Students entered the Communications honor society in a May 12 ceremony.
Fifty new members were inducted into the Elon University School of Communications chapter of Lambda Pi Eta at a May 12 ceremony in Lakeside.
Adviser and communications associate department chair Frances Ward-Johnson introduced chapter president Alex Zubak and her fellow officers Baron Smith, Kara Malone, Kendall Quinn and Grace Martin. They led all new LPE students through the induction ritual. Of the 50 who were inducted, 34 were on hand for the ceremony.
Keynote speaker Jessica Gisclair, an associate professor in the School of Communications and department chair of communications, implored students to study and understand the different ways in which leadership manifests itself. And she detailed her own development as a leader within the School of Communications.
“Now that I’ve had four years of leadership as chair, I have a better idea of what leadership looks like,” Gisclair said. “It looks like a puzzle with thousands of pieces that you must keep searching for and adding to in order to complete the picture. Sometimes pieces go missing and you can spend months looking for those pieces.
“One priceless lesson I can take to all my future leadership roles is that leadership is not about you. It is about everyone else. In my career, that means every student, parent, faculty or staff member. Every administrator. Every alumnus. Every person who walks into my office on any given day. My leadership is about them. They are the pieces to my puzzle. Your leadership will be about others, too.”
At the end of the ceremony, the new LPE officers were announced. Ciara’ Dixon will become president, and Daniel Sheehan will serve as vice president. Emily Hines was named administrative coordinator, Victoria Selover and Isabel Sackner-Bernstein will be the scholarship chairs, and Emily Drago will serve as event coordinator.
Senior strategic communications major Rebecca Rubin was named the winner of the Senior Scholarship Award. For the last year, Rubin has served as president of Elon’s chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America and director of branding and communications at Live Oak Communications. Last summer she worked as a brand planning intern at Arnold Worldwide, an advertising agency headquartered in Boston.
The Elon chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, an organization affiliated with the National Communication Association, got its start in 1998. Any School of Communications student is eligible for membership when he or she has completed at least 60 hours of university credit, with at least 12 of those hours in the School of Communications. Members must possess no less than a 3.0 overall GPA, and a GPA of at least 3.25 in the School of Communications.
In December, the National Communication Association named Elon’s chapter of Lambda Pi Eta the national Chapter of the Year and Ward-Johnson the Adviser of the Year.
The new inductees are:
Caroline Batten Arnold
Natalie Deirdre Beach
Isabel Sackner-Bernstein
Katherine Emma Blunt
Julia Eleanor Boyd
Mary Kathleen Brogan
Frank Campisano
Meghan Cracchiolo Caraway
Margaret Elizabeth Curran
Ciara’Angelique Dixon
Emily Margaret Drago
Rebecca Christine Evans
Matherly Abigayle Gainer
Ryan Kathleen Greene
Brett Thomas Gubitosi
Eric Ross Halperin
Kathleen Elizabeth Harper
Emily N. Hines
Victoria Elise Howlett
Patterson Anna Huggins
Rebecca Anne Hurd
Emily Ione Jagielo
Elizabeth Claire Kelly
Emma Kathryn Kwiatkowski
Anjelique Kyriakos
Matthew Coleman Lee
Catherine Victoria LeSourd
Amanda Kristen Limoges
Chelsea Elizabeth Lindsay
Benjamin Massoud
Madison Ann Margeson
Claire Elizabeth Mauro
Michelle Lynne Maxwell
Theresa C. McCurdy
Madeline Denis Monaco
Marisa Helen Moody
Sarah Elizabeth Mulligan
Katherine Anne Murphy
Kaitlyn Marie Osborne
Katelyn Elizabeth Pullman
Victoria Duncan Selover
Daniel John Sheehan
Jonathan Taylor Smith
Zora Ayesha-Burrell Stephenson
Benjamin Andrew Stringfellow
Aaron Vaughn Vreeland
Kyrstin McKenzie Wallach
Tony Weaver Jr.
Meghan Catherine Windle
Tara Renee Wirth