Students Win National Alpha Chi Awards

Two Westminster College members of the Missouri Delta Chapter of Alpha Chi took top honors at the honor society’s national convention held in Alexandria, VA April 7-9.

“The achievements of our Alpha Chi students and our chapter as a whole are exceptional proof of Westminster’s competitive academic stature on a national playing field,” says Westminster College President Dr. Benjamin Ola. Akande.  “I congratulate them on this prestigious honor they have received.”

Robyn Parkinson, a junior from St. Louis, MO, won a $1,500 Gaston/Nolle Scholarship for her paper entitled “Senators and Supreme Court Nominations: Why Some Senators Deviate.”  Only 12 Gaston/Nolle Scholarships are awarded nationally each year.  Parkinson is the sixth Westminster student to win one and the fourth in the past six years.

Ayush Manandhar, a junior from Kathmandu, Nepal, won the Political Science/Economics prize of $100 for the best convention presentation in that category for his paper “Does Military Aid Support the Political, Economic, and Social Stability of a Recipient Nation?”  Manandhar is the fifth Westminster student to receive this honor and the first since 2012.

The Westminster Alpha Chi Chapter also received Star Chapter designation as one of the top Alpha Chi Chapters in the nation for the past 14 years, including the current academic year.

Other Westminster students who presented scholarly works during the convention included: Lejla Dervisevic a junior from Cazin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brittany Paglusch, a senior from St. Louis,  and Jamie Striler, a senior from Kirkwood, MO whose work is now in print.

Alpha Chi is a national college honor society that admits students from all academic disciplines. Membership is limited to the top 10 percent of an institution’s juniors, seniors and graduate students.  Some 300 chapters, located in almost every state and in Puerto Rico, induct more than 12,000 members annually.

The objectives of this prestigious academic honorary society, which was nationally established in 1922, are the stimulation, development and recognition of scholarship and those elements of character that make scholarship effective.  The name Alpha Chi is derived from the initial letters of the Greek words for truth and character.

The Missouri Delta Chapter of Alpha Chi at Westminster College has repeatedly been recognized as one of the top chapters in the nation.  Dr. David Jones, Acting Senior Vice President and Dean of Faculty, is the chapter advisor.