What is Psi Chi?

Psi Chi is the National Honors Society in Psychology. It's purpose is as follows:

"Psi Chi is a national honor society whose purpose shall be to encourage, stimulate, and maintain excellence in scholarship of the individual members in all field, particularly in psychology, and to advance the science of psychology."

From a student's point of view, Psi Chi offers scholarships, academic encouragement, and looks great on graduate school applications. And the best part is, once you're inducted, you're in it for a lifetime!

What Kinds of Things Does Psi Chi Do?

Psi Chi hosts a variety of events each year: movie nights, graduate school visits, careers in psychology speakers, graduate school preparation seminars, community service events, and more.

Check out the Upcoming Events in Psychology page to see if anything is scheduled in the near future.

How Do I Get Involved?

So how do you get involved? To become a member of SNU's Psi Chi chapter as an undergraduate, here are the requirements:

• Must be enrolled as a student at SNU
• Must have established a GPA at SNU
• Must be at least a second-semester sophomore
• Must be enrolled as a major or minor in a psychology program or a program psychological in nature that is equivalent to a psychology major (like human relations)
• Must have completed at least 9 hours of psychology at SNU
• Must have an overall GPA that is in the top 35% of your class and an overall GPA of at least 3.00
• Must have a psychology GPA that is at least 3.00

Please note that there are different requirements for becoming a member as a graduate student.

But even if you're not a member, you are welcome at most of our activities!

To find out more information about Psi Chi, check out the national website at psichi.org

Meet the Current Officers of SNU's Chapter of Psi Chi...

President - Holly Rickner

I'm Holly Rickner and I am originally from the small town of Coffeyville, Kansas. I transferred to SNU at the beginning of my junior year in the fall of 2006 and began majoring in psychology at that time. Since beginning to study psychology, I have been flooded with information about some of the most intriguing subjects, which now fuels my ambition to learn more.

At the end of my junior year I was elected President of Psi Chi, which has truly been an honor. In May I will not only be graduating, but getting married. At that time, I plan to gain more field experience while preparing for the application processes for graduate school. I'd like to earn a graduate degree in marriage and family therapy. My long term goal is to work in an orphanage, once I have retired. (I know that is a really LONG term goal).

Vice President - Josh Trautman

The story of me starts the day before Valentine's day, at a suburban Chicago hospital, in the winter of 1986. I came to Southern Nazarene University in the fall of 2004 as an undeclared mass-communications major. This did not last very long, and I came to the department of psychology the following year and have not left it.

My favorite area of study in psychology is the nature and course of addiction. I hope one day to write the definitive study on the addictive property of Lucky Charms. (Think about it, how many people do you know who "have to" have a bowl at every meal?) Also, since psychology tends to be fairly atheistic (think adjective not religious affiliation), I  am fascinated with integration of Christian beliefs into my own understanding of psychology. Thankfully SNU is very supportive of that endeavor.

It's all very exciting I know, try not to get overwhelmed.

(Note from Professor Grant: One of Josh's strengths is his ability to make almost anything funny, as evidenced above.)

I was born and raised in Plano, Texas. I am double majoring in Human Relations (a major that combines psychology, sociology, and speech communications) and Politics and Law. I will be graduating in May 2008. After graduation I plan on attending graduate school at Southern Methodist University (SMU). At this point I still am not sure exactly what field I will be going into. I plan on taking the LSAT, and so I may be attending SMU's Law school.

Secretary - Aubrie Hodson-Bayless

My name is Aubrie Hodson-Bayless. I'm the treasurer for Psi Chi, and a junior psychology student. I have recently married a pre-med/ Bio-chemistry student, who is also here at SNU. Psi Chi is really great, and I've had a lot of fun being in it. The psychology department at SNU is great too, and I would not want to be anywhere else.

I plan on attending graduate school after completing my bachelor’s degree at SNU and getting my masters and my eventually doctorate in either clinical, experimental, or consulting psychology.