Beta Gamma Sigma honor society wins Silver Chapter Award

Rutgers Business School-New Brunswick received Beta Gamma Sigma’s Silver Outstanding Chapter Award for 2018, marking the second year in a row that students have earned one of the international honor society’s top awards.

Beta Gamma Sigma, an international business honor society, recognizes its outstanding chapters annually at the gold, silver, bronze and honorable mention levels.

Rutgers Business School-New Brunswick was chosen to receive the Silver Award from more than 580 chapters around the world. In 2017, the chapter won the honor society’s Gold Award. 

“Winning the Silver Chapter Award is the culmination of our chapter’s community service initiatives and academic excellence activities,” said Helen Pensavalle of the student services staff at Rutgers Business School-New Brunswick. “The Beta Gamma Sigma board members are the driving force of this honor society along with a large number of very dedicated and focused members.”

The 2018 award provides a $1,250 Beta Gamma Sigma scholarship for the chapter to give to an outstanding student. The award was presented to Amanda Maher, a marketing student with a 3.92 GPA who is the chapter's new community service director. Maher has played a key role in starting and organizing the Rutgers Cares Food Drive.

Monica Sung, a graduating senior who has served as the chapter president at Rutgers, said a lot of effort has gone into restructuring the chapter and growing it during the past few years. “We’re super happy with the success of organization.”

Sung acknowledged that belonging to Beta Gamma Sigma brings a certain amount of prestige, but the chapter also provides members with meaningful and rewarding activities, including tutoring, mentoring and community service projects.

“It’s a way for students who are at the top of their game to do even more,” she said.

Pensavalle said this year, 60 Beta Gamma Sigma members volunteered to be mentors. When twice as many freshmen and transfer students signed up to be mentees, some of the members took on more than one to mentor.

“They met in person at least twice per semester and continually provided a lifeline for questions, issues and advice,” she said.

The Beta Gamma Sigma also assisted in organizing a 5K run to help bring awareness to mental illness after a fellow Rutgers Business School student reached out to them for help with the event. The chapter’s members also collected 252.5 pounds of donations to help stock a newly opened food pantry serving Rutgers students.

-Susan Todd