Randolph Community College's Phi Theta Kappa officers Terry Parrish, Wendy Welch, and Kelly Nguyen recently attended the 2009 Carolina Regional Convention in Rock Hill, S.C., and brought home six plaques for various honors earned by the local chapter, Beta Theta Rho.
Phi Theta Kappa is the only internationally acclaimed honor society serving two-year institutions that offer associate degree programs. It is the largest academic honor society in the world with approximately 90,000 members inducted annually.
Beta Theta Rho once again earned its Five Star Level award, which encourages excellence and recognizes progress in the attainment of goals set by the chapter. The Five Star Chapter Development Program is designed to assist chapters in better organizing their projects and initiatives starting with the basic elements of running a chapter in Level One to becoming competitive in Phi Theta Kappa programming in Level Five.
The RCC chapter received the Carolina Superstar 2009 Award for successfully completing six requirements that included Five-Star Chapter development, participating in the International Pinnacle Challenge, enrolling as a PTK Chapter of Service, donating to a PTK scholarship program, submitting an article for the Carolinas Region newsletter, and attending at least four regional or international PTK events.
Beta Theta Rho received an Award of Excellence under the 2009 Carolinas Four Clover Challenge "Keeping the Carolinas Green," which involved activities that helped educate or raise awareness to improve the environment in the community and beyond. Chapter members distributed and posted flyers around the RCC campus and the community advertising a recycling campaign for electronics such as computers, cell phones and televisions; organized a newspaper recycling campaign collecting over 20,000 pounds of newspapers and conducted two book drives for Better World Books that netted over 900 books for Africa that otherwise would have gone to a landfill; worked with RCC facilities and maintenance staffs on a campus beautification project; and distributed informational flyers and coloring books discouraging littering.
The RCC group was also awarded a Certificate of Excellence in recognition of Distinguished Achievements in Regional Programs and the Phi Theta Kappa Carolinas Region 2009 Best Use of Honors Topic plaque. Chapter President Terry Parrish submitted an essay on how Beta Theta Rho’s projects fit into the Honors topic, "The Paradox of Affluence: Choices, Challenge and Consequences." The Chapter received a $50 scholarship for winning this award, which will be used to help send chapter members to PTK events.
Waymon Martin, one of the advisors for RCC's group, also received an award, the PTK Carolinas Region 2009 Distinguished Advisor award. Martin is a business administration instructor at RCC. The second PTK advisor is Carol Savchak, coordinator of social/behavioral sciences and sociology instructor.
