Chapter Awards

Centennial Award and Endowment

The Centennial Award Endowment was established in 2001, the year of our chapter’s 100th anniversary. The award recognizes annually an outstanding Vanderbilt senior or seniors chosen from those students elected to Phi Beta Kappa membership in their junior year. The annual Award consists of a cash prize and certificate. Alpha Chapter continues to accept contributions to the endowment to increase the size of the Award.

First-Year Writing Seminar Award

Alpha Chapter awards a cash prize and certificate for a superior essay presented in a First Year Seminar at Vanderbilt each term. Instructors in seminar classes submit the best essays they receive to the Freshman Essay Awards Chair. The current student members of Phi Beta Kappa elected as juniors select the winning essays, and the Awards are presented at the fall meeting and spring initiation.

Tellinghuisen Award

This award is given to an individual or individuals for outstanding accomplishments in undergraduate research at Vanderbilt University. The award consists of a certificate and a cash prize. All graduating seniors elected to Phi Beta Kappa are eligible for nomination by a faculty member. Nominated papers are read and voted upon by the current officers and past president of Vanderbilt’s chapter of PBK. The donor, an alumnus of our chapter, has named the award after Joel Tellinghuisen, Professor of Chemistry (and past Alpha Chapter President), in recognition of the positive impact that Prof. Tellinghuisen had on the donor’s daughter when she was an undergraduate member of Prof. Tellinghuisen’s research team.