Augustana University students Helen Ayenew, Micah Hudlet, Kulani Jahrling, Marissa Pacheco and Sara Schmanski were inducted into the Mu Alpha chapter of Pi Delta Phi, the National French Honor Society for US college and university undergraduate and graduate students, on May 9, 2019. Each new initiate read a fable of Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695), the celebrated seventeenth-century poet and fabulist, and member of the Académie Française.
Founded at the University of California, Berkeley in 1906, Pi Delta Phi is the oldest academic honor society for a foreign language in the United States and the highest distinction for university students in the field of French. While there are over 400 chapters nationally and nearly 100,000 members, Augustana has the only chapter of the Society in South Dakota. The Mu Alpha faculty moderator is Dr. Scott Fish.