The National Collegiate Chinese Honor Society
(Submitted by the Honor Society Committee and approved by the Board in November 2015)
Worksheet (docx) – for faculty sponsors to collect data and keep as a record before submitting the verified application form online.
I. Missions
The National Collegiate Chinese Honor Society, sponsored by the Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA (CLTA), is founded to recognize the outstanding academic achievement of college students in learning Chinese as a second language, to encourage them to continue to study Chinese after they graduate from college, and to promote the study of Chinese language, literature, and culture in the United States.
II. Criteria
To be inducted into the National Collegiate Chinese Honor Society and receive its certificate, students must meet the following qualifications.
Criteria for two-year college students:
- Must be a full-time student who will have successfully completed four semesters or six quarters of Chinese language courses at the college undergraduate level by the end of the academic year of application. Courses that have been placed out are taken into consideration but the applicant must have at least taken one semesters or two quarters of Chinese language courses in college.
- Must have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 on a 4-point scale in Chinese language courses and have an overall cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4-point scale for all college level courses taken.
- Must provide strong evidence of engagement with and commitment to Chinese language and culture through school or community activities.
- Must preserve an excellent record of behavior in and out of school.
Criteria for four-year college students:
- Must be a full-time student who will have successfully completed six semesters or nine quarters of Chinese language courses at the college undergraduate level by the end of the academic year of application. Courses that have been placed out of are taken into consideration with the following restrictions:
- If the institution offers only six semesters or nine quarters of Chinese language courses in total, the applicant must have completed at least two semesters or three quarters of Chinese language courses in college.
- If the institution offers Chinese language courses beyond the sixth semester or ninth quarter, the applicant must continue taking them, until six additional courses are completed or until at least two courses beyond the third year are completed, whichever comes first.
- Must have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 on a 4-point scale in Chinese language courses and have an overall cumulative GPA of 3.0 on a 4-point scale for all college level courses taken.
- Must provide strong evidence of engagement with and commitment to Chinese language and culture through school or community activities.
- Must preserve an excellent record of behavior in and out of school.
III. Membership Application
Students who have met the qualifications specified in Section II must be invited to apply by the faculty member in charge. The faculty member in charge need to get the needed information from each of the candidates if the invitation is accepted and fill in the required information for each candidate online. The deadline for submitting the application form to the CLTA Honor Society Committee is early March each year. The completed application should be submitted electronically as indicated in the application form. The faculty member in charge should also collect $30 USD per candidate to cover processing and evaluation of the application and production of the certificate. The faculty member should make an online payment after submitting the application form on the CLTA website.
Upon receiving the applicant information and the payment, the National Collegiate Chinese Honor Society will verify and approve the application. Certificates for accepted students will be sent to the faculty member in charge, and the name of each accepted student will be listed on the webpage for the National Collegiate Chinese Honor Society on the CLTA website. (Please allow up to four weeks for delivery of the certificates.)
The faculty member in charge should hold a brief induction ceremony to issue the National Collegiate Chinese Honor Society certificates to the accepted students.
IV. Qualification and Responsibility of Faculty Advisor
The faculty member in charge must be a current CLTA member, and a full-time teacher at the college/university where students can be inducted into the National Collegiate Chinese Honor Society. The faculty member in charge must stick to the eligibility/requirements set by the National Collegiate Chinese Honor Society and stated in Section II when inviting students to apply and will be responsible for the entire process, including inviting qualified candidates to apply, submitting the application form, making the application payment, delivering the certificate(s), and conducting the induction ceremony.