The Konosioni Senior Honor Society is one of the most impres­sive student organizations at Colgate University. In overview, Kono­sioni is composed of 26 seniors – 13 male and 13 female (because this is Colgate, after all), who are peer-selected by the current Kono­sioni members after applying in the spring of their junior years. They are then inducted that same semester and embark on their mission of “preserving Colgate’s many traditions and bettering the Hamil­ton community through service,” as the Student Life section of the Colgate website so aptly states. These students meet once a week throughout their two semesters in the organization to achieve their mission. This carefully selected group generates a unique theme for the society for their term, which influences the service and initiative of the group for that time.

The service this organization does truly is amazing. The Konosioni Hon­or Society does many things in the spirit of “preserving Colgate’s many traditions and bettering the Ham­ilton community,” but the group’s main focus during the Spring semes­ter is allocating the Konosioni Grants to charities that are compatible with the current theme of the Konosioni Senior Honor Society. The process of allocating grants to charities starts with the Spring Charity Auction, at which Konosioni auctions off items to members of the Colgate and Ham­ilton communities to raise money ultimately given to various charities. The next step for Konosioni is choos­ing charities relevant to their theme of choice and inviting them to apply for grant money. Finally, Konosioni chooses the best of the charity applications and al­locates money to each according to the amount of money raised at the Charity Auction.

The Class of 2012 Konosioni Society allocated grants to chari­ties relevant to their chosen theme of Nutrition and Wellness. They passed their final grant decisions on December 6, 2011. Because of a successful Charity Auction in the spring of 2011, the society had $25,340 to dole out to organizations including the Mary Rose Center (a free health clinic), Emma’s House (a shelter for women in crisis) and Utica Safe Schools Healthy Partnership, Inc. (involved with the Community Health and Wellness Fair). As it is now the spring of 2012, a new group of extraordinary students will soon assume the positions held for just a short while longer by 26 se­niors. The current members of the Konosioni Senior Honor Soci­ety are Terica Adams, Sarah Branz, Giovanna Brunetto, Kathryn David, Devin Desir, Kelly Dwyer, Brett Ekberg, Sonya Falcone, Kevin Gordon, Charles Hartwick, Christine Heffernan, Jane Huang, Erin Leon, Casey Macaulay, Samantha Myers, Ryan Nelson, Makenna Osborn, Ca­den Polk, Ruchira Rajan, Bharadwaj Obula Reddy, Alex Restrepo, Ellie Schmidt, Fatima Sowe, Peter Stein, Lindsay Strand and Mitchell Wax­man. Soon to hand off their seats in this society, these seniors will graduate shortly with the accomplishment of having been a member of such a pres­tigious and honorable organization, and what they have achieved this year is truly admirable.

Contact Claire Aziz at

[email protected].