Given that this was discussed numerous times throughout last year and a decision was formally adopted, this is a huge oversight. To learn more about Golden Key International Honour Society, visit goldenkey.It's worth noting here that if you are a GSA member and received a letter from the Golden Key, that means that the Dean of Students has refused to abide by a resolution of your council last year to stop releasing grad student information to them. However, if you truly take advantage of what is available locally and internationally, you’ll gain even more.” It’s easy to join and put your membership status on a résumé. “For a prospective member or new member, I would say that membership in Golden Key is what you make it. Within a short period of time, she became a chapter president, an international leader, and has expanded her network exponentially. “She initially joined to put it on her résumé, but I’m sure if you were to ask her now, she would say something different. “In the two days that I interacted with her in Houston, I saw an evolution from observer to fully engaged,” Cole-Avent said. Monique’s work with Golden Key both on campus and nationally has not gone unnoticed. Gail Cole-Avent, the associate vice president for Student Life at CSUSM who serves on Golden Key’s board of directors and has been involved with the organization in different capacities for about 15 years, met Monique at the leadership summit in July and came away impressed. Bring what you’re passionate about, and we can collectively define the role we have in the campus and community.” “Whether it’s your first time in leadership or you have experience, we could use you. “I’m always open to hearing what students would like to see in Golden Key,” she said. She’s orchestrating a membership drive leading up to the induction ceremony in November. But the student membership has lagged in recent years, and Monique has taken it upon herself to build the numbers back up.

The honor society has existed on campus since 2007 and has grown to include dozens of honorary members, including many administrators and faculty. She started at CSUSM in fall 2017 and by the next semester had received an invitation to join Golden Key. Monique herself is a nontraditional student, a mother of five and an Army veteran who has returned to college with the goal of becoming an elementary school teacher (she’s majoring in child and adolescent development and is on track to graduate in fall 2020).

It’s a diverse group, and that has inspired me.” “What I love about Golden Key is that there’s no traditional student.

“I connected with an international community and was able to engage with other people who are academically minded but also are so diverse and have many ideas from around the world,” Monique said. Over three days, she met fellow students from around the world, networked, and participated in a service project through the nonprofit Volunteer Houston. Monique s aw all three in action last summer, when she received a scholarship to attend Golden Key’s 2019 leadership summit in Houston. Membership begins with the recognition of academic excellence, but Golden Key is built on two other pillars that are depicted on its seal: leadership and service. Membership i n the society is by invitation only and applies to the top 15% of sophomores, juniors and seniors, as well as top-performing graduate students in all fields of study, based solely on their academic achievements. It features more than 400 chapters at colleges and universities around the world and more than 2 million members, including honoraries such as Bill Clinton, Desmond Tutu and Elie Wiesel. “ You really have to experience it to get how powerful it is,” Monique said.Īs part of her new national role, Monique represents 35 university and college chapters in Region 8, which includes California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado.įounded in 1977 by a group of undergraduate students and faculty members at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Golden Key now bills itself as the world’s largest collegiate honor society. Now she can hardly imagine her collegiate life without it.Īlready the president of the campus chapter of the honor society, Monique added a second, higher level of leadership when she was elected to the Golden Key Council of Student Leaders in June. Like many college students, Monique Falucho had never heard of the Golden Key International Honour Society when she came to Cal State San Marcos.

Goldenkey honors society