The first induction ceremony of the CHC chapter of Phi Beta Delta, an honor society dedicated to recognizing scholarly achievement in international education, was held April 19, with seven inductees. Phi Beta Delta is both an academic and professional society, interdisciplinary and international.
In recent years, Chestnut Hill College has taken great strides to increase its international presence and has been globalizing according to plans and in keeping with long-range goals and the CHC mission.
Adding an active chapter of Phi Beta Delta was the natural progression in continuing to maintain a global focus on campus and connecting individuals across a variety of departments to continue integration of global awareness, programming, study abroad, international student integration and research.
Phi Beta Delta will help Chestnut Hill College achieve its goals of true comprehensive internationalization by creating another avenue by which faculty, students and staff can have a collective, creative, globally minded voice.
Norma George, Ph.D., regional vice president, Northeast Region of Phi Beta Delta and faculty member at Cheyney University joined the new members at the ceremony. She shared that she was pleased with the recent progress made at Chestnut Hill College in recent years.
“Chestnut Hill College has already distinguished itself in the field of international education by the numerous activities it hosts, encourages and supports,” she said. “Several of your students leave this campus each semester to immerse themselves in the languages and cultures of international communities through study abroad; many come from other lands to take their places through student exchanges. Some of your number leave to share their skills through your Service Learning Abroad programs and the African Sisters Partnerships, and others come to you through your FLS programs to immerse themselves in the English language and to enjoy what Philadelphia so generously offers.”
George stayed for the popular monthly event called Travel at Teatime that provides international students and study abroad returnees an hour in which to share their personal cultural perspectives of their home country or their host country. Spain was the country featured during Teatime, and Jorge Pedrajas Mayor, an exchange student from the University of Alicante, shared about his family and hometown and brought in traditional Spanish tortilla, olives and zumos for the community to taste.
Jorge shared his perspectives about his semester at Chestnut Hill College and he also encouraged students to take a semester and study at the University of Alicante. Dr. George remarked that, “your monthly Tea Time talks allow members of your community to interact informally with nationals from the 27 countries represented on your campus to learn about their ways of eating, playing, learning and more.”
George left the Phi Beta Delta members with these remarks, “Indeed, you have been quietly and steadily building an international community as though it were the most natural thing in the world. By formally aligning yourselves with Phi Beta Delta today, you are joining a network of leaders in global education, and establishing this institution as a leader in the field.”
— Trachanda Garcia, MLA, director of Global Education
Pictured from left to right, Adele Giangiulio ’16, Colleen Malone ’16, Maci Kociszewski '16, Huan Zhang '18, Barbara Diemer, D.B.A., assistant professor of business, Norma George, Ph.D., Jacqueline Reich, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, Trachanda Garcia, MLA, director of Global Education, Jose Soto, activities coordinator for FLS, and Ann Liberona, director of FLS at CHC.