Zeta Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society Collection

Phi Beta Kappa is an academic honor society to which top academic performers at a given school are admitted in recognition of “intellectual capacities well-employed, especially in the acquiring of an education in the liberal arts and sciences.” The society, America’s first and oldest Greek letter organization, was founded in Williamsburg, VA at William & Mary College on December 5, 1776, initially as literary and debate club. Although at first operating in the fashion of a modern-day fraternity, over time the majority of Phi Beta Kappa chapters took on the form of an honor society, only meeting two or three times a year for dinner in order to conduct elections and initiate new members. Inductees to their school’s Phi Beta Kapp chapter a receive a square, silver key medallion engraved with the organizations Greek letters, three stars in the top left corner, and a pointing finger. The pointing finger and three-star design symbolizes the ambition of young scholars and the three distinguishing principles of the society—friendship, morality, and learning.