Iona College Honors Program Newsletter Wins National Award
The Pinnacle, the student-led newsletter of the Iona College Honors Program (ICHP), was awarded 2nd Place in this year’s prestigious National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) newsletter competition.
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - The Pinnacle, the student-led newsletter of the Iona College Honors Program (ICHP), was awarded 2nd Place in this year’s prestigious National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) newsletter competition.
Distributed on campus four times a year, The Pinnacle provides news such as honors student achievements; recaps of program events; features of students and ICHP faculty accomplishments; alumni updates; news of conferences that honors students attended; and other information of interest to the honors community.
“This award means so much to the Iona College Honors Program (ICHP) as it is another testament to the incredible drive and work ethic the ICHP students have,” managing editor Victoria Sanseverino ’20 said. “Our staff has worked tirelessly to give The Pinnacle a complete makeover, and it is gratifying to see all that hard work pay off.”
NCHC is a professional organization designed to support and promote undergraduate honors education. Each year, NCHC hosts a conference where students and educators from various honors programs come together to sit in on presentations, network and learn from one another.
The Iona College Honors Program, directed by Kim Paffenroth, Ph.D., is a highly selective program grounded in a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum and marked by an advanced course of study. Iona honors students commit to going above and beyond the work in the classroom by becoming active members on campus and in the wider community. Iona honors students regularly attend and present original research at regional and national academic conferences. The program also hosts a series of lectures, which brings speakers from other colleges and universities to Iona to supplement in-class work. Honors students participate in the writing, editing and publishing of The Pinnacle, as well as with the student journal Bullitus. Every freshman honors student is paired with a volunteer student mentor who offers advice and support throughout the course of study.
“I am so proud of the effort we’ve put into the Pinnacle that has led us to win this award,” associate editor Nicole Genser ’21 said. “I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside my staff members in striving to continue the success of our newsletter.”
ABOUT IONA
Founded in 1940, Iona University is a master's-granting private, Catholic, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of the Edmund Rice Christian Brothers. Iona's 45-acre New Rochelle campus and 28-acre Bronxville campus are just 20 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. With a total enrollment of nearly 4,000 students and an alumni base of more than 50,000 around the world, Iona is a diverse community of learners and scholars dedicated to academic excellence and the values of justice, peace and service. Iona is highly accredited, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, science and business administration, as well as Master of Arts, Master of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees and numerous advanced certificate programs. Iona students enjoy small class sizes, engaged professors and a wide array of academic programs across the School of Arts & Science; LaPenta School of Business; NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences; and Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Iona is widely recognized in prestigious rankings, including The Princeton Review’s 2025 national list of “The Best 390 Colleges” and The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse’s “2024 Best Colleges in America,” which ranked Iona at #66 in the nation overall and #8 in the nation among Catholic schools. Iona’s LaPenta School of Business is also accredited by AACSB International, a recognition awarded to just six percent of business schools worldwide. In addition, The Princeton Review recognized Iona’s on-campus MBA program as a “Best Business School for 2023.” Iona also offers a fully online MBA program for even greater flexibility. In July 2021, Iona announced the establishment of the NewYork-Presbyterian Iona School of Health Sciences, which is now principally located on Iona’s Bronxville campus in collaboration with NewYork-Presbyterian. Connecting to its Irish heritage, the University also recently announced it is expanding abroad with a new campus in County Mayo, Ireland. A school on the rise, Iona officially changed its status from College to University on July 1, 2022, reflecting the growth of its academic programs and the prestige of an Iona education.