Pi Sigma Alpha
PI SIGMA ALPHA IS THE POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDENT GROUP AT MACALESTER, AND IS ACTIVE IN HOSTING SPEAKERS AND ORGANIZING OTHER EVENTS.
Pi Sigma Alpha at Macalester is an award-winning organization led by students, for students!
PSA hosts speakers and organizes events throughout the academic year. Recent guest speakers include:
Tonderai Chikuhwa, Chief of Staff for the Office of the UN Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict;
Hwa Jeong Kim, Saint Paul City Council Representative;
Valerie Plame, Former CIA Agent and Nuclear Expert
Elizabeth Shackelford, Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Pi Sigma Alpha also hosts career panels, election-related events, field trips, and a full-day annual conference focused on student research.
2024-25 PI SIGMA ALPHA LEADERSHIP TEAM
- Olivia Johnson (‘25)
- Matthew Kiernan (‘25)
- Audrey Lester (‘26)
- Paul Nguyen (‘26)
- Shweta Shankar (‘26)
- Mihailo Vucetic (‘27)
- Claire Kuno (‘27)
You can email the leadership team at: [email protected]
You can also find information about PSA events on Instagram @macpolisci
If you are interested in becoming part of the PSA leadership team, there is an application process each spring for the following academic year.
The National Organization
Macalester’s chapter, the Delta Chi chapter of PSA, is one of 500 chapters of the honor society created in 1920 by the American Political Science Association.
Each spring, Political Science majors who (a) have junior or senior status; (b) have a 3.2 overall GPA and a 3.5 GPA in Political Science; and (c) have completed four Political Science courses including three at the intermediate level or above, are invited to become members of the national honor society.
As members of the National Honor Society, students are eligible to present research papers at the National Student Research Conference held in Washington, DC each February.
In 2025, five students were selected to present their research papers at the national conference: Putri Cahyudi (‘25), Georgia Barnes (‘25), Alexis Prathammanon (‘25), Matthew Kiernan (‘25) and Amanda Nogueira Moreira de Souza (‘25).
Members can also submit their research papers to the Pi Sigma Alpha Undergraduate Journal of Politics.
For more information on the national organization, see: