Alpha Theta Phi Chapter - Phi Theta Kappa - LaGuardia Community College

By Paula Castaneda 1. There are people that say that you go to conventions if you just help the chapter with its activities and/or attend the general meetings? Is this true? Yes! When you join PTK, you have the chance to attend super fun conventions in different parts of the country. In these conventions you learn a lot from amazing speakers and transfer fairs that inform you about scholarships opportunities and different universities. You also get to network with lots of people from different places. The best part of networking is the Regional Officers plan games where we get to know each other in a fun way so we can skip that weird part of start talking with a stranger. To go to conventions, you should be an active member and be on the lookout for emails from our advisors asking for applications. 2. You get money just for being part of PTK. Is this true? It depends. PTK offers two types of scholarships. One of them is the transfer scholarship that is offered by some universit...

by Akampreet Kaur A community college student faces many hardships throughout his/her journey to success. You need to stand out of many students in order to make something out of yourself. Transferring can be tough for many students but all it takes is dedication. You need to make yourself stand out from millions of other students. Phi Theta Kappa is a great chance to make your future more successful and be recognized for your hard work. Not only will it make me stand out from my peers but it will also, guide me to the right direction of my goals. I see myself one day hopefully teaching an elementary classroom filled with young minds ready to learn new things. Childhood Education appeals to me the most because kids are basically the future; I will get to teach future teachers, doctors, scientists, etc. Education played a really big part in my life that I plan to continue in the future by becoming a teacher. I want to have some sort of an impact on my student’s lives by inspiring t...

By Tessa Clark One of the benefits that drew me into accepting my membership to Phi Theta Kappa was some of the scholarship opportunities that this foundation offers. I took some time off from my education and now that I am getting reengaged with learning I would like to be able to fully immerse myself and not have to worry about paying loans when I graduate. Phi Theta Kappa shows academic excellence and it will help me further along in my educational journey. I have very high aspirations for myself and would like to attend an Ivy League school after I receive my Associate Degree from LaGuardia. I feel that Phi Theta Kappa will help me to achieve my dreams and also help introduce me to like-minded intelligent people who have set high standards and goals for themselves. I want to be able to network with people who know what they want from their education and who are progressive in their thinking and attitudes. I am looking forwards to going to events and discussing topics with people...

by Kimly Tor I was accepted to study at LaGuardia Community College on March 2014 as an international student, majoring in biology. Everything was so new to me when I first arrived in New York: the weather, the language, the people, the culture, and the transportation. I was so excited about the little things such as taking the train and speaking to an American (with my broken English). You would know this feeling if you came from a developing country such as Cambodia and was the first of your friends to be in New York City. It was an awesome feeling for me. However, my academic performance was not good. I failed a writing test, which was called the CATW test. As a result, I was required to take an ESL (English a Second Language) class and was told if I did well I would be given an opportunity to take the test again in three months. If I did not do well, I would spend a whole year preparing myself before taking the test again. Fortunately, with the help of my ESL professor, combin...

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 need ed 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 benefit s that I needed to be an outstanding student when I transfer and apply for scholarship s . 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 becomi...

By Osvaldo Reyes College is where a young adult becomes a leader within themselves and a contributor to the world. Some say that college is a waste of time and money, where you pay for your education and end up unemployed. But college is way more than just the idea of money and time commitment, college is where one’s career and adulthood really starts. One way of becoming successful is by being a part of an honors society. More specifically the Phi Theta Kappa honors society. This is my first year in college and I plan on making the best out of it. You know what they say “Better now than later,” so I was determined to get a GPA above a 3.5 and maintain it. So far everything is going well with a 3.6 GPA I got an invitation to be a part of PTK. At the time I opened the invitation email I had a foreshadow where I saw myself as a top employee at one of the top mechanical companies out in the job market. I knew what I had to do and I was more than ready to get started on my application...

by Emmanuel Alfred Dela Cruz I believe that Phi Theta Kappa is an Honor Society that enables competitive students, like me, to enhance the essential skills and knowledge that the student needs in order to be better prepared for their future. I am a transfer student, and I have known of Phi Theta Kappa from my previous school. I learned that Phi Theta Kappa has an enormous field of networking opportunities for their members, and has gives many services to society. I understand that joining Phi Theta Kappa creates an opportunity for me to collaborate with students and mentors who share the same energy, focus, passion, and dreams. The values, and the mission of an organization is vital for me to even consider joining a certain group. I consider Phi Theta Kappa as one of the best communities to mold me to become a future leader in the society. I have been part of multiple clubs in my previous school, and I believe joining this honor society would absolutely inspire me to grow and be...

