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Lincoln Trail College’s Alpha Iota Epsilon chapter of Phi Theta Kappa has been named as one of the Top 100 chapters in the international Phi Theta Kappa organization. The announcement was made during Phi Theta Kappa’s annual convention, which was held virtually.
“I was extremely excited and cried a little,” says chapter co-advisor Kim Schucker. “This was a first for our chapter. We have won awards before for individual projects, but this ranking shows that both our college project and honors topic project were well done and placed us in the category of the Top 100 chapters.”
"Being apart of this award-winning chapter has been an eye-opening experience," says chapter president Allyssa Adams. "When we attend Catalyst, an international Phi Theta Kappa convention, we sit and wait for our name to get announced. Most of the time, a chapter that is close to Alpha Iota Epsilon gets called and you can see us all sway in our seats a little with anticipation. This year the convention was virtual, and when I read our chapter name on the top 100 chapters, my heart began to race. In that moment, I wished that our chapter could’ve been together to celebrate, but I know we all were in our own homes. I couldn’t wait for the broadcast to be over so I could message to the rest of our members with the good news! The final part of the broadcast seemed like a blur because I was so proud of our chapter. Our small town chapter was in the top 100 out of 1289 chapters worldwide which was mind-boggling. On a more personal note, being president of Alpha Iota Epsilon has allowed me to grow my leadership skills exponentially. This group has allowed me to meet some amazing people throughout the Illinois region. I’ve also been able to work with some amazing officers behind me over the past year. This group allows everyone to tap into their full potential and leadership skills. Over the past year, there have been some humbling moments reminding us that we are all human! As a chapter, we adapted and overcame those challenges which made us all a stronger and better team!"
LTC’s chapter worked on increasing the College’s social media presence for their college project. The students developed contests that consisted of people liking LTC and LTC PTK social media channels and having people share content and tag other people. The students measured the increase in their social media presence thanks to the contests. They also awarded prizes that were provided by LTC’s Recruitment Office and the Office of the President.
The overall theme of this year’s Honors in Action Research Project was Transformations: Acknowledging, Assessing, and Achieving Change. LTC chose the sub-theme of “Powers of Connection and researched the cancel culture. Students researched the psychological aspect of why people cancel other people and why people are so quick to follow someone else’s lead without thinking through the facts. They found examples of people and companies that were canceled and presented them to students and asked if they should be canceled. They then gave the back story of the canceled subjects and redid the survey to see if there was a difference in opinion. “The purpose was to illustrate the importance of knowledge before consequential action and the importance of independent, critical thought,” says Schucker.
“I was ecstatic when I saw our chapter was a Top 100 chapter out of approximately 1300 chapters internationally,” says co-advisor Carrie Brown. “I know how hard these students worked on both the college project and the Honors in Action project.”
The Top 100 Chapter honor was not the only accolade for Lincoln Trail College at the convention. LTC President Dr. Ryan Gower was formally presented with his Paragon Award, which recognizes college presidents who show strong support for student success by recognizing academic achievement, leadership, and service among high-achieving students.
Lincoln Trail College’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter is no stranger to success. The chapter has repeatedly been named a Five Star Chapter, which is the highest level of recognition a chapter can earn. LTC has also been recognized because the number of students that accept joining the chapter is higher than both the Illinois regional and national averages.
“Phi Theta Kappa at Lincoln Trial College has a standard that we require to be met,” says Schucker. “It cannot be an idle organization and still benefit the students that are members. Everything we offer is to advance our member's personal development in leadership, scholarship, fellowship, and service. This includes giving them opportunities to broaden their horizons by attending PTK events, competing for awards and scholarships, and broadening their network of friends and colleagues. We always have a group of members that want to and are able to, gain all they can from Phi Theta Kappa. It's the members that make us such a good chapter and I really appreciate all they do.”
Brown says LTC is blessed because of its amazingly academically strong student body. “We have students that are willing to work above and beyond here to keep our PTK chapter active in our region and internationally.”
She says there are a lot of good reasons for students to work to join the academic honor society because 91 percent of members complete their associate degrees and transfer to four-year colleges. “This tells me that being a PTK member not only increases the student’s scholarship skills but also increases a student’s readiness for future career endeavors.”
Phi Theta Kappa is the premier honor society recognizing the academic achievement of students at associate degree-granting colleges and helping them to grow as scholars and leaders. The Society is made up of more than 3.5 million members and nearly 1,300 chapters in 11 nations, with approximately 240,000 active members in the nation’s colleges. Learn more at ptk.org.
