Honor Society – From Left: Saman Baghestani, David Stankiewicz (Advisor), Emily Mokler, Tyler Hinckley, Jason Gylnn, Benjamin Bussiere, Faiz Sabean, and Maisarah Miskoon.

Honor Society in Brockton

By Maisarah Miskoon

Brockton, MA – Massasoit Community College in Brockton, Massachusetts played hosts to this year’s Phi Theta Kappa Regional Convention last week. SMCC’s chapter, Alpha Chi Nu team, attended the 2-day event, which was held on-campus and in their convention hall a few block away. This was the first convention most of our Honor’s Society officer team has ever attended with the exception of our President, Jason Gylnn.

Besides learning more about Phi Theta Kappa benefits, we were exposed to the many different resources available to members of the prestigious honor society such as Collegefish.org, a site that enables Phi Theta Kappa members search for scholarships from many colleges around the nation, and the Five Star Competitive Edge, a self-evaluation and empowerment tool that helps members be more competitive for 4-year colleges.

We also learned more about the “Honors in Action” project and College Project, which we have already started prior to this convention. Some of you might have already heard about our project this year for socially responsible divestment from the previous issue of the Beacon, or from some of us going around collecting signatures for a petition for the Senate.
Our goal is to encourage the Maine Community College System (MCCS) to replace their fossil fuel investments with equally competitive alternative stocks, such as renewable or environmentally friendly energy sources. We are encouraging the entire school to get behind us for this worthy cause and get on the bandwagon to help make Maine a better home for all of us to live in, knowing that we have done our part to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The Student Senate has called for SMCC’s first referendum in a decade and students are able to cast their votes online during the first week of November. We will be setting up two voting booths at the student Noisy Lounge in the Campus Center and Phi Theta Kappa volunteers will be going around with tablets as well. Voting takes less than a minute but every vote counts so please show us your support. Together, we can and we will make a difference, SMCC.