BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA - The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi recently recognized the campus chapter at The University of Texas at Arlington as a Chapter of Excellence. The award, presented at the organization's national biennial convention last month in Kansas City, Mo., is given to chapters that excel in recognizing and promoting academic excellence in all fields of higher education and engaging the community of scholars in service to others.
"Those chapters that have earned Chapter of Excellence status are led by committed officers who give generously of their time and talent to honor outstanding students," said Perry A. Snyder, the Society's executive director. He added, "Officers of award-winning chapters live out their personal commitment to honor and excellence through Phi Kappa Phi."
The full press release is available here in Adobe PDF.
Added 2010-Oct-01
Holli Slater will represent UT Arlington and the region at the 2009 Phi Kappa Phi Student Leadership Conference. These students will travel to Baton Rouge, LA on January 23-25, 2009. The conference will be comprised of student vice presidents who are representing each of the five regions. These students will learn valuable leadership skills and will serve as a student advisory panel for The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi's Board of Directors. The conferences takes place in late January, 2009.
Added 2008-Dec-16
David Silva believes in this expression, especially when it comes to helping underprivileged children. Vice Provost Silva, education assistant professor Kathleen Tice and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society members created a project that serves children from low-wage, non-English-speaking families at the Open Door Preschool in east Dallas.
"These are the working poor," he said. "We're talking about folks who make hard decisions every day."
Every Friday for the past four weeks, 36 students in Tice's Literacy Studies class have been reading selected books to 20 kids at the preschool. After noticing a dramatic increase in vocabulary and reading skills, she believes that the children and her students are benefiting from each other.
"My students are excited about being with the kids, and the children can sense that," she said. "These children have so much potential, and we focus on what they can do instead of in terms of deficit."
The project began when Phi Kappa Phi members Tice and Silva noticed a literacy grant offered by the society. As a Board of Trustees member at the preschool, Silva suggested using the grant towards the three, four and five-year-old underprivileged children to buy books to read aloud to them.
"This is education happening out the in the community with the support of a national organization," he said. "It doesn't get any better than that."
The project's final reading will take place Friday morning, where the children will receive a tote bag with six different books the students have read to them. The children will also get a UTA backpack filled with coloring books, note pads, crayons and pencils donated from Phi Kappa Phi members. Open Door Preschool director Sandra Thomas said she's thankful that people want to help her kids.
"The kids look forward to Fridays," Thomas said. "When the students come into the classroom, their eyes light up."
In the future, Tice and Silva want to apply for more funding for similar projects.
"We're capturing them at the beginning and showing them that we care enough to go out and work with them," Silva said. "These kids won't remember us, but they'll remember the experience."
Article written by Alanna Quillen. Printed in The Shorthorn; Volume 90, No. 49; 2008-Nov-20
Link to original article: The Shorthorn — A service learning project for preschoolers encourages a love for literature
Added 2008-Dec-15