Carnegie Mellon University

pbk cmu

May 24, 2018

Phi Beta Kappa Society Honors More Than 50 Seniors

By Stefanie Johndrow

Fifty-four seniors were inducted into Carnegie Mellon University’s chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society (PBK) this spring. Only about 10 percent of college students across the United States are invited to join PBK. 

PBK Secretary and CEO Frederick M. Lawrence delivered the keynote speech.

“You, I hope, will be a part of a mission that we trace back a quarter of a millennium, to be part of the advocacy for the arts and humanities, to be a champion for free speech and academic freedom,” Lawrence said. “That is the radical idea the founders committed themselves to 241 years ago. And now, 500,000 members, 17 presidents, 40 Supreme Court Justices, 130 Nobel Prize laureates later, you take your place with them. You are most welcome in this society of ours.”

Dietrich College seniors Maria Navarro-Gutierrez and Mikaela Wolf-Sorokin, who were inducted into PBK in fall 2017, gave a joint speech on their time at CMU and the community around PBK. 

“Phi Beta Kappa has long embodied the values of liberal education, intellectual fellowship and the importance of understanding the cultural and political side of issues,” said Navarro-Gutierrez, who graduated with a degree in global studies and additional majors in professional writing and Hispanic Studies. “Since it’s inception, Phi Beta Kappa members have fought for the freedom of expression and debate.”

Wolf-Sorokin, who graduated with a degree in global studies and an additional major Hispanic Studies, said, “As members of Phi Beta Kappa, you are now entitled to wear the Phi Beta Kappa key, which holds the society’s motto, ‘Love of learning is the guide for life,’ “Learning does not happen in a vacuum. You are all now a part of a community that not only chases knowledge, but does so in the context of friendship and morality.”

Spring 2018 Students Initiated into Phi Beta Kappa: 

Alyssa Aburachis, Neuroscience
Additional Majors: French and Francophone Studies; Psychology

Ian Asenjo, Global Studies
Additional Major: Ethics, History & Public Policy
Minor: Politics and Public Policy 

Anthony Bello, Business Administration
Minor: International Relations and Politics 

Apoorva Bhagwat, Computer Science
Minor: Mathematical Sciences

Isabel Bleimeister, Neuroscience
Minor: Biomedical Engineering 

Can Bostanci, Computer Science

Ziheng Cai, Physics
Minor: Mathematical Sciences 

Olivia Cannizzaro, Mathematical Sciences 

Julia Carter, Biological Sciences
Minor: Biomedical Engineering 

Nathalie Chen, Biological Sciences

Sandy Chen, Policy and Management
Additional Major: Psychology

Sophia Cheng, Business Administration
Additional Major: Decision Science

Yikun Chi, Decision Science
Additional Major: Statistics and Machine Learning
Minor: Mathematical Sciences

Sarah Cook, Biological Sciences

Eric Coolbaugh, Business Administration
Additional Major: Economics

Anthony Didonato, Behavioral Economics, Policy & Organizations, Music Performance

Zachary Ettensohn, Decision Science
Additional Major: Ethics, History & Public Policy

Amy Fan, Business Administration
Additional Major: Statistics 

William Ganucheau, Computer Science
Minor: Robotics

Joseph Garvey, Biological Sciences
Minors: Biomedical Engineering, Music

Rachel Gomez, Global Studies
Minors: Hispanic Studies, Decision Science

Daniel Gratzer, Computer Science
Minor: Mathematical Sciences

Devin Gund, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Additional Major: International Relations and Politics

Nikita Gupta, Business Administration
Additional Major: Statistics

Aisha Han, Economics and Musicology
Additional Major: International Relations and Politics 

DeeDee Han, Computer Science
Additional Major: French and Francophone Studies 

Kathryn Hanson, Chemistry

Kimberly Hochstedler, Statistics
Additional Major: Psychology 

Jenna Houston, Gender Studies and Art 

Yeongwoo Hwang, Computer Science
Minor: Mathematical Sciences 

Menglan Ji, Computer Science
Minor: Chemistry

Rebecca Kern, Information Systems

Christine Lee, Computer Science
Minor: Japanese Studies

Rachel McKinney, Psychology
Minor: Cognitive Neuroscience

Lauren Montgomery, Decision Science
Additional Majors: Linguistics, Statistics

Aline Naroditsky, Business Administration
Additional Major: Decision Science

Sriharini Pingali, Computer Science
Additional Major: Linguistics

Madeline Quasebarth, Anthropology, Art

Zachary Singer, Mathematical Sciences
Minor: Computer Science

Emily Stewart, Global Studies and Musicology

Gowri Sunder, Psychology, Art

Colin Tait, Ethics, History & Public Policy, Music Performance
Minors: Arabic Studies, International Relations and Politics

Caoxin Tang, Chemistry

Theodore Teichman, Neurobiology, Music Composition

Spenser Tejada, Chemistry, Music Performance 

Ashley Wang, Business Administration 

Jianyuan Wang, Business Administration

Sijie Wei, Computational Finance
Additional Major: Statistics and Machine Learning
Minor: Computer Science

Noa Wolff-Fineout, Neuroscience
Minor: French and Francophone Studies, Biological Sciences

Grace Wong, Global Systems, Management and Art
Additional Major: Human Computer Interaction 

Jiayin Xie, Computer Science, Music Performance

Andrew Ye, Physics

Fan Zhang, Computer Science
Minors: Film and Media Studies, French and Francophone Studies 

Hanyuan Zhu, Business Administration
Additional Major: Statistics

View photos from the ceremony.