Benedictine College installs new Mortar Board chapter in Atchison

Benedictine College gave Atchison a new academic milestone when it installed its Semper Porro chapter of Mortar Board on Friday, April 10, bringing a national honor society for scholarship, leadership and service onto campus.

The inaugural class included 28 students and three honorary members: President Stephen Minnis, Provost and Dean Dr. Kimberly Shankman, and Dr. Andrew Swafford. Another 27 Benedictine students were selected through the society’s traditional tapping ritual, a public campus recognition that marks students who have earned membership through sustained achievement.

The chapter’s name, Semper Porro, is Latin for Always Forward, a phrase that fits Benedictine’s emphasis on momentum in academics and student formation. At a college that regularly highlights Benedictine values, the new chapter gives those values a visible national platform and a formal place for students who have excelled beyond the classroom.

Mortar Board is not simply a résumé line. The society describes membership as a lifelong distinction built around scholarship, leadership and service, and says its chapters are meant to create space where students and faculty learn, grow and help each other. For Benedictine, that matters because the chapter can turn recognition into action through mentoring, service projects and peer encouragement that reach beyond graduation day.

That national network is large. Mortar Board was founded in 1918 in Syracuse, New York, and became coeducational in 1975. Today it lists 236 chartered chapters across 45 states, placing Benedictine’s new chapter within an established system of selective academic recognition rather than as an isolated campus tradition.

The honorary-member list also underscored the college’s institutional continuity. Minnis, a Benedictine alumnus from the Class of 1982, has served as president since 2004. His inclusion ties the chapter to the college’s leadership history as Benedictine continues to link academic achievement with long-term service to the school and its students.

That connection also fits with the role of the Benedictine College Student Success Center, which supports academic achievement, personal success and professional aspirations through advising, tutoring, study-skills help and time-management support. In that setting, Mortar Board adds another layer of accountability and recognition for students already pushing toward academic excellence.

The question now is how much the new chapter will translate its standing into visible service in Atchison. Mortar Board’s mission points toward leadership development and civic contribution, and Benedictine’s new Semper Porro chapter gives students a structure to turn honors into work that can extend beyond campus.