Many students discover the benefits of attending a liberal arts institution when participating in various student organizations.

These clubs sometimes pertain to a particular major which gives students additional opportunity to engage in the subject area they are interested in.

They have the enriching option to surround themselves with like-minded individuals with the same driven ambitions and aspirations as them.

Gustavus Adolphus College has a variety of honor societies in subjects such as Physics, Biology, and Spanish.

Sigma Tau Delta is the honorsociety for English majors, a chapter of a national society prominent throughout the United States.

The Gustavus Phi Rho chapter and has been in place since 1982.

The purpose of this organization is to provide English majors with beneficial opportunities such as scholarships and internships.

Students also have access to reputable journals that focus on engaging in scholarly and creative works.

This chapter makes sure to connect students to these types of resources while also trying to reach out to the Gustavus community.

This year, in particular, the organization is doing its best to make a greater presence around campus.

“As an organization, Sigma Tau Delta hasn’t done much in the past in terms of community service, so we’re trying to change that atmosphere and culture surrounding our organization to make it seem like you can have scholarship and community service be in the same type of group,” Megan Johnson, Senior Sigma Tau Delta historian said.

This past Wednesday, Nov. 28 and Thursday, Nov. 29, Sigma Tau Delta hosted their first ever book drive, Booksgiving.

They tabled outside of the caf in order to collect new or old books for all ages that are eventually going to be donated to the charity, Books for Africa.

The organization accepts books of all ages in popular fiction and nonfiction, including children’s books.

They prefer to take books that have been published in the last fifteen years to maintain relevance in literature.

They also take informational textbooks and school supplies.

After all the materials were collected, the books and materials will be sent to African schools.

“There’s nothing wrong with sending books to Africa, like if we have extra books that the Book Mark certainly will not give us money for, we might as well give them to people that might need it,” Johnson said.

Even if people were unable to donate books during this time, the group has considered adding a donation box in both Anderson and Convic in the upcoming week, so people who didn’t have a chance to contribute can still do so.

Because this was the first time Sigma Tau Delta organized this event, they did not have a specific goal for how many books to collect.

The board members wanted to implement a service project, so members could find something else in the organization and the Gustavus community.

They believe collecting and donating books is a way to foster the growth of literacy for less fortunate individuals outside of the college.

This will be the way intelligent individuals are making a difference in the world.

“There’s nothing wrong with sending books to Africa, like if we have extra books that the Book Mark certainly will not give us money for, we might as well give them to people that might need it.” – Megan Johnson

“As an honor society representing Gustavus English majors, we believe that it is important to uphold the Gustavus pillar of Service, especially in ways that promote learning and literacy,” Junior Thomas Sullivan, Co-President of Sigma Tau Delta, said.

One of the ways Sigma Tau Delta tried to promote the Booksgiving was by creating colorful posters.

They also emailed various faculty members in the English department, and managed to get it put on the Gustavus email alias to spread the word.

During tabling, people were welcome to asking questions about their organization and the details of the book drive.

Along with Booksgiving, Sigma Tau Delta aims to promote itself by organizing additional events throughout the school year.

They will be hosting a Courtyard Cafe event on Monday, Dec. 11 at 7 p.m.

This event will consist of faculty members and students who will read literature they appreciate, and share their personal scholarly work.

“Our new mission statement is: To promote interest and knowledge of literature, theater, and the fine arts for the members of the society, all English majors and minors, and the greater Gustavus campus. We have a lot of good people, and I have confidence that Sigma Tau Delta will continue to grow in the next few years,” Senior Gretchen Seewald Secretary of Sigma Tau Delta, said.