(Photo provided by: Psi Beta Honor Society)

Movie nights, book clubs, prison tours, psychology, oh my! What on campus could offer all of these mismatched things? The Psi Beta Honor Society is the answer to that. Beginning last semester, students interested in psychology were given the opportunity to join Psi Beta, which is a psychology honor society made for two-year colleges. Psi Beta opens doors for many exclusive scholarships and gives students a direct path to joining the four-year psychology honor society, Psi Chi.

“You can join through JCCC, and then there’s a $55 one-time lifetime membership fee that you pay to be part of the national organization,” Cindy Cerrentano, the faculty advisor for Psi Beta, said.

The requirements list for Psi Beta is short, and only requires students to have passed Introduction to Psychology with a B or higher, have completed at least 12 credit hours, and have a minimum of a 3.25 GPA. Cerrentano doesn’t like the exclusivity of Psi Beta.

“We’re not going to refuse anyone, but…. you have to meet the criteria to be a member of the national organization,” Cerrentano said. “We are also trying to start just a general psych club…. Once we get the psych club up and running, that will be a better fit for the people that don’t necessarily meet the Psi Beta requirements.”

Cerrentano said they hope to see about two meetings a month, along with activities here and there, like non-operational prison tours, asylum tours, the St. Joe Glore museum and more.

“We want to bring in guest speakers, volunteering, service projects, study tip presentations,” Cerrentano said.

Psi Beta has had three meetings so far this semester. Parker Limanek, the president of the club, hopes to see more people attending in the future.

“The first meeting was pretty fun. We just kind of got a general inquiry of what they’re interested in,” Limanek said. “I hope to be able to talk more with people about psychology. Maybe we could figure out how to get some research done, and it seems like we’re all very [interested in] books here, so we’re going to be doing like a book club thing.”

The next meeting will be a movie night on April 29 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will be an Induction Ceremony on May 1 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. for students who are joining the honor society.

“It’s cool to be around people [who] like some of the things that you like,” Limanek said.

To stay up to date with meeting dates and times, visit the JCCC Get Involved page.