Alpha Upsilon Alpha

American honor society for language arts

Alpha Upsilon Alpha (or ΑΥΑ) is an academic honor society recognizing excellence in reading and language arts at the undergraduate and graduate level. Founded in 1985, it is governed by the International Literacy Association (ILA)

The mission of the society is to "recognize and encourage scholarship, the development of personal and professional leadership, and service to the field of reading" among its chapters.

There are five different categories of membership in Alpha Upsilon Alpha: Undergraduate, graduate, faculty, professional, and honorary. To be an undergraduate member, an applicant must have finished 5 semesters or 76 credit hours of undergraduate work and be in the top 25% of their class. This would typically put all undergraduate applicants at the third year level; however, students at two year community colleges, such as West Virginia University Parkersburg, are able to join. Applicants must also be recommended by a professor in the field of reading or language arts after completing at least one course in that area. To be a graduate member, applicants must major in reading or language arts, be recommended by faculty, finish at least 9 credit hours, and carry a 3.5 GPA or higher after completing at least half of their graduate coursework. To be a faculty member, applicants need to be significantly active (or have been) in reading or language arts as an academic subject and either have 1) a doctoral degree or 2) met the graduate level membership GPA requirement during their Master's work. Professional members, such as elementary and secondary school teachers must be voted upon by the chapter they are seeking to join and also meet the requirements for the highest of the above categories that would apply to them. Honorary members can be selected by the individual chapters upon voting. All applicants, regardless of level, must be members of the IRA.

Like many honor societies, it selected its name based on significance attached to particulars letters of the Greek alphabet. The first Α stands for Anagnosis, meaning "reading"; the Υ stands for Upotrophia, meaning "scholarship"; and the second Α stands for Archon, meaning "leadership." Alpha Upsilon Alpha's motto is the Horace quote "Lege sapere aude," which translates as "Read, dare to be wise."