The Golden Key chapter at Baruch College, the City University of New York was recently named a Key Chapter recipient for the 2012-2013 academic year. The Baruch College chapter participated in over 25 service, leadership and academic events during this period. One event, the “Saints vs. Sinners”, named best collaborative event by Baruch’s Undergraduate Student Government, is a fundraising event for Relay for Life. Amidst planning for the event, the chapter overcame several obstacles- the lack of available rooms and the looming semester’s end required the chapter to efficiently plan and raise funds for the event. The Golden Key chapter also formed a close relationship with the organization they collaborated with, creating a strong bond between the two.
The Baruch College Golden Key chapter also hosted their bi-yearly, entrepreneurial panel series “Be Your Own Boss: The Food Truck Edition”. The chapter was inspired to use food trucks due to their growing popularity in New York City. In light of this, they featured some of New York City’s most popular food trucks. Originally planned for the last week of October, the Baruch College chapter had to postpone the event due to Hurricane Sandy, which was the second-costliest hurricane in history and the most destructive hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. Held one month later, they successfully held the event and had a turnout of 150 people. One of the food truck that participated significantly improved after the event, and the event itself was nominated for “Best Professional Event” by the Undergraduate Student Government at Baruch College.
Congratulations to the Baruch College chapter on their continued success!

According to reports, each of the 25,000 applicants who took the entrance exam for the University of Liberia failed. In fact there was not a single student who scored above a 50 percent on the exam. The requirements to pass are 50 percent on the mathematics section of the exam and 70 percent on the English section. This information has since been confirmed by the British Broadcasting Company.
Although the West African country has been in a peaceful state for the past decade, many say that the education system still has not recovered from their lengthy civil war. A big part of this is due to professionals, such as teachers, fleeing the country during the time of unrest. Now there are several rumors floating around. Some believe that the exams were doctored because the university does not have the capacity to accept new students. Lee Walkie, a senior at the University of Liberia, said, “Last year, seven thousand people passed the entrance exam and they were only able to admit about half that number. They don’t have the capacity to admit more people.” The university has responded claiming that the 2013 admission standards have changed substantially from the previous year. They have also hired a private contractor to oversee testing and grading in order to ensure that there was no cheating or partiality in the testing process.
Amidst all of the conspiracy theories, the University of Liberia has announced that they will be adjusting the acceptance requirements so that a portion of the test takers would be admitted. In total the university plans on admitting 1,626 undergraduate candidates, but now the skepticism has turned from the university admissions to the educational system as a whole. This event has proven that Liberia’s education system clearly has not met the new standards held by the university, which illustrates the weaknesses in the Liberian school system. Could there be ‘dirty play’ involved in the exam scandal, or is it possible that the higher education system simply set too high of a standard for its students?

The second Golden Key chapter that we would like to recognize for their hard work and dedication to service is the University of Memphis chapter. A Gold chapter standing for the past four years, the University of Memphis chapter had 11 chapter events between the end of June, 2012 and the beginning of December, 2012, and they topped off the academic year with seven more events, most of which were service events.
Of the many service activities that The University of Memphis chapter has been participated in, several have involved the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home, a non-profit organization that provides residential care to children who have been involved in family crises.
In June, they set up a play date at the Children’s Museum of Memphis in which they interacted with the children by hosting educational games that ranged from learning about astronomy to fire safety. The University of Memphis chapter also hosted an event with the residents of the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home at AutoZone Park, which is the home of Memphis’ minor league baseball team. Prior to the game, the Golden Key members invited a family member to attend, and they treated the children to lunch to make it a family-oriented event. The chapter also had a very successful Make A Difference Day event in which they spent the day cleaning up a city park in the morning and the afternoon volunteering at the Memphis Zoo for Zoo Boo. The park cleanup consisted of removing tree limbs, cleaning up debris, cutting down overgrown shrubbery, removing weeds and cleaning the gazebo area. While at the zoo, Golden Key members helped in the supervision of the children while on the train that travels throughout the zoo, as well as on the haystack ride that night.
Congratulations to the University of Memphis chapter on being named a 2013 Key Chapter! You went above and beyond, and we wish you best in the upcoming academic year!