Friday, March 24, 2017

When Phi Beta Kappa secretary Susan Siggelakis was reviewing student files to determine eligibility in the spring of 2016, she became confused when she saw the file of Sameer Singh Panesar, a political science major and chemistry minor. "I am sure we inducted him last year," she thought. It was only when she delved into the prior year’s files that she discovered that, indeed, a S. Singh Panesar had been initiated into PBK in 2015. But this was Sumer Singh Panesar, a biomedical science major with a minor in business. After checking student identification numbers and making a few phone calls, she realized that not only were these two different students but also cousins. Over the years, our chapter has been lucky in being able to initiate cousins, like the Panesars, but also siblings, including a set of twins. One day soon we hope to initiate a child or grandchild of one of our members, making PBK membership truly a multigenerational affair.