Alpha Lambda Delta is the academic honors society at Stockton that freshman students can join after their first semester. In order to be eligible for the honor society they must meet a 3.5 minimum GPA requirement and pay a $50 membership fee. Benefits of joining include scholarship and leadership opportunities as well as it just looking really good on your resume. The induction itself took place on February 19, 2016 at 5 pm at the Campus Center event room. There would be an induction portion and then an honorary dinner.

Inductees were supposed to wear business casual attire. This is where I went wrong. I had the most major wardrobe malfunction and ended up wearing a camo baseball cap, a tshirt, leggings and running shoes. I was mortified when I saw my classmates dressed in the gorgeous and professional outfits, the men wearing suits and dress shirts, girls in dresses skirts and heels. To say the least, I felt like an elephant. Granted, I showed up to the dinner still frantic from rushing to hand in my TALONS application so I did not have the opportunity to change because I am a commuter. I remember sitting at the table and everyone saying it’s okay, that they’re not judging me. But I was judging me. Even reassurance from Dr. Rosner, the faculty advisor of the honor society and the head of the honors program, didn’t erase my uneasiness. Thankfully, I have awesome friends who rushed me a change of clothes so I could feel less out of place.

Moving on to the actual ceremony, the induction featured a few speakers including Dr. Rosner and the President of the university, Harvey Kesselman. Then came calling everyone’s name. Since there were so many inductees, what happened was when your name was called you stood up. All applause was meant to be saved until the end. It was actually really funny, hearing the speaker either butcher or eloquently say the person’s name and then looking around the large room for a body to pop up. Although the honor society is incredibly selective, I felt proud to see so many of us that were being inducted. The name calling took an extensive amount of time, especially since the dinnertime food was glaring at us from the other side of the room. Slowly but surely, however, every name was called and person was standing. There was a huge round of applause and the inductees were directed to pick up their certificates and get food.

So all in all, please learn from my mistake and dress to impress. Even if you don’t, people will not judge you because everyone is so nice… but you will feel out of place. Work hard and make sure to get the 3.5 GPA your freshman semester so you can be part of such a wonderful national honor society such as Alpha Lambda Delta.