Leadership Role: President

by Christian Glatz

Being an honor student is not enough to prepare you for a successful career. Academic preparation and being an active member of a community will give you a strong foundation for a lifetime of achievements. One of these communities dedicated to develop leadership, fellowship, scholarship and service is Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society.

Being a member of Phi Theta Kappa has benefited me in more ways than I can explain. Some of these major benefits are: CollegeFish.org, five star competitive edge and scholarships. With CollegeFish.org, you are able to search for colleges and scholarships which are matched to your specific interests. Competitive edge is a bundle of online courses which help you develop a higher understanding of project managing, clear communication, time management, scholarly research skills, and so much more. Also, through a system called the "common application", members are able to submit one application for multiple scholarships.

One of the most important skills anyone is able to attain while being an active member of Phi Theta Kappa is leadership. There are multiple opportunities to be in a leadership position. In my opinion, the most demanding but yet rewarding is that of the chapter's President. As the President of the Alpha Theta Phi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, I have learned the skills necessary to manage a group of people in order to work together towards a common goal. Being in this leadership position requires you to come up with ideas, goals, tasks and opportunities, for students to become active and prepared with interpersonal skills which will help them become successful members of society.

Being the President also enables you to network with school administrators, which allows you to become the voice for other students. You will be part of a series of meetings that take place once every three months, in which you will brainstorm on multiple topics with other members of the school administrative team. Again, this is very important as you and the president of the Student Government Association are the only students allowed in these meetings, and you two will be the voices of the student populous.

Alpha Theta Phi is a five star chapter (maximum star rating), which means there are some requirements that need to be met in order to keep that status. The most important requirement is the completion of hallmarks, these are a series of essays in which you describe the findings of a research project named Honors in Action, also the progress of a project in which the chapter helps all students at LaGuardia Community College called the College Project, and nominations of chapter members, officers and advisors.

The rest of responsibilities come in the form of organizing officer and general meetings, workshops, and community services. Even though you are only required to put in three office hours a week, more time is recommended to be a successful chapter.

As stated before, being the President is demanding but very rewarding as well. The experience I have gained during my term has prepared me for any challenge the corporate world has in store for me.