, of Owensboro, Ky., is the president of ALD at Transylvania and said that having a chapter of the national society on campus “allows the university the means to recognize early achievement in students, which can be overlooked at times.”
“As we begin to carve out a place for Alpha Lambda Delta in the Transylvania community, I hope that we will be able to be a voice for first-year students on Transy’s campus and that we will serve to aid their incorporation into college life,” said Edge.
“The Alpha Lambda Delta chapter will be a great asset for Transylvania scholars,” said Kathleen Jagger, associate dean of the college, biology professor, and ALD adviser. “It will establish a cohort of like-minded students who are high achievers from the start. They have the potential collectively to positively influence the academic ethos of our campus. ALD members have the opportunity to network nationally and apply for scholarships and grants.”
Alpha Lambda Delta was founded in 1924 at the University of Illinois to recognize academic excellence among freshmen women. One year before, Phi Eta Sigma, an honor society to recognize academic excellence among freshman men, had been founded, also at the University of Illinois. Both groups operated as single sex organizations until the mid-70s when they both became coeducational in response to Title IX. Today, Alpha Lambda Delta has initiated more than 850,000 students.