UWSP honor society to hold annual initiation

Students and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will be honored at the Phi Kappa Phi annual initiation and banquet Sunday, April 2.

An interdisciplinary honor society, Phi Kappa Phi will sponsor the event at 5 p.m. in the Melvin Laird Room of the University Center.

This year, between 125 and 150 students are expected to be initiated into the honor society. Tara Armstrong, Wausau, and Jessie Rowe, Arpin, will each be awarded a $300 sophomore scholarship from the local chapter. The local chapter also nominated Andrew Lynch, Fall Creek, for a $7,000 fellowship awarded by the national chapter. Last year's UWSP nominee, Amanda Little, was awarded the national fellowship.

Andrew Lynch is a senior majoring in biology at UW-Stevens Point. He plans to start graduate study in vector biology and parasitology in the fall.

Faculty receiving recognition for accomplishment in their disciplines this year will be William Meyer, Gary Cumley and Henry St. Maurice.

Phi Kappa Phi is the oldest and largest interdisciplinary honor society in existence today. The honor society was established in 1897 at the University of Maine. Currently, the honor society has about 900,000 members and chapters at 281 colleges and universities across the nation. The UWSP chapter has been active since 1987.

Second semester juniors who rank in the top five percent of their class and graduate students and seniors that rank in the top 10 percent of their class are invited to join the honor society.

Cumley, assistant professor of communicative disorders, received his bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University, master’s degree from the University of Oregon, and doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He helped develop communication boards for non-English speaking patients at St. Michael’s Hospital. Cumley is an expert speaker on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), developmental loss of speech and AAC and language issues in special populations. He also supervises students at UWSP’s clinic as well as off campus.

St. Maurice, associate professor of education and director of field experiences, earned his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, Conn., a master’s degree from the University of Vermont, and a doctorate from University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the treasurer of both the American Educational Research Association’s Special Interest Group for Ecological and Environmental Education and the Wisconsin Association of Teacher Educators, works on the Antaeas Project for Environmental Education Through Local Arts and Humanities, is active in the Rotary Youth Exchange and advises UWSP’s chapter of the Student Wisconsin Education Association.