The Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va., has bestowed the Superior Merit Award designation to Peace College's SHRM student chapter for an exceptional job of providing opportunities for growth and development to its chapter members.

This is the sixth consecutive year that Peace's SHRM student chapter has won the award.

SHRM is the world's largest association devoted to human resource management. Representing more than 250,000 professional and student members in over 140 countries, the Society serves the needs of HR professionals and advances the interests of the HR profession. Founded in 1948, SHRM has more than 575 affiliated professional chapters and more than 450 student chapters within the United States as well as subsidiary offices in China and India. 

"SHRM is proud to recognize our Superior Merit and Merit Award winning student chapters. They have demonstrated leadership through their proven ability to serve the networking and educational needs of human resources students and to the advancement of the human resources profession," said Chuck Salvetti, SHRM's student programs manager.  

More than 100 SHRM-affiliated student chapters participated in this year's national merit award program. Chapters have the opportunity to earn an award based on the number of activities they complete during the merit award cycle, which ran from April 1, 2009, to March 31, 2010. For the 2009-2010 Merit Award period, 90 chapters received a Superior Merit Award designation, 20 chapters achieved Merit Award status, and 2 chapters received the Honorable Mention designation.

The SHRM student chapter merit award program, which began in 1972, exists to develop more effective student chapters, and to promote outstanding activities and projects by student chapters in four areas: basic student chapter requirements, chapter programming and professional development of members, support of the human resource profession, and partnership with SHRM.

Peace College's SHRM student chapter receives a specialized plaque, and will be recognized in SHRM's publications and at its conferences.

Students in Peace's HR program have come to regularly dominate the North Carolina annual SHRM "HR Games" competition. A Peace team has won the state "HR Games" championship in each of the last four years. A Peace team has won either first or second place in the competition in seven of the last eight years.

Peace College is a four-year baccalaureate arts and sciences college that offers a challenging program of study that provides women strong intellectual and personal foundations upon which to build successful and meaningful professional and academic careers. Peace's educational program consistently earns the college rankings in the top 10 percent in several categories of the National Survey of Student Engagement.

Learn more about Peace College at www.peace.edu.

For more information about SHRM's Student Chapter Merit Award program, visit http://www.shrm.org/Communities/StudentPrograms/Pages/awards.aspx.

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