USM Gulf Park Students Earn Recognition at Sigma Tau Delta Convention

Four University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park students won honorable mention recognition for their presentation at the Sigma Tau Delta International Convention held last month in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Aaron Davenport, Jennifer Ladner, Jessica Carrell and Jada Clark – all English majors – exhibited their work in the Outstanding Chapter Display category. The students made a three-dimensional trifold highlighting chapter activities amid the backdrop of the renowned Friendship Oak on the Gulf Park campus in Long Beach.

The USM Gulf Coast chapter of Sigma Tau Delta captured one of three Outstanding Chapter Awards for 2016-17 and was subsequently invited to create a chapter display at the 2018 convention.

As part of the chapter display:

• Davenport, of Diamondhead, Miss., read his poetry collection “Facial Lining.” 
• Ladner, of Pass Christian, Miss., presented her personal memoir “Admission.”
• Carrell, of Biloxi, Miss., presented her scholarly essay “Adjudicating Rape in Chaucer's ‘Wife of Bath's Tale.' ” 
• Clark, of Gautier, Miss., presented her scholarly essay “African American Identity in Toni Morrison's Jazz.”

The USM Gulf Coast chapter of Sigma Tau Delta has approximately 20 members and is celebrating its 10th anniversary at Gulf Park this year.

Sigma Tau Delta is an international collegiate honor society for students of English at four-year colleges and universities who are within the top 30 percent of their class and have a 3.5 GPA. It presently has more than 850 chapters in the United States and abroad. The organization inducts over 9,000 new members annually, and is the largest honors organization in its field and one of the largest members of the Association of College Honor Societies.