MONMOUTH, Ill. — Monmouth College associate professor of English Marlo Belschner was one of five national recipients of Alpha Lambda Delta’s Advisor of the Year Awards.

Founded in 1924, Alpha Lambda Delta is the national honor society for first-year college students, and Monmouth has had a chapter since 1956. Students are candidates for initiation if they maintain a GPA of 3.5 or higher and are in the top 20 percent of their class during their first semester of higher education.

"The high-achieving students of Alpha Lambda Delta have been incredibly active and enthusiastic about the organization and its goals, and I’ve been pleased to provide guidance as they have needed it," said Belschner.

Her award letter praised Monmouth’s initiation rate of 90 percent of eligible students since Belschner became the advisor in 2004.

"Your enthusiasm must be contagious," praised Alpha Lambda Delta’s executive director, Glenda Earwood. "The Monmouth ALD chapter is incredibly active and shows its desire to further its involvement with Alpha Lambda Delta by entering the Order of the Torch (competition) this year."

This is not the first award at Monmouth for Belschner, who joined the Monmouth faculty in 2002 after teaching at St. Cloud State University. Last year, she received a Hatch Academic Excellence Award for distinguished service.

Belschner earned her bachelor’s degree at St. Cloud State in 1991 and her master’s degree and Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in 1994 and 2001, respectively.