Back from left: Wai Hnin Oo, Anthony Lal, Anthony Petraki
Skyline College’s Beta Theta Omicron Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society was named in the top 25 Distinguished Chapters at the 2017 Phi Theta Kappa Conference in Nashville on April 8. Distinguished Chapter is an international award and the highest honor given to a Phi Theta Kappa chapter. Skyline College earned the Continued Excellence Award for being a Distinguished Chapter for three consecutive years. Nearly 4,000 community college students participated in the three-day conference that was filled with scholarship and leadership forums. Keynote speakers included neonatologist Jennifer Arnold, photographer Platon, and mythbuster Jamie Hyneman.
Skyline College’s chapter also received the 2017 College Project and Honors in Action Awards for their 2016 projects. The chapter has consistently earned national recognition since its chartering in 1999. The chapter has earned Distinguished Chapter 13 times and has earned the Nevada/California Regional Distinguished Chapter award five times.
The awards were the result of competitive essays documenting the chapter’s multiple projects this year, including a year-long project addressing food insecurity and service projects that taught computer literacy to local senior citizens and a project that brought science labs to middle schools.
Additionally, Mei Ling Lai, 2016-2017 Chapter President, received the Distinguished Chapter Officer Award.
“This recognizes our students’ outstanding service to our college and the community and recognizes chapter members who work so hard during the academic year on the four PTK hallmarks of PTK: fellowship, leadership, scholarship, and service,” said Christine Case, Phi Theta Kappa Advisor. “Phi Theta Kappa offers so many opportunities for our students to extend their education and experiences far beyond the classroom as they prepare for their futures.”
Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society is the largest honor society in American higher education with more than 1,300 chapters at two-year and community college campuses in all 50 of the United States and Canada, Germany, Peru, the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the British Virgin Islands. There are 94 chapters in California.
Article by Dr. Christine Case
