SPRINGFIELD – Several Western Massachusetts students attending American International College were recently inducted into the chapter of Psi Chi, the psychology honor society.

The 19 AIC students were sworn in as new members during a ceremony in the Bradley Room. Family, friends and faculty gathered for the event which was held on Dec. 4.

The new Psi Chi members included Brian Chevalier, Maria Correa, Rafael Fernandez, Taniyah Pearson and Christine Pereira, all of Springfield; Francheska Flores Rivera and Amanda Lapite, both of Chicopee; Bethany Hamilton and Stephanie Ormeche, both of Ludlow; and Martine Turgeon, of Monson.

Psi Chi was founded in 1929 to encourage, stimulate and maintain excellence in scholarship, and advance the science of psychology.

Membership is awarded to graduate and undergraduate students who major in or minor in psychology and meet the requirements.

Thomas Barron, director of the master’s degree program in business administration at AIC, was the keynote speaker. Barron told the students there are a lot of career options for psychology majors, especially in the business world. “We need people with critical thinking skills, strong communications skills, and most importantly, listening skills. These are all the things you have learned in the psychology program,” he said.

“The bottom line is that psychology majors know how to work with people.You know what makes people tick, and that’s one of the most important skills needed to be successful in the business world,” he said.

Barron said, “The business world has been very successful in developing methodologies to implement change, but the one thing that we have always struggled with, and the reason most change initiatives fail, relates to the people side of the equation, and ultimately that’s where your skills set comes in.”

Psi Chi is an affiliate of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. There are more than 930 chapters of Psi Chi at colleges and universities throughout the United States.