My Motivation to Become an Active Member in PTK

By Kimly Tor

I didn't know anything about Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) during my first semester at LaGuardia until I received a letter and an email which invited me to be a PTK member because I had earned 12 credits and a 3.8 GPA (the minimum GPA to get in is 3.5). I wasn't sure at first if I should join because I also needed to pay $70 to become a member. However, after talking to my advisor and other students who know about PTK, they encouraged me to become not only just a regular member but an active one, whether as an officer or as a volunteer so that I can get all the benefits that I needed to be an outstanding student when I transfer and apply for scholarships.

After I heard about the benefit of becoming an active member, I had decided to accept the membership and volunteered at a table event a week later, which was where I had a chance to talk to the former officers and heard about the open officer positions. I told them that I was interested in becoming one of the officers, so they introduced me to Dr. Payal Doctor who is the advisor of the chapter. Later, I was contacted to have an interview with her and completed an application as part of the requirement. The last thing that I needed to do before becoming an official officer was to compete with other students through election.

Candidates who want to be elected need to present a two minutes speech and the person who received more votes would wins the election. There were six officer positions that the students were competing for, including one position for president, two positions for vice president, one secretary, one treasurer, and one media officer. I wanted to be a secretary and after going through the process with enthusiasm, I was elected. It was such a rewarding moment that I would not forget. The moment that made me believe that I could achieve my goal and overcome the fear of not being good enough.