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

           My name is Ross Adler. I was born in Washington D.C. and spent most of my childhood and teenage years in the Philippines. Upon coming back to the States (in Texas) after graduating high school, I realized that my passion lies in politics and history so I decided to go to college and hopefully pursue a degree in political science. When I moved to New York City, I decided to enroll in LaGuardia Community College. In 2013 after a few months of being continually active, I was appointed as a media officer for Phi Theta Kappa. I’ve always wanted to have a leadership role since I enrolled in LaGuardia Community College because I know that it’ll open up new opportunities and benefit me in the long run. When I was offered the position, I grabbed it almost immediately.             At first, it was challenging to adjust to the loaded schedule. On top of full time coursework, I had to make sure th...

Dear chapter members, Please see the following note from the Director of the college's Honors Program. We hope that many of you can join your fellow students in supporting this college-wide effort. Dear Students, We at the Honors Program are heartbroken by the incomprehensible suffering that is going on in the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda. As a community, we want to demonstrate solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the devastated, vulnerable, and already impoverished communities in the central Philippines. Next week, there will be a coordinated effort at LaGuardia to take a step towards doing just this; 2 days have been set aside to raise funds for those directly affected by Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda. There will be a meeting on Monday (11/18) at 1:00pm in the Student Life office (M-115) of all interested students to discuss the logistics of collecting donations for relief efforts in the Philippines, and to sign up to volunteer for donation collection ...

by Esmeralda Vargas             At the Phi Theta Kappa New York Region's Honors In Action Conference, hosted by Kingborough Community College, Scott Stimfel, the assistant dean of student engagement and innovation at New York University, passed PTK members his words of wisdom. Many believe that having a 4.0 GPA is a golden ticket, that will open numerous opportunities, but although having a strong GPA is important, Mr. Stimfel made us realize that it is not everything. There is another factor that is just as important as a high GPA, and that is networking.               It is no longer what you know, but who you know that counts. Million dollar companies are now using networking as their way to promote products. They are now focusing on letters of recommendations rather then resumes. In his presentation, Mr. Stimfel’s shared with us some ways we can begin to netwo...

by Diana Samoylova During the New York region Honors in Action Conference we were asked to join a research study on students transferring from community colleges to higher education facilities, such as four year colleges. The interviewer was a Ph.D. student and I was happy to participate and contribute to the study, because I believe this to be an important issue. He asked us, me and my fellow PTK member Esmeralda Vargas to answer some questions, while we were tape recorded. He wanted to know why we chose to complete associate degrees rather than attending a four year college and if we planned on continuing our education. Additionally he asked what our future goals were for college as well as careers. He asked us what resources our school provided for transfer and if they were helpful. He asked if the transfer process was hard and what we thought would improve our experience. What did we plan on majoring in and if we had a plan to achieve it. He asked if we were worried about att...

by Kaheisha Brand         Honors in Action (HIA) is a project for PTK members to partake in collectively. Honors in Action allows members the opportunity to gain leadership skills through service. HIA is based on a study topic that's related to global challenges which changes every two years. This year’s study topic was the Culture of Competition. HIA requires in depth research that develops over time. There's an HIA guide that helps to build upon an action-oriented project. This year, Alpha Theta Phi researched the college ranking system and the different things colleges do to attract students that foster competition among higher level institutions. Our Alpha Theta Phi chapter decided to host an event that imitated the game show family feud. The purpose of the game is to help share our research information with students.                 When I attended the HIA con...

by Christian Glatz              The definition for Urban Farming is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around a village, town, or city. The real value for Urban Farming is a community coming together, selecting a location (usually an abandoned lot) and turning it into a location where each person can cultivate produce, eat it and trade it with fellow members.                                    The main idea behind growing your own produce is the ability to consume it while it still holds all its nutrients. The Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment notes that food transported long distances is not likely to be as nutritious as food grown and consumed locally.               ...

By Stella Akuzie To promote the feeling of fellowship at the NY Region Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Conference held at Kingsborough Community College, the NY regional officers planned many fun activities that involved people socializing. One of the activities was an icebreaker called two truths and a lie. In this game people had to find a group with people from other colleges to play the game with. The game required individuals to say three sentences about themselves, two of which were true and one, a lie. The others in the group had to point out which of the three sentences was the lie. So, you sit across an individual who you’ve only seen a few times or even for the first time and you draw a conclusion about them based on looks, dress, façade, maybe tone, dialect etc. The purpose of the game was to get people to relax and get to know something about each other. This proved to be an effective way to make people mingle in a crowd that was originally a bunch of strangers to each ...