The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi held its annual initiation ceremony on May 6 in the Gore Recital Hall of the University of Delaware’s Roselle Center for the Arts. Inducted were 61 undergraduate students, four graduate students, and two faculty members.

Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 at the University of Maine. The UD chapter, the fifth in the nation, was founded in 1905. 

Unlike its sister program Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi was founded to be fully interdisciplinary, electing members from all fields of learning that are offered at the University in which there is a chapter.

At the national level each year, Phi Kappa Phi offers awards to help fund first-year graduate study; UD’s chapter nominee is Kelly Elizabeth Daniels (the national award will be announced in June). 

Pursuing an honors bachelor of science degree with distinction, a bachelor of arts in liberal studies, and a minor in economics, Daniels will begin studies at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, where she plans to pursue a career in medicine and public health.

Dylan Max Buller received the first-year graduate study award funded by the UD chapter. He is completing a bachelor of arts in philosophy with minors in medical humanities and Spanish, and this summer will begin medical school at the University of Connecticut.

Winner of this year’s Phi Kappa Phi Undergraduate Research Essay, a prize of $500, was Adrienne Gendron, an honors degree with distinction candidate with majors in art conservation and anthropology and minors in art history and chemistry. Judged not only on the quality of the research or service project, this award also assesses the skill with which the essay is written for a general-education audience. 

At the ceremony, Gendron presented her essay, “Archaeological Copper Alloys In Situ: The Use of Accelerated Aging to Characterize Degradation,” written under the direction of Jocelyn Alcantara-Garcia, assistant professor of art conservation.

For more information about Phi Kappa Phi and for a full listing of the inductees, visit UD’s Phi Kappa Phi webpage.