Our Department is pleased to announce that our Geography Honors Society Chapter, Mu Kappa, was awarded the prestigious Honors Chapter Award by Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU) for 2015.
The award citation reads: “On behalf of the Gamma Theta Upsilon Awards Committee I write today to congratulate the Mu Kappa chapter at Hofstra University for earning the Honors Chapter Award for 2015! Your chapter is commended not only for recognizing the superior scholarship of your geography students, but also for planning activities that celebrate and spread the word about geography to your campus and community. Your chapter's service to geography is remarkable. Congratulations! You have earned the right to display an Honors Chapter Badge for 2015 on your GTU website or Facebook page. I have attached an e-badge to this message. A certificate recognizing your Honors Chapter Award will arrive via U.S. mail. With best wishes for another productive year, Dr. Susy S. Ziegler, Second Vice President and Awards Committee Chair, Gamma Theta Upsilon International Geographical Honor Society.”
The Mu Kappa chapter was initiated at Hofstra University in the spring of 2012 by professor Kari Jensen. Since then, 52 Hofstra students have been inducted into the chapter. Together with Get Global’s diversity dinners, Mu Kappa’s ceremonies and events have contributed to expanding student worldviews and increasing the recognition and enhancement of diversity on our campus. Mu Kappa’s recent award represents just one of many ways that our Geography program has received increasing recognition from the broader geographic community the last few years. Several of our students have presented papers and posters at both the regional and national annual meetings of the Association of American Geographers, and for the first time we have had students representing the region at the World Geobowl competition held in conjunction with the National Annual Meeting (with an international attendance of around 10,000 people). One of our faculty members, Dr. Grant Saff, served on the National Executive Council, and was Treasurer of the Association of American Geographers, and was also the Vice-President of the Middle States Association.
Mu Kappa’s President, Dr. Kari Jensen would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Veronica Lippencott, who served as acting President of Mu Kappa in the spring of 2015 while Dr. Jensen was on research leave in Bangladesh, and to Dr. Enid Lotstein for taking the lead in organizing events for the Geography Awareness week in the fall of 2014.
