The Hispanic Honor Society won an outstanding chapter national award for the third consecutive year.
Sigma Delta Pi recently named ACU’s chapter an outstanding chapter based on the work it’s done done during the year to honor Spanish language and culture.
The National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society members have collaborated with many departments and organizations on campus, including the ACU Speech Clinic, the Texas Parent/Teacher Association and Hispanos Unidos for Entra a la Plaza, to help translate and tutor students. The honor society also published ACU’s first Spanish journal, Hispaniola, last year.
“This nationwide recognition brings honor to the Department of Language and Literature and to the University,” said Beatriz Walker, associate professor of Spanish and advisor for Sigma Delta Pi. “The award is significant because we are compared with much larger universities, because we have won several times and mainly because it shows that our Spanish program is solid, preparing students who can use their second language in real life situations.”
The national award recognizes the group’s active involvement as leaders in school and community, and it also means that they have succeeded in contributing and encouraging the studies of Spanish and promoting the language, said Sigma Delta Pi vice president Anai Reyes.
“We hope to get more members for next year as well as promote our club and offer our services to our community and school, but our number one goal is to encourage and promote the study of the Spanish language,” said Reyes, senior political science and global studies major from San Diego, California.
For the past five years, Sigma Delta Pi has helped deepen the members’ love for the Spanish language and will only continue to do so, Reyes said.
“Learning a foreign language is not a choice in today’s global economy, it is a necessity,” Walker said. “I am proud to be a part of our students’ academic preparation. And of course, as adviser for Sigma Delta Pi I am especially proud of the work our Honor students have done since we opened our Chapter in 2010.”