Rollins Inducts 24 New Members of Phi Beta Kappa

The latest cohort of Rollins students join 17 U.S. presidents, 42 U.S. Supreme Court justices, and more than 150 Nobel Laureates as members of Phi Beta Kappa (PBK), the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Less than 1 percent of all college students in the U.S. qualify for acceptance, with members undergoing a highly selective, merit-based invitation process. Membership recognizes their status among the best and brightest liberal arts and sciences undergraduate students in the nation.

Presiding over the installation and induction ceremony were MacKenzie Moon Ryan, Theta Chapter president and associate professor of art history, and Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar Russell Muirhead, professor of government at Dartmouth and a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

From left: MacKenzie Moon Ryan, associate professor of art history and Theta Chapter president, and Russell Muirhead, Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar.Photos by Scott Cook.

“Since 1776, Phi Beta Kappa has celebrated excellence in the liberal arts and sciences and championed freedom of thought,” shares Moon Ryan. “Our Rollins chapter engages in this work locally, and we take seriously the cultivation of intensive critical study across the range of liberal arts disciplines. We recognize those students who not only succeed academically, but also, crucially, invest deeply in understanding the world from multiple perspectives and show great promise in using that knowledge to improve society around them.”

During her address, Moon Ryan shared how studying the arts and sciences offers both depth and breadth and provides space for questions and answers.

“Liberal arts education prepares students well for meaningful, productive, and engaged lives, no matter their chosen profession,” she says. “These are long-lasting virtues we together espouse.”

This year’s 24 Phi Beta Kappa inductees make for a total of 66 Tars thus far to earn a spot in the Theta Chapter at Rollins, which is part of an distinguished set of less than 10 percent of colleges in the U.S.—and only seven others in Florida—to shelter a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

2024 Student Phi Beta Kappa Inductees

• Caroline Amein ’24, Anthropology and English
• Lara Arnoletti ’24, Psychology
• Peyton Connor ’24, History
• Talya Edgerley ’24, Anthropology
• Nicole Edoziem ’24, Computer science
• Paula Espinosa ’24, English and theatre
• Alise Fortune ’24, Philosophy and psychology
• Sophia Foster ’24, Art history
• Madison Kara Goeser ’24, International relations and Spanish
• Taylor Ingrassia ’24, English
• John Kirkley ’24, Public policy & political economy and biochemistry/molecular biology
• Rivers Lenholt ’24, Philosophy
• Arabella Lilleslatten ’24, Music and political science
• James McIntyre ’24, Computer science
• Avery Miller ’24, Computer science and English
• Blythe Morgan ’24, Psychology
• Natasha Mulenga ’24, Physics
• Javier Perez ’24, International relations
• Peyton Poitras ’24, English
• Fatima Sani ’24, Psychology
• Ferah Shaikh ’24, Mathematics, philosophy, and classical studies
• Fadima Tall ’24, Political science
• Isabelle Tassent ’24, Art history and mathematics
• Eve Wasil ’24, Psychology and Asian studies