The 45 inductees into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, along with their parents, filled Ahmanson Auditorium at Loyola Marymount University on Nov. 6, 2010, as the university’s chapter grew to about 500.

Keynote speaker Ravi Menghani urged the society members to take an active role in their own development. “Use your networks, use connections you make here through NSCS,” Menghani said. “Find professors, advisers, and counselors [who] have the same drive and desire you have for service, and go out and get it,” he said. 

Menghani recounted his experience setting up health care clinics in Nicaragua and India, telling the students, “Whether you’re helping install plants and flowers in a local community garden, helping the disabled, assisting young kids from broken-down families in reading and being a mentor, or volunteering at a senior center, you are bringing joy, happiness, and doing great service to your community.”

Menghani is a graduate of UCLA's five-year joint M.D./M.B.A. program and the co-founder of two nonprofit organizations, the Alumni Mentorship Program and the UCLA College Bowl Club. He was a recipient of the UCLA Chancellors' Service Award, Charles E. Young Humanitarian Award and the Golden Key International Outstanding Alumni Award, and he has been featured on CBS News.

The invitation-only NSCS, the only honor society that is open to freshmen and sophomores, started on the LMU campus in 2006. The national organization was founded in 1995 by Steven Loflin at George Washington University, in Washington, D.C.

NSCS recognizes underclassmen for academic achievement and offers leadership opportunities, scholarships and group discounts to its members. The NSCS has more than 700,000 members at more than 250 chapters throughout the United States.