FPU student nets national honor

A student at Fresno Pacific University received a grant from a national honor society.

Karen Crockett, a senior piano performance major from Fresno, won an H.Y. Benedict Fellowship from Alpha Chi. The $2,500 award is for full-time graduate study in the fall of 2002.

Alpha Chi gives 10 Benedict fellowships annually to students from across the nation. Crockett's award, the first for an FPU student, was based on her multi-media project: a video presentation featuring Crockett performing Maurice Ravel's "Jeux d'eau" ("Water Games") on grand piano, interspersed with images of sparkling water.

Alpha Chi is a general honor society that admits students from all academic disciplines. Membership is limited to juniors and seniors ranked academically in the top 10 percent of their institution. Some 300 chapters, located in almost every state and in Puerto Rico, induct more than 11,000 members annually. The FPU chapter has 41 members and is sponsored by Fay Nielsen, director of retention; Peng Wen, business faculty; and Richard Rawls, history and philosophy faculty, who was a member of the university's charter chapter in 1987.

The society involves members in all aspects of its operation, including student representation on the national council and presenting scholarly programs at regional and national conventions. Crockett and 2001-graduate Jaime Huss each gave presentations at last year's national convention in Savannah, Ga., where Crockett was first runner-up for the national Alfred H. Nolle Scholarship.

In all, Alpha Chi awards $45,000 a year in 21 individual scholarships and fellowships. The H. Y. Benedict Fellowship is named after Harry Benedict, Alpha Chi's founder and first secretary-treasurer. Other Benedict winners for 2002 came from Lee University, Carson-Newman College, Jamestown College, Union University, Baylor University, Culver-Stockton College, Northwest Missouri State and Concord College.

Author

Wayne Steffen
Associate Director of Publications and Media Relations