Morgan Lamb
News editor
mlamb9@jccc.edu
For students considering getting involved with the community and college while performing at a high academic level, the honors society Phi Theta Kappa is a promising opportunity. The society has an induction ceremony coming up on April 19 at 6:30 p.m. in the Craig Auditorium.
The Phi Theta Kappa chapter at the college currently has around 600 members and is always looking for more students to join. After completing 12 credit hours at the college with a 3.5 GPA, qualifying students will be sent an email with an invitation to join.
Adjunct Professor and Phi Theta Kappa Adviser Lindsey Welsch said the honors society is just for community colleges and provides a chance for numerous scholarships.
“Phi Theta Kappa has a large scholarship base with both transfer scholarships and scholarships for when the member is at the community college,” Welsch said. “There’s about $90 million worth of scholarships through Phi Theta Kappa and although there is an induction fee of $85, students usually get that money back and more through scholarships.”
Student Elly Atay has been a member for two semesters and has already seen benefits of being involved in Phi Theta Kappa.
“There are so many scholarship opportunities, it’s great for your resume and a good opportunity to network,” Atay said. “Recently I got to travel to KU for a Phi Theta Kappa recognition and I learned a lot about their honors program while meeting others that want to get into IT networking after college too.”
President of Phi Theta Kappa Victoria Baldridge said that the chapter does a lot of volunteer work that, last semester, included packaging and donating over 2,000 meals to the college food pantry and local Harvesters, but members can be as active as they want.
“The interesting thing about Phi Theta Kappa is that you can be as active as you want to be,” Baldridge said. “Members will join and never come to a meeting or be officially inducted, but are still part of Phi Theta Kappa, and that is perfectly fine. I recommend everyone to join even if it’s just for the scholarships.”
The induction ceremony is scheduled to take place on April 19 and will include a guest speaker. Every member being inducted will be individually called down to receive a certificate and a rose. Following the ceremony will be food and beverages and a time for members to socialize and meet the new inductees. To learn more about the society, visit www.PTK.org