Leah Simmonds Receives 2025 Phi Kappa Phi Love of Learning Award (09/26/25)

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Love of Learning Award supports post-baccalaureate professional development for active Phi Kappa Phi members, funding opportunities such as graduate or professional studies, doctoral dissertations, continuing education, research and teaching-related travel, career advancement and more.
• Leah Simmonds, the director of alumni career programs and a first-year doctoral student in the inaugural Ed.D. cohort at Winthrop University, will use funds from the award to offset the expense of technology and professional organization membership.

ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA - Leah Simmonds was recently awarded a Love of Learning Award worth $1,000 from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Simmonds is one of 155 recipients to receive the award.

The Love of Learning Award supports post-baccalaureate professional development for active Phi Kappa Phi members, funding opportunities such as graduate or professional studies, doctoral dissertations, continuing education, research and teaching-related travel, career advancement and more.

Simmonds, the director of alumni career programs and a first-year doctoral student in the inaugural Ed.D. cohort at Winthrop University, will use funds from the award to offset the expense of technology and professional organization membership.

Simmonds was initiated into Phi Kappa Phi in 2023 at Winthrop.

Established in 2007, the Love of Learning program distributes 155 awards annually. Recipients are selected based on academic excellence, service to campus and community, clarity of career goals and the potential impact of award funding.

Since 1932, Phi Kappa Phi's award programs have recognized members and students on its chapter campuses for outstanding academic achievement. In addition to the Love of Learning Program, Phi Kappa Phi awards graduate and dissertation fellowships, study abroad grants, and grants for local, national and international literacy initiatives. Each year more than $1 million is awarded through programs that recognize nearly 400 individuals annually.

For the full list of 2025 recipients, visit https://www.phikappaphi.org/2025LoL. To learn more about all of Phi Kappa Phi's award programs, visit https://www.phikappaphi.org/awards.

Founded in 1897, Phi Kappa Phi is the nation's oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Phi Kappa Phi inducts approximately 20,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni annually. The Society has chapters on more than 300 select colleges and universities in the United States, its territories and the Philippines. Membership is by invitation only to the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students and 7.5 percent of juniors. Faculty, professional staff and alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction also qualify. The Society's mission is to "cultivate a community that celebrates and advances the love of learning."

For more information, contact Alyssa Papa, director of communications, at [email protected] or at 225/923-7777.