Mission College Gets New Honors Chapter

Mission College students have received approval to open a new chapter of the statewide Alpha Gamma Sigma honor society.

Only one other college in the nine-campus Los Angeles Community College District has an Alpha Gamma Sigma chapter, said a spokesman for Alpha Gamma Sigma, a statewide community college honor society. That chapter is at Pierce College.

Leach B. Cross, president of Mission’s new honor society, and Mission Student Body President Daniel Cardenas said the new honors program is a huge stride toward gaining respect of the local and the academic communities, and will lead to the establishment of honors courses at the school.

“The school will start producing a higher caliber of graduate,” Cross said. “Not only will honors graduates be able to better service the communities they come from, but they are very likely to transfer to [four-year] universities” and to continue to pursue higher education, he said.

Cross, 30, of Sylmar, saw the need for an honor society after reviewing college transfer applications for schools such as Pepperdine, USC and UCLA.

“Those applications have a box to check, to say whether you were in AGS [the honor society],” Cross said. “And if you are, you’re eligible to apply for scholarships” at those schools, he said.

To qualify for honor society membership, students must maintain a grade point average of 3.0 or better for their first semester. To stay in, they must maintain a GPA of 3.5 over the course of 60 units. Students who take only 12 units per semester may retain membership with a 3.25 GPA or better for two consecutive semesters.

Members also are required to perform 12 to 15 hours of community service each semester.

At graduation, students who meet all honor society qualifications are entitled to wear a gold sash and a gold tassel on their mortarboards.