PHILADELPHIA  (March 25, 2010) -- Saint Joseph’s University’s Erivan K. Haub School of Business’ (HSB) collegiate chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS) has been selected as the Gold Chapter Award winner for 2010. The student chapter competed against 486 collegiate chapters around the globe. Beta Gamma Sigma will present Saint Joseph’s with this prestigious award at its annual conference in Anaheim, Calif. on April 15.

BGS is the honor society for AACSB International – the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The mission of the society is to encourage and honor academic achievement in the study of business and to foster personal and professional excellence among its members.

As recipients of the Gold Chapter Award, Saint Joseph’s is eligible to award a $1,500 BGS scholarship to a student member in the 2010-2011 academic year.

“This is an honor that reflects on the entire HSB team - students, faculty, staff and administration,” said HSB Dean Joseph DiAngelo, Ed.D. ’70.

The award-winning chapter will induct 85 new members on Sunday, April 11, during a ceremony in Mandeville Hall’s Wolfington Teletorium at 12:30 p.m. SJU’s chapter president Stephen Porth, Ph.D., associate dean of HSB, is proud of the group’s achievement.

“This award is particularly gratifying as it recognizes academic excellence in our undergraduate and graduate academic programs as well as in our chapter activities,” he said. “To have the number one BGS chapter in the world is an achievement that won’t be lost on the new student inductees next month.”

Lifetime membership in Beta Gamma Sigma is the highest achievement available to business students anywhere in the world, and is extended to the upper 7 percent of juniors, the top 10 percent of seniors, and the upper 20 percent of graduate students. The Haub School has been recognized twice as a Silver Award Chapter recipient and as a Bronze Award recipient in the last several years.

The largest Jesuit undergraduate business school in the country, the Haub School is an international AACSB-accredited institution in business and accounting offering programs at the bachelor's, master's and executive master's levels. Both the undergraduate and graduate programs are included in the U.S.News & World Report “America’s Best Colleges” 2010 edition. The school was recently named one of the nation's top business schools in the Princeton Review's “The Best 301 Business Schools” and was recently recognized by Beta Gamma Sigma, the honor society for AACSB-accredited institutions, with the Gold Chapter Award.