HSU Reactivates National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society

(Abilene, Texas) – After 39 years of inactivity, HSU is breathing new life back into the school’s local chapter of the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society.

Dr. Rosario Hall, head of the department of foreign languages and assistant professor of Spanish, activated the Sigma Delta Pi chapter in January and serves as its advisor.

“The reactivation of the Beta Sigma Chapter and the induction of three new students after 39 years of inactivity is very important to the HSU Department of Foreign Languages because these students, majoring and minoring in Spanish, will graduate in May and by being inducted they will commit themselves to the fostering and fomenting of the Spanish language and culture which is precisely the mission of our department,” Hall said. 

The initiation ceremony will be held Wednesday, March 9^th from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Olsen House. The Foreign Languages Department will be inducting three students of Spanish: Sarah Philips, Grace Hebert, and Madison Copeland.     

Two HSU faculty members will be inducted as honorary members: history professor Dr. Tiffany Fink and Dr. Alan Stafford, dean of the Cynthia Ann Parker College of Liberal Arts. Fink has supported the foreign language program by incorporating Spanish history into her classes and Stafford has supported the expansion of Spanish classes at the University.

Following the ceremony, the group will enjoy tapas.   

The society offers a variety of benefits including access to undergraduate study abroad awards, graduate research grants, bolstered credentials for any professional field, special recognition and leadership opportunities, closer association with students of similar interests and out-of-class interaction with members of faculty, and opportunities to participate and/or present in Sigma Delta Pi’s annual sessions.

HSU’s chapter of Sigma Delta Pi had not been active since 1977, according to Dr. Mark P. Del Mastro, executive director of the Sigma Delta Pi organization based in Charleston, South Carolina.  HSU’s chapter of the organization has deep roots, as it was founded in 1949.

“Chapter Beta Sigma at your institution is one of our oldest chapters – number 66 of our 610 chapters currently in our organization,” Mastro said in a welcome video.

The largest foreign language honor society in existence, Sigma Delta Pi is the only honor society devoted exclusively to students of Spanish in four-year colleges and universities. Sigma Delta Pi was established on November 14, 1919 at the University of California in Berkeley, California.