The UAB chapter of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) opens a new website, an international accounting, finance and information systems honor society, has been named a 2021 Gold Chapter. The prestigious honor was bestowed during the organization's recent virtual Annual Meeting.
The designation is awarded to only 10 chapters each year. UAB's Delta Chi Chapter of BAP joins the top 5% of all BAP chapters to receive the award and will receive $2,500 from the international organization.
To be eligible for the 2021 award, chapters must have received a Superior Chapter designation for the 2020 and 2021 school years, have participated in a regional meeting and participate in the 2021 virtual Annual Meeting. To apply for the award, each chapter produced a five-minute video demonstrating why their chapter deserved the award or why a student would choose to join the BAP organization.
As part of UAB's submission, the chapter illustrated its expanded offerings for chapter members, including a wellness event and mental health check-ins.
"The COVID-19 pandemic impacted each student differently," said Mursilat Saquib, UAB BAP vice president of membership. "We wanted to provide our members individualized support. For that, our peer mentorship program was expanded to provide wellbeing check-ins."
In response to the pandemic, the chapter moved in-person chapter meetings online, allowing more engagement from chapter members and business professionals within the community.
Beta Alpha Psi featured accounting professionals with a "day in the life of" on its Instagram takeover.
"When we went virtual, we saw an opportunity to make our chapter more inclusive and broaden our community outreach," said Stephen Clark, UAB BAP vice president of service. "This allowed us to include nontraditional candidates that previously were not able to participate."
UAB's BAP chapter also created monthly alumni newsletters and featured accounting professionals on its social media through weekly Instagram takeovers that showed a "day in the life" of a business professional.
"To achieve this honor in the year of the pandemic when nothing was business as usual is a remarkable testimony to the quality and standards of our students," said accounting instructor Eddie Nabors, who serves as faculty advisor for the chapter. "It would have been very easy to use the pandemic to have an off year, but our students saw it as a challenge and opportunity to do something that no other previous chapters had done."
The 2021 Gold Chapter designation marks the second time the UAB Delta Chi Chapter has received the award. The chapter previously was named Gold Chapter in 2019.
To learn more about UAB Beta Alpha Psi, please contact Eddie Nabors at
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