Coastal Carolina University has officially been approved for the National Collegiate Hispanic Honors Society to recognize Spanish speakers and learned of the language and culture alike.

Sigma Delta Pi’s Alpha Beta Sigma chapter had its first initiation and induction ceremony on Nov. 16 in the Singleton Ballroom.

The Chair of the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies Anna Oldfield personally congratulated the nominees as “being the students who can help us bring Sigma Delta Pi the Hispanic Honor Society, an extremely distinguished honor society to CCU campus.”

Welcoming the Spanish Honor Society has expanded the language program but there are many new efforts CCU has been making to support the department. The new Bachelor in Spanish Education will start in fall 2023. The new bachelor’s program and society will give the Hispanic community an opportunity to grow and be recognized on campus.

Since the opening of the University of California at Berkeley’s Sigma Delta Pi Honor Society on Nov. 14, 1919, the society has encouraged many students around the country to further their studies of the Spanish language and culture of Hispanic nations.

According to the Sigma Delta Pi official website, it is the only honor society dedicated to Spanish-learning students at four-year colleges and Universities as well as the largest foreign-language honor society.

Inductees were given the spotlight for the new chapter. Before the ceremony of lighting the red candle, the attributes and purposes of the society were announced.

Edurne Beltrán de Heredia, introductory speaker of the event and contributor to the opening of the chapter, said it is CCU’s mission “to improve the [Spanish] department advancement and the life in general of the Hispanic community because we do have Hispanic students, faculty and staff members.”