La Salle Professor Susan Borkowski Named the Nation’s Top Faculty Advisor for Business Honor Society Chapters

La Salle University Professor Susan Borkowski is used to the accolades that the University’s chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS), the international business honor society, receives. Since 2001, it has been named a top five national chapter seven times. This time, Borkowski was shocked to learn she was named the Outstanding Chapter Advisor.

 “It was a total surprise. I didn’t even know I was nominated,” said Borkowski, who was selected from nearly 500 faculty advisors. 

“They wanted me to accept the award at a luncheon in Orlando, so I got to take my daughter to Disney World. It was a lot of fun,” said Borkowski, who has been the chapter’s sole advisor since 1996.

“I love doing it because I like working with students. I always tell the dean that I will be on any committee for the students,” said Borkowski, a professor of accounting. “To be able to do things for students, to see them get rewarded for their hard work, that’s why I do it.”

Borkowski credits the success of the chapter to the support it receives from Paul Brazina, Dean of La Salle’s School of Business, who nominated her for the award, along with faculty and alumni who stress the benefits of membership in BGS. “The fact that alumni stay active through an ethics seminar and the yearly Banker’s Day, where students network and receive mock interviews, is another reason for the success of the chapter, says Borkowski.

Since 2,000, the chapter has regularly inducted more than 90 percent of the eligible students, but this year the chapter reached 100 percent participation.

“In our first year, we got 76 percent and in our second we got 71. We were depressed with that. We didn’t know that if you get 70 percent or more, that’s good according to national standards,” said Borkowski. Such a high acceptance rate opens up La Salle to be part of the matching scholarship program in which exemplary juniors receive a scholarship from Beta Gamma Sigma and have it matched by La Salle for a total of $1,000, and to travel to a leadership forum for business students.