Earlier this month, Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's most prestigious academic honor society, elected 30 new members from Hobart and William Smith into its Zeta Chapter. Nineteen of this year's inductees are student-athletes.
 
Faculty and staff holding membership to the honor society select students based on their intellectual curiosity, academic breadth, college standing and personal character. Approximately one percent of students graduating from American colleges and universities are invited to join each year.
 
Sixteen seniors and three juniors made up the 19 student-athlete inductees. The Herons were represented by the basketball junior Carly Scott, cross country senior Abigail Cole, field hockey senior Rebecca Mantione and junior Delaney Williams, lacrosse seniors Kate Colvin and Maura Smeader, rowing senior Isabella De Nes, soccer seniors Amina Assefaw and Marissa Mastracco and tennis senior Mia Tetrault. The Statesmen were represented by basketball seniors Carter Meshanic and Hunter Meshanic, football seniors Finn Foley and Ethan Kowalski, lacrosse senior Will Corbett, rowing seniors Brogan Dietsche and Andrew Painton, tennis senior Troy Steiner and volleyball junior Nico Diaz-Aguilar. They join William Smith tennis's Julia Pida, who was honored last year as a junior. Being inducted as a junior is the highest honor the chapter bestows.
 
Founded in 1776, Phi Beta Kappa celebrates academic excellence, intellectual engagement and liberal arts education. Only 10 percent of colleges and universities have chapters of the honors society, whose members have included 17 U.S. presidents, 40 Supreme Court justices and more than 130 Nobel laureates, alongside countless leaders in literature, world affairs, research, the arts and business. Zeta of New York is one of the oldest Phi Beta Kappa chapters in the country and the sixth oldest in New York State. It celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2021.