Earlier this month, the University of Mississippi’s Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society held an initiation ceremony for its 2019 class. Of those added to the nation’s oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society, Oxford was well represented.

Per the national Phi Kappa Phi organization, Over 65 students from Oxford were initiated into national honor society. Those students are among approximately 30,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year. Membership is by invitation only and requires nomination and approval by their local chapter. Only the top 10 percent of senior and 7.5 percent of juniors are eligible for membership. Graduate students in the top 10 percent of the number of candidates for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.

Phi Kappa Phi was founded in 1897 under the leadership of undergraduate student Marcus L. Urann. Urann had a desire to create a different kind of honor society: one that recognizes excellence in all academic disciplines. Today, the society has chapters on more than 300 campuses in the United States and the Philippines. The society’s mission is ‘to recognize and promote academic excellence in all fields of higher education and to engage the community of scholars in service to others.’

Some of the organization’s most notable members include former President Jimmy Carty and Ole Miss alum John Grisham. Each year Phi Kappa Phi awards nearly $1 million to outstanding students and members through graduate and dissertation fellowships, undergraduate study abroad grants, funding for post-baccalaureate development and grants for local, national and international literacy initiatives.

The Oxford natives initiated into the Ole Miss chapter, according to the university, are as follows:  Alicia Canterbury, Ayush Dhital, Amelia Bowie, Allison Borst, Allen Brewer, Andrea Cooper, Amelia Critchlow, Anna Hayward, Austin Howell, Alden Climer, Akash Patil, Amit Pillai, Aashik Shrestha, Birendra Chaudhary, Barbara Turner, Bipin Koirala, Bryce Butler, Caroline Ciell, Cassandra Miller, Corinne Sweeney, Cami Taylor (Water Valley), Chloe McIntire, Corbin Fox, Danielle Stasney, Evi Addoh, Emily Warwick, Eric Wooten, Ethan Robinson, Ernest Abernathy, Hemant Joshi of Oxford (Mississippi) was initiated at The University of Mississippi, Julie Glasco (initiated at The University of Alabama), Jane Walsh, Julia England, Jana Frankum, Josie Smith, Kyle Gordon Jr., Kennedy Duddlesten, Katherine Quarles, Kate Browning, Lawrence Deese II, Madhav Prasad Koirala, Michael Hamilton, Marie Treadwell, McKenna Raney-Gray, Matthew McLean, Mary Morgan Grantham, Madeline Keane, Madisyn Longnecker, Morgan Johnson, Neely Griggs, Navodit Paudel, Omer Fantoukh, Paige Jones, Payten Coale, Prativa Pandey, Ramsay Stayer, Ramsses Zito, Rishi Thakkar, Robert Murphree, Rowan Murry, Roy McCain Jr., Sean Brown, Sarah Campbell, Thomas Ulmer, William Rider, Whitney Dedmon, Xinyue Wang and Yunik Tamrakar.