Students, Academics Achieve Top Honors as First ODK in State

Published: May 03, 2012 | Read Time: 2 minutes

Southern Utah University is proud to be the first institution in the state of Utah to be honored with an invitation to establish a Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa on its campus.

The society’s mission is to identify, honor and develop leaders in collegiate and community life, and as one of the nation’s most prestigious leadership honor societies, Omicron Delta Kappa strives for excellence in leadership and character development through collaborative associations among students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Thanks to the hard work of eight diligent SUU students who petitioned the society in 2010, the SUU Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa inducts its first 31 members during graduation week. In addition to student inductees, SUU’s President Michael T. Benson and Provost Bradley J. Cook now join the society’s honorable ranks, along with SUU professor Dr. Katy Herbold.

The team of students who brought Omicron Delta Kappa to SUU has anxiously awaited the society’s inauguration. In order to be considered for membership, ODK requires that the campus develop its own honor society, operating under the same standards and guidelines as the national society. The campus society must function for at least one academic year before membership will be considered by ODK.

Paying homage to SUU’s landscape setting, students selected the name Academy Hill Cavalcade for their newly-formed honor society. Borrowing character traits from the university’s founders to form its membership criteria, AHC asks for perseverance, ambition, hard work, sacrifice and dedication from its members.

Academy Hill Cavalcade advisor Jake Johnson is an extremely proud participant in the student-led endeavor. “This is an incredible achievement for the student leaders of Academy Hill Cavalcade,” he said. “Securing approval for a Circle of ODK is the culmination of countless hours of hard work by a group of very dedicated students.”

The SUU Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa was officially designated on Wednesday, May 2, at 2 p.m. in the Hunter Conference Center’s Gilbert Great Hall.

For more information on Omicron Delta Kappa or to become a member, please contact Jake Johnson at 435-865-8567 or johnsonj@suu.edu.

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