Description
Mortar Board, Inc. is a national honor society that recognizes college seniors for distinguished ability and achievement in scholarship, leadership, and service. Members raise funds for the annual STRIVE scholarship, which stands for Seeking To Recognize Individual Visions of Excellence. This scholarship is awarded each spring to local Kearny High School seniors who exemplify the Mortar Board ideals of scholarship, leadership, and service. Through donating you help support local high school students pursue their future academic goals; in addition, you will receive a cookbook which holds previous and current chapter members' most beloved secret family recipes. Thank you for your support!
Donations are applied to...
These funds are raised for the annual STRIVE scholarship, which stands for Seeking To Recognize Individual Visions of Excellence. This scholarship is awarded each spring to local Kearny High School seniors who exemplify the Mortar Board ideals of scholarship, leadership, and service. This year we hope to raise enough funds for at least two $500 scholarships. We want to encourage more local students to pursue their future academic goals.
Personal Message
Mortar Board was founded in 1918 as the first and only national honor society for college senior women. In 1975, the members voted to include men in the organization. Today there are 231 collegiate chapters with more than a quarter of a million initiates.
The Alcalá Senior Honor Society chapter of Mortar Board was installed on the USD campus on October 22, 2000. The personalized mission statement for the University of San Diego Mortar Board Chapter reads as follows: “Scholars who Enjoy Rewarding Volunteerism and Involvement in the Community through Educational leadership.” (SERVICE) This idea has remained the underlying philosophy guiding our members since our inception in 2000.
While is it an honor to be selected for membership in Mortar Board, it is the commitment to continue to serve that differentiates an honor society from an honorary. Accepting membership means accepting the responsibility and obligation to be an active participant in chapter activities. This commitment is an agreement to support actively the ideals of the society.
The purpose of Mortar Board is best stated in the preamble of the organization’s constitution:
“To facilitate cooperation among senior honor societies, to contribute to the self-awareness of its members, to promote equal opportunities among all peoples, to emphasize the advancement of the status of women, to support the ideas of the university, to advance a spirit of scholarship, to recognize and encourage leadership, to provide service, and to establish the opportunity for meaningful exchange of ideas as individuals and as a group.”
Why are donations necessary?
Your donations are an integral part of funding the Mortar Board STRIVE scholarships which we award to local students at Kearny High School, located just 5 minutes from USD. The students are selected based on their exemplification of Mortar Board's values of scholarship, leadership, and service. Your contribution is more valuable now than ever since we are aiming to provide as much financial support as we can to students. Our chapter believes we can play an important role in supporting our local community to empower these students to pursue their educational goals and dreams as scholars and leaders through service.