New Sigma Beta Delta inductees pose for a photo with business faculty outside of the Business Building after their recent induction ceremony on campus. From left: Sigma Beta Delta Chapter President James Wilkerson, assistant teaching professor of business and program coordinator; business students Brandon Sicovitch and Luke Gardner; society Secretary/Treasuer and Assistant Professor Zhuang Qian; and society Vice President and Assistant Teaching Professor Angela Bassani.
DUNMORE, Pa. — Penn State Scranton’s chapter of the Sigma Beta Delta International Honor Society recently inducted three new members at a special ceremony held on campus.
Business students Luke Gardner and Brandon Sicovitch, and Project and Supply Chain Management (PSCM) student Carlos Salazar Paz, received certificates during the induction ceremony, along with official insignia to wear at commencement.
The Sigma Beta Delta Honor Society is for students in business, management and administration and serves institutions that offer baccalaureate and graduate degrees in business, management and administration where the institution holds accreditation from one of the six regional accrediting bodies, but not specialized accreditation in business. Penn State Scranton is the fourth Penn State campus to be chartered. Membership is by invitation and contingent on review by the council of chapter officers.
Sigma Beta Delta Chapter President James Wilkerson, assistant teaching professor of business and program coordinator; Vice President, Angela Bassani, assistant teaching professor of accounting; Secretary/Treasurer Zhuang Qian, assistant professor of project and supply chain management, along with other Penn State Scranton faculty, staff and family members, attended the ceremony to celebrate those being inducted.
2022 inductee Jordan Coles also participated in the event by reciting part of this year’s induction ritual at the ceremony. Jordan currently serves in a class leadership role facilitating in-class discussion in the BA 422W course, the capstone business course.
“All three students met the strict membership criteria, and the fact that they maintained such good grades while also serving our campus with distinction in a variety of ways simply distinguishes them all the more as the ‘best of the best’ in our student population of business and project and supply chain management majors,” Wilkerson said.
Criteria include top 10 percent grade-point averge standing in the major; no record of academic integrity violations; sixth semester standing or higher; and a noteworthy record of positive campus and/or civic engagement from Penn State matriculation onward.
“It is a worthwhile way to recognize academic excellence while emphasizing the point that the ‘honor’ in ‘honor society’ extends beyond just having a very high GPA. Honorable service to others and integrity also count toward what Sigma Beta Delta also deems as honor. Membership is highly selective, but that simply highlights all the more just how outstanding the students who are inducted really are.”—James Wilkerson , Sigma Beta Delta chapter president/assistant teaching professor of business and program coordinator
Students are often inducted in their junior year and typically serve in at least one or two events or projects in the name of our Sigma Beta Delta chapter before they graduate.
“It is a worthwhile way to recognize academic excellence while emphasizing the point that the ‘honor’ in ‘honor society’ extends beyond just having a very high GPA. Honorable service to others and integrity also count toward what Sigma Beta Delta also deems as honor,” Wilkerson said. “Membership is highly selective, but that simply highlights all the more just how outstanding the students who are inducted really are.”
The Penn State Scranton chapter was chartered in November 2021, at which time Bassani and Qian were both inducted as faculty-category members. Wilkerson has been a Sigma Beta Delta member in the faculty category since 2013. This year is the second year the induction ceremony was held on campus.
The mission of Sigma Beta Delta is to encourage and recognize scholarship and accomplishment among students of business, management and administration, and to encourage and promote aspirations toward personal and professional improvement and a life distinguished by honorable service to humankind. Sigma Beta Delta was established to honor students who have attained superior records in business programs in schools and colleges with regional accreditation.
Newly inducted members of the Sigma Beta Delta International Honor Society didn't want their fellow inductee Carlos Salazar Paz, who had to attend virtually, be left out of the group photo -- so they took a picture in front of his projected image so he could be included.