by Paula Castaneda One of the amazing opportunities that you get when you are an officer of Phi Theta Kappa is leading a workshop. You are there in front of the room and you are in charge of what you do during one hour with the members that come to the workshop. You cannot imagine how happy you feel when you see that the people seated in front of you enjoy what you planned and the workshop is a total success.  On December 2015, I lead the fellowship workshop as one of my duties for being the treasurer of the Alpha Theta Phi chapter. The participation of each one of the members was amazing. We started playing a game to get to know each other followed by a couple of ice breakers to build confidence in ourselves and our peers. In the last game, charades, we acted out things and the audience had to guess what the person in the front was acting. Since everyone was involved, we laughed and entertained ourselves because we had to act out funny phrases and ideas. The main...

by Erica Nieves In Phi Theta Kappa, the four cornerstones of this organization are scholarship, leadership, fellowship, and community service. These values are used in the process of the Honors in Action project, where research goals and leadership roles are important. These same values are also applied in the College Project. The College Project is a coalition of Phi Theta Kappa and the school community to work together to achieve a goal. At President Mellow’s request, the Alpha Theta Phi chapter has been tasked to take on the issue of petitioning the Department of Transportation to regulate the high trafficked area of Thomson Avenue. On March 2012, a student from Applied Communications has passed away in front of our school on Thomson Avenue. To prevent another student death, “Yield to Student Bodies” was born. We had an online petition and postcards in the past to advocate for this campaign. To move forward further, new methods were suggested by Claudia Chan, the Gover...

By Ackeem Nugent  In college everyone always mentions the key importance of networking and forming coalitions with faculty, staff, and your peers. Many college advisors say that forming connections with your professors will dramatically help you when you decide to transfer to senior college. When I started college one of my mentors encouraged me to make connections with my peers in my classes because you never know who has information about a job that interests you. She also said make good connections with your professors because you will need them to later on to write recommendations later on. However when I enrolled in my first semester at LaGuardia I was really quite and apprehensive to, getting to know my professors. I just never was the conversation starter with individuals I had never interacted with before. Alpha Theta Phi helped break my old habits of being demure and modest. As the president of the chapter you are required to go to the Presidents Cabinet meet...

By Ackeem Nugent When I accepted the invitation to join Phi Theta Kappa I was so excited to be apart of an invite only honor society. I felt I finally found a group of people I can have stimulating and intellectual conversations with. In the beginning of the spring 2015 semester I never thought I would run for an officer position. I wanted to be a part of LaGuardia’s campus community. When I enrolled at LaGuardia I felt I didn’t really know anyone and had no idea about what was currently happening on campus. When I was provided the opportunity to run for an officer position as vice president, I decided to give it a shot. I was interested in running for an officer position because I thought it would help to shape and provide guidance for me to grow into a well- rounded individual. I also wanted to develop my public speaking and leadership skills. Coming into the officer position was interesting; the previous officer team didn’t really train me for what I was about to do ...

by Anika Hossain If you have a 3.5 GPA or higher, you really earned it. It’s not easy. Phi Theta Kappa recognizes that and acknowledges hard working students. So if you have been invited to join Phi Theta Kappa, congratulations! You deserve to be acknowledged. Because of the recognition of being a Phi Theta Kappa member, many members pay the $70 fee. However, all they do about their membership is show it off on their resume and Linkedin, and boast it to recruiters. But think about it. These members are paying a $70 fee- for what? Just to get the title of being a Phi Theta Kappa member? Is it really worth it? Moreover, when the recruiters will ask them what they did for Phi Theta Kappa, they will have no stories to tell. Unless, of course, they lie. If you are one of those members, there’s still time to change that. As a non-active member, the only privilege you have is to tell people that you’re a Phi Theta Kappa member. But as an active member, the rewards are much more than that. ...

By Anika Hossain “ Are you sure you’ve never had a leadership experience? It could be anything you did in high school, or a time you’ve babysat”, said Dr. Payal Doctor, the Alpha Theta Phi chapter advisor of Phi Theta Kappa. “Um, no”, I replied. Ironically, I scheduled a meeting with her to request for a recommendation for a scholarship for leaders. “Sorry Anika, I really want to help you but it’s hard because I don’t know you.” The embarrassing conversation turned out to be a learning experience for me. It was a calling for me to turn the wheels around. I committed to be more involved with Phi Theta Kappa. But it was still difficult more me to come out of my shell. I was the shy member who sat in the back in every meeting, speaking very little or not speaking at all. The first time I spoke a lot was during a Leadership workshop led by Leadership Specialist Professor Chris Singh. I remember feeling empowered as my opinions were appreciated by the chapter. It made me feel ...

by Erica Nieves          Phi Theta Kappa is an international honor society that recruits the brightest students and promote scholarship, leadership, fellowship, and community service. As a daughter of a PTK alumni, I was excited when I was offered membership. When I accepted membership and went into my new member orientation, I knew this was something special. The PTK program offered many different benefits; one memorably is a special program called the Five Star Competitive Edge.           The Competitive Edge is a leadership online course that has five levels. In each level, there is a buildup of a set skills that one will learn. For example, in the first level of the Competitive Edge, “soft skills,” “reflecting in a journal entry,” and “fixed versus growth mindset” were taught. After a set of skills is learned, one must pass a quiz in order in order to move forward within the program. A...