Melissa Royal Earns $6,000 Phi Eta Sigma Scholarship

June 2, 2014

Georgia Southern University honors student Melissa Royal has received a $6,000 scholarship from Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society, making her the fifth consecutive student in Georgia Southern’s local chapter to be awarded the scholarship since 2010. Royal, a senior, is the president of Georgia Southern’s Phi Eta Sigma chapter and she was named Miss Georgia Southern University on Feb. 15. A Southern Leader, Royal was selected based upon her leadership as a Peer Facilitator with the First-Year Experience (FYE) Eagle Incentive Program (EIP), as well as her outstanding academic achievement and campus involvement. A native of Acworth, Georgia, Royal is a Spanish and international trade major. “Melissa is one of the most focused students with whom I’ve worked in my more than 20 years in higher education,” said Chris Caplinger, director of the First-Year Experience program. “She has a strong sense of what her goals are and how she can best achieve them, yet she’s also open to advice and direction. She’s an excellent representative of Georgia Southern University and Phi Eta Sigma.” Phi Eta Sigma is a national freshman honor society, with membership in the campus chapter open to students who earn a 3.6 GPA or higher in their first year of college. In February, 415 first-year students were inducted into the campus chapter, pushing the membership to 1,457 undergraduates in spring 2014. Phi Eta Sigma members are actively involved in community service in the Statesboro area, as well as activities to promote the success of first-year students. They work as student leaders in the “Conversations with Professors” program in which students brand new to the college classroom meet with a faculty member the day before classes begin to ask any questions and to find out what is expected of them academically. In addition to Royal, fellow Phi Eta Sigma member Keenya Riggins, a junior majoring in chemistry and pre-pharmacy, was also awarded a scholarship from the national honor society in the amount of $1,000.