Alpha Xi Sigma, the Phi Theta Kappa chapter at Hudson Valley Community College, has been working on several projects throughout the semester. The projects completed by our chapter this semester aim to achieve the goals of Phi Theta Kappa; scholarship, leadership, service, and fellowship.
Phi Theta Kappa is an international honor society for community colleges. Being inducted into this honor society is a recognition of a student’s hard work and determination to excel while furthering their education.
This semester 374 Hudson Valley students were eligible to join. Of the 374 eligible students, 50 have become members so far this semester. Currently, our chapter has a total of 227 members.
Our chapter began working on our ideas of how to improve the community on campus and grow our chapter prior to the start of the semester. Several of our officers and our advisors attended a Phi Theta Kappa regional conference at Westchester Community College where we learned about how to develop and implement a college project on our own college campuses. Throughout the semester, we devised a plan to realize an email campaign project.
The email campaign’s main goal was to inform students about the importance of checking their school email, so they do not miss information. Our chapter’s officers and advisor met with President Roger Ramsammy and Ronalyn Wilson, assistant vice president of Academic Affairs, to discuss the plans of our project and ways in which we can improve our chapter. We also met with the college’s marketing department to discuss our ideas and create a plan to reach all students on campus. The email campaign was underway in December. We set up tables in different locations where we helped students download the Outlook and Blackboard apps.
College Completion Day was another project our chapter participated in this semester. The event is intended to motivate students to achieve their academic goals and ultimately increase the graduation rate. Gayle Healy, director of the Center for Careers and Transfer, met with our officers to discuss ideas about the event. Students signed a banner at the event signifying their commitment to completing their degree. Through this event, we are hoping to inspire students to strive to become Phi Theta Kappa members and to achieve their goal of attaining an associate’s degree.
Our chapter also participated in one of the NY Regional Officers initiatives. The initiative was the fundraiser for sponsorship for PTK membership of incarcerated students. This fundraiser was a partnership between Mohawk Valley Community College and Marcy Correctional Facility. Bake sales were set up to raise money to give the eligible students at the correctional facility the opportunity to become Phi Theta Kappa members. Every $60 raised covered one Phi Theta Kappa membership fee. As a result of these efforts, our chapter donated $437.05 to this regional initiative.
Another fundraising project followed the bake sales. Our chapter sold pies with all proceeds going to the Hudson Valley Community College Foundation. We teamed up with the local bakery Bella Napoli, which provided pies for the fundraiser at a reduced cost. Raising money for the Foundation was an important cause for our Phi Theta Kappa chapter as the Foundation’s goal is to create opportunities for students and support the colleges educational goals.
All the accomplishments achieved by our Phi Theta Kappa chapter this semester were made possible with the help of our members and our advisors. Our chapter advisor, Christine Smith, has helped immensely in ensuring the success of these projects. We also welcomed a new chapter advisor this semester, Lamyaa Hassib. The chapter would like to recognize President Ramsammy, Ronalyn Wilson, the marketing department, Gayle Healy, and student activities, for facilitating our chapter’s organization of these projects.
Authors: Jessica Kirker, PTK vice president for public relations, and Omsalama Ayoub, PTK vice president for scholarship and transfer.
Published: Fri, 20 Dec 2019 13:15:03 +0000 by c.smith2