Until 1981, community college students lacked an honor society designed to enrich their interest and knowledge of psychology. In 1981, Ruth Cousins and her daughter, Carol Tracy, launched Psi Betaopens in new window. Today, four decades later, Psi Beta chapters are active at over 160 community college campuses. Just over 49,500 community college students have become lifetime members since 1981. Since its beginning, Psi Beta's primary mission has been to encourage and recognize students for their leadership, scholarship, service, and research.
Faculty advisers are Psi Beta's lifeblood. Without a faculty adviser, a community college psychology department cannot host a Psi Beta chapter; and its students cannot participate in and benefit from Psi Beta's educational enrichment. Thankfully, over 400 teachers of psychology are chapter advisers who have come forward to mentor Psi Beta honor students each semester. In addition to the satisfaction of working with high-achieving honor students, advisers have access to many activities and programs that enrich and complement classroom learning. For example, individual chapters often conduct service projects, engage in research, attend and participate in professional psychology conferences, and showcase excellent guest speakers. In addition, chapters and members compete for Psi Beta's national awards. Communicating chapter activities and successes are a perfect way to promote the department's value to the college and the college's value to the community.
For many teachers, chapter advising has been their pathway to further involvement in psychology's professional organizations. Very briefly, here is my story. I chartered Irvine Valley College's Psi Beta chapter in 1992. I instantly entered a network having dozens of other psychology teachers from around the state. Psi Beta's Western Regional Vice President, Ann Ewing, encouraged me to attend the Western Psychological Association's regional conference and bring along students. Since then, my department's teachers and I have escorted Psi Beta students to WPA each year. Our students present research posters, see talks given by professors engaged in cutting-edge research, and network with students and professors from other colleges and universities. After a few years as an advisor, I was elected to Psi Beta's national board and began attending APA's annual conference and participating in national summits and workgroups organized by APA's Education Directorate. Thanks to the Education Directorate, I have had the opportunity to contribute to the discipline and to the teaching of psychology. Looking back, starting and advising a Psi Beta chapter was a career-transforming choice I will never regret. Happy Birthday, Psi Beta.
If you teach at a community college with a Psi Beta chapter, please contact me for information and assistance. Psi Beta also helps teachers launch new chapters and restart inactive chapters.
Jerry Rudmann has served as Psi Beta's executive director since 2005 and has taught psychology at Irvine Valley College (California) for four decades. Jerry has served on many of the working groups sponsored by the Board of Educational Affairs (BEA) and the APA Committee on Associate and Baccalaureate Education. He is currently serving on the BEA Task Force on Psychology Major Competencies to revise the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major.
