The purpose of Phi Beta Kappa is to recognize and encourage scholarship in the liberal arts and sciences.
Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest, most prestigious scholastic honor society and the first American society to have a Greek-letter name. The first chapter was founded on December 5, 1776, at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The St. Mary’s College of Maryland chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was chartered in 1997.