Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honor society for liberal arts and sciences, celebrates its 242nd birthday this week. It was founded at the College of William and Mary on December 5, 1776.
The University of Rochester’s chapter was founded in 1887, and new members are elected annually based on exceptional academic performance recommendations from faculty members and staff.
The University typically elects about 10 percent of each graduating class. Particularly strong candidates are elected as juniors.
In celebration of Phi Beta Kappa’s birthday, we honor the 13 students who were elected last spring as juniors, noting their hometowns and majors:
Rachel Allison (economics, French) from Sharon, Massachusetts
Nikolas Angyal (chemical engineering) from East Fishkill, New York
Megan Betancourt (molecular genetics) from Rochester, New York
Marco Caiola (chemistry, biochemistry) from Webster, New York
Melanie DeJong (English: creative writing) from Sammamish, Washington
Kiersten Flodman (health behavior & society) from Rowley, Massachusetts
Benjamin Goehring (linguistics, Russian) from Rochester, New York
Carley Haft, (biology, health behavior & society) from San Diego
Amanda Hornick (biomedical engineering) from Andover, Massachusetts
Seung Hyun Kim (biomedical engineering) from Seoul, South Korea
Allison Morningstar (neuroscience) from York, Pennsylvania
Jacob Squicciarini (molecular genetics) from Albion, New York
Xingyu Wang (financial economics, data science) from Beijing, China
The University’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter, Iota of New York, was chosen the Outstanding Chapter at the Phi Beta Kappa Triennial Conference in Boston. It was selected out of 260 chapters across the country.
