The Voice - Student Newspaper

Students enrich lives with Honor Society

By Amanda Williams
Reporter, The VOICE

"Thinking for the fun of it, rather than because it's required for a class" is exactly how co-advisor Pam Hall describes the international honor society of Glendale Community College (GCC), Phi Theta Kappa.

Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) is an international society especially designed for honor students who attend two-year colleges.

PTK has four main focuses that distinctly make their club different from all the others: scholarship (being involved in and thinking about scholarly things), leadership, service (their focus of service is education and helping the environment) and fellowship (building a community).

PTK helps to instill these qualities in their members by having weekly meetings in the Student Union every Friday at 1 p.m. At this point, some students might be thinking, "This all sounds great, but what are the requirements to become a member?" In order to be become a member of PTK, students have to be invited by the society, as well as have a 3.5 GPA and be enrolled in at least 12 credit hours in the 100 level or higher.

After accepting the invitation to join PTK, students will not officially become a member until they have been inducted into the society.

Until then, students are welcome to participate in the meetings and activities as much as they like.

Even first year honors students are welcome to be involved.

Speaking of being involved, the on-campus club participates in multiple activities outside of GCC, including three regional conferences a year and one international convention. PTK also participates in numerous activities within the campus, including the annual Founder's Day celebration, which helps to promote membership, and occurs on Nov. 19.More recently, PTK is currently in the process of hosting a three-part honors forum entitled "Paradox of Affluence."

While the first part of the series was hosted on Sept. 30, it is not too late to catch the last two parts, which are scheduled for Oct. 7 at 3 p.m. and another date that has yet to be announced in the Student Union room 104E.

The forum includes speakers like Ray Suarez and Jessica Jackley, the cofounder of a website called Kiva. All students are welcome and encouraged to attend the series and participate in the scholarly discussions that will take place during the forum.

If you have any questions or are interested about how to become a member of PTK, contact Pam Hall or Connie Greenwell, or visit www. ptk.org for more information.

Please send comments to awilliams@gccvoice.com