By Erik Squire
Education Major

On the weekend of the 21st, the officer team of Alpha Chi Nu (ACN), SMCC’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society (PTK), set off for Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield Connecticut for their Regional Convention. It was quite the epic, full of campaigns, hypnotists, seminars, awards, and dancing.
Upon arrival, yours truly registered to run for Northern Regional Vice President (uncontested, as it turned out). After a refreshing dinner and much needed restroom break, we set of for Asnuntuck’s well-endowed auditorium to be entertained by a well-practiced hypnotist, Hypno Lorenzo. After a couple hours of witnessing our colleagues play in an “orchestra” stroke their “pet kittens” and ride a “Harley,” we were ready to head back to our hotel. That night we all played some team building activities, such as building a straw tower to the ceiling and drawing symbolic team flags. As the activities wound to an end, we hit the beds; that is with the exception of the fellas in my room. We had a campaign to plan and run, even if there wasn’t competition. We were going to do this the right way (or at least try).
The next morning I prepared a last minute speech and gave it in front of a hundred people with at least a 3.5 GPA (aka, nerds with high expectations). After stuttering through a half-decent motivational speech, my campaign managers stood with me behind a table to hand out flyers reading “Let Squire be Your Knight.” It was an interesting meet and greet and a good learning experience.
Later, ACN got the chance to see some terrific colleges who came to Asnuntuck to present to PTK’s terrific students. A few of the colleges that came were Lesley University, George Mason University, and Smith College; they were all very informative. We then had some informative training sessions that gave lessons on how to run our chapters more effectively, and personal betterment lessons, to boot.
Then the evening of the awards ceremony came. Our whole chapter was finely clothed in suits and dresses; we were quite the superlative sight (if I may say so myself). First we heard a motivational speech from Miss USA Erin Brady of Connecticut. And finally, by the end of the gala we had won six awards, ranging from Chapter Advisors of the year, to runner up Chapter Officer of the year, and Honors in Action Project of the year (which we won for our divestment from fossil fuels project). After the awards were given out, the announcements for the election results were made. Considering no one else ran for my position, it wasn’t much of a surprise that I was the newly elected Northern Regional Vice President (for Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont). That being said, it was a happy occasion all the same.
After all that work, it was time to boogie. The energy on the dance floor was so strong and the dance moves so elegant that even our advisor was moved to bust a move. It was an amazing end to a great experience. We came home with some new friends and as a closer officer team.
The very day that we returned to Maine we held our induction for new PTK members, and though I won’t go in depth about it (as it would take another whole article), I would like to say: Congratulations to the new inductees, and welcome to the Alpha Chi Nu and Phi Theta Kappa family!