The Golden Key International Honour Society (formerly Golden Key National Honor Society) is an international collegiate honor society and non-profit organization based in the United States. It was founded in 1977 to recognize academic achievement among college and university students.

Golden Key has over 400 chapters at colleges and universities in Australia, The Bahamas, Canada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States. It has initiated more than 2.1 million members.

History

Golden Key National Honour Society was founded by James W. Lewis at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia in 1977. The original intent of the society was to create a new academic honor organization that was the equal of longstanding honor societies such as Phi Beta Kappa, but which did not carry the same perceived elitism of older institutions, operating more strictly on merit standards (by accepting students in the top fifteen percent of their college classes and permitting part-time and transfer students who excelled academically).

Lewis, who by the late 1990s was making more than $300,000 as chairman of the organization, stepped down in January 2000 after being pressured by his board. By 2002, the society was "one of the largest collegiate honor societies in the world", with an annual budget of US$10.9 million and over 120,000 inductees annually. In 2012, the society had 393 active chapters, 82,415 active members, and 2,106,099 total initiates.

Golden Key's main office is in Dunwoody, Georgia, with regional offices in Sydney, Australia, and Pretoria, South Africa. It manages approximately 400 campus chapters worldwide. Its honor stole is a gold satin sash embroidered with a Golden Key logo in blue. The Gold Key medallion is gold colored and hangs from a ribbon that is royal blue and gold. Membership is by invitation and is offered to students in any academic field who are in the top fifteen percent of their class and have a GPA of 3.75 or better. The society also awards honorary memberships to non-students who are impactful or noteworthy leaders on campus and in the university's community.

Activities

In its early years, Golden Key anticipated volunteerism drives on college campuses by organizing community service efforts, such as working in soup kitchens, reading to children at libraries, and doing tax preparation help for low-income and immigrant populations.

  • 1977 – United States of America
  • 1993 – Australia
  • 1997 – Canada
  • 1998 – Malaysia
  • 1999 – New Zealand
  • 2000 – South Africa
  • 2010 – The Bahamas
  • 2011 – India

Notable members

Collegiate members

  • Carlos Alvarado-Larroucau, author
  • Anthony E. Clark, historian
  • Michelle Deshong, indigenous Australian equality activist
  • Neil Druckmann, video game designer
  • Souzan El-Eid (1985), surgical oncologist
  • Elaine, R&B singer
  • Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of the City University of New York
  • Gilbert Hegemier, professor emeritus of structural engineering at the University of California, San Diego
  • Staci Keanan, attorney and actress
  • Allison Kreiger, model and former Miss Florida
  • Kára McCullough, Miss USA 2017
  • Joe Nathan, professional baseball player
  • Norman Robinson, television news reporter
  • Field Ruwe, journalist and author
  • Kate Steinberg, internet personality and television personality
  • Leila Takayama, associate professor of Human–computer interaction at the University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Quincy Tan, singer-songwriter

Honorary members

  • Philip E. Austin (1998), economist and 13th president of the University of Connecticut
  • Dean L. Bresciani (2010), 14th president of North Dakota State University
  • Susannah Carr, television news presenter
  • Bill Clinton, President of the United States
  • Bill Cosby, comedian and actor
  • Elizabeth Dole, United States Senate, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and president of the American Red Cross
  • Peter J. Fos (2013), first president and sixth chief executive of the University of New Orleans
  • Stephen King, author
  • Kliff Kingsbury, professional football player and college football coach
  • Helene Marsh (2002), dean of graduate research studies and the professor of environmental science at James Cook University
  • Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa
  • Nomzamo Mbatha, actress
  • Zareef Minty, South African politician and television personality
  • Christopher Mott, College Football Hall of Fame and lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles
  • Dolly Parton, country musician
  • Luc Vinet, physicist and mathematician
  • Elie Wiesel, author, political activist, professor at Boston University, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Ubyssey obtained the organization's IRS filings for 1997 and noted "Golden Key spent just $289,461 (US dollars) on scholarships, less than 5 percent of their total expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1997." but a later report indicated that spending on member events and scholarships in 2014 was less than $200,000. A 2016 investigation by Australian student newspaper Honi Soit found that Golden Key continued to release data about students, without their consent, to corporate sponsors.

Some students reported to student newspaper investigators that they were unsure of the society's benefits or did not find the society's networking opportunities worth the cost of membership.