The award honors chapters that have excelled in five major areas: communication, publicity, meeting management, chapter activities and leadership, as well as regional and international participation.

“We really have worked hard, we’ve done a lot of projects and we’ve added a lot more,” Golden Key President Alana Garrett said.

The University of Alabama has exceeded chapter standards for two consecutive years and was host to the 2001 Southern Regional Conference in Tuscaloosa this year. Members actively participated in Make a Difference Day and the Tuscaloosa Head Start Project, conducted a can drive for the Lupus Foundation and collected hundreds of bears for the Bears to the Rescue program.

“The award gives us an incentive to set higher goals for our organization,” Garrett, a senior from Athens, said.

Delegates from The University of Alabama chapter accepted the award at the convention’s awards banquet in front of 1,300 delegates from around the world. Lynn Hamric, administrative secretary in the department of mechanical engineering in the UA College of Engineering, serves as adviser to the local chapter.

Golden Key is a nonprofit, international academic honors organization that provides academic recognition, leadership opportunities, community service, career networking and scholarships. The society has more than 300 chapters across the United States, Australia, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Membership into the Society is by invitation only to the top 15 percent of juniors and seniors in all fields of study.