By Hope Vang
On November 13, 2024, the University of California, Irvine’s Mu chapter of Phi Beta Kappa celebrated its fourth annual Phi Beta Kappa Book Awards. The chapter’s Book Awards program celebrates the accomplishments of high-achieving sophomores who have “attained a 4.0 GPA in 36 units of graded coursework during their first year at UCI,” as explained on the chapter website. In addition to being honored at the ceremony, sophomores receive a bookplate designed by the ΦBK office’s media team. Originally, the bookplate used the 1776 parchment from the Declaration of Independence to create a connection with the founding of ΦBK and the United States. Now, a simpler parchment design is used that includes the awardee’s name, the UCI chapter’s founding dates, the date of the ceremony, and signatures from Chancellor Howard Gilman (ΦBK, University of California, Los Angeles) and the current Mu chapter president. This year’s awards ceremony also included a 50th-anniversary commemoration book to connect students to ΦBK’s history at UC Irvine and showcase the legacy that they are a part of.
Rose Jones, the director of UC Irvine’s ΦBK chapter, explains the significance of this award to the Irvine ΦBK community. “The award was created by Jonathan Fung, a distinguished professor in physics and astronomy and the former ΦBK chapter president,” she said. Fung’s celebration at Harvard University’s Book Awards remains one of the most memorable and meaningful moments in his early academic career. “One of the accomplishments of his presidency was bring the Book Awards to Irvine,” said Jones.
When the Book Awards first began at UC Irvine, there were only 15 awarded students, but four years later, more than 100 students accepted the award and attended the ceremony. By recognizing these rising sophomores for their academic rigor and passion for the humanities and sciences, UC Irvine hopes that they will be interested in continuing their hard work in order to be inducted into the Society in their junior or senior years. “We make sure to let them know our awardees are not members of ΦBK, but there is a greater propensity when they know about this organization to continue to do well and strive for breadth in the liberal arts and sciences,” said Jones. Outreach and community are core foundations to UC Irvine’s ΦBK chapter. Events, such as their Book Awards ceremony and their annual visiting scholar events in April, give UCI the advantage of creating intentional opportunities to bring awareness about Phi Beta Kappa as an academic honor and as a community.
Gabriella Amini, who became a ΦBK member at UC Irvine in 2024, attended this year’s Book Awards ceremony as an audience member to celebrate her friend. “My old resident reached out to me because she knew I was in Phi Beta Kappa when I was her Resident Advisor,” said Amini. “When she got the email, she wanted to know about the significance of ΦBK and if it was worth going to the event.” Amini emphasized the importance of community to draw awareness to this award. “Not many people know about ΦBK, so inductee acceptances can easily be ignored, especially by first-generation students.” As a first-generation student herself, she would also have ignored her invitation if it were not for her friends. Amini recounted that the Book Awards ceremony was a great way to recognize academic excellence for undergraduate students who just finished their first year. “We are such a huge campus, and there are so little opportunities to get recognized on a huge scale,” said Amini. “It is a great way to get the word out there from ΦBK and keep students motivated in their later years.”
UC Irvine plans to keep the tradition going and is looking forward to celebrating their fifth Phi Beta Kappa Book Awards this fall.
Hope Vang graduated from the University of California, Irvine in June 2023 with a B.A. in English, a B.A. in comparative literature, and a minor in creative writing. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa by UCI’s Mu of California chapter during her senior year. This fall, she will be a second-year master’s student in English literature at Fresno State University.
Photo at top courtesy of UCI’s Phi Beta Kappa Book Awards Ceremony.