Sigma Beta Delta to induct 23 CSB and SJU students April 9
March 26, 2018
If you are a college athlete, All-American is the highest individual honor you can achieve. Likewise, being a Rhodes Scholar is the top academic award a college student can receive.
What if you are a global business leadership and accounting and finance students from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University?
Sigma Beta Delta, the highest national recognition a business student can receive at a college or university with a Sigma Beta Delta chapter, will induct 23 students into the business, management and administration honor society at 5 p.m. Monday, April 9, at the Founders Room (room 170), Quadrangle Building, SJU.
This is third year of the organization at CSB and SJU. In 2016, 36 global business leadership and accounting and finance students were inducted into the organization in its initial year. Last year, 21 students were inducted.
The new group consists of 11 CSB students and 12 SJU students. Broken down by class, five seniors and 18 juniors are being inducted.
When including the 18 current seniors who were inducted into the organization last year with the 23 students invited this year, 11.3 percent of students were drawn from 372 junior and senior majors in global business leadership and accounting and finance.
To be eligible for membership, a student must rank in the top 20 percent of the junior or senior class and be invited by the faculty officers. CSB and SJU wanted to make the society more elite and required inductees to have a minimum 3.75 GPA.
Through the society, members can apply for fellowships, utilize networking opportunities and gain access to competitive scholarships.
A need was seen by CSB and SJU faculty to honor “our best and brightest business and accounting students,” said Steve Welch, associate professor of accounting and finance at CSB and SJU who is the faculty adviser to Sigma Beta Delta.
“Prior to the inception of the CSB/SJU chapter of Sigma Beta Delta, these global business leadership and accounting and finance students were not eligible for a school-wide honor society of any kind, since Phi Beta Kappa only inducts liberal arts majors,” Welch added. “Business majors do not qualify unless they are double-majors in a liberal arts major.”
The local chapter is continuing the practice of honoring graduates who have been successful in the business, management and administration areas. Judy Poferl, ‘82, vice president at Xcel Energy and corporate secretary and chief of staff to the CEO, and Stuart Harvey ‘83, former president of Piper Jaffray and former chief executive officer and president of the Ceridian Corporation, will be this year’s honorary members.