{"id":1199,"date":"2013-09-29T15:11:37","date_gmt":"2013-09-29T19:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/?p=1199"},"modified":"2018-05-13T18:48:01","modified_gmt":"2018-05-13T22:48:01","slug":"ptk-makes-leaders-while-serving-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/ptk-makes-leaders-while-serving-college\/","title":{"rendered":"PTK makes leaders while serving College"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachel French
\nIn Motion Staff WriterNews<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Phi Theta Kappa headquarters are located in Building 130, room 110.
Amber Boutot\/In Motion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a framed quote on the desk of Steven Pruitt, it says: \u201cIt is never too late to be what you might have become.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one knows that better than Pruitt, who over the course of five years, went from being a tattoo artist to a graduate of Daytona State\u2019s AA program. Since that first degree, he has earned a Bachelor\u2019s from DSC in Business Supervision and Management and has now almost completed his Master\u2019s. Ask him and Pruitt will tell you that Phi Theta Kappa is a big part of his success story.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018PTK is the only nationally recognized honor society in the U.S.\u2019
\n\u2014Dr. Carol Eaton<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI was president of PTK in 2007. I was in the Quanta program and they came and talked to us. It seemed like you get together with people who want to become successful. It provided me with the leadership skills that transferred into a professional working environment. Now I am the adviser of the Daytona chapter and trying to help mold them into leaders,\u201d said Pruitt, who is in his second year in the position.<\/p>\n

PTK is a national honors society with a very humble beginning. Established in 1918 by the president of a two-year Missouri college, it recognizes exceptional students in community colleges for their academic achievements.<\/p>\n

Based on the four-year international honors society known as Phi Beta Kappa, PTK\u2019s purpose is to reward and lift up exceptionally high achieving students who attend community and state colleges across the United States.<\/p>\n

Guidance, opportunities and scholarships are offered to all members of PTK regardless of financial status, sexual orientation, race, or any other defining characteristic of a member. It looks past SAT scores and simple grades to focus on people and their goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also a way to show off your academic achievements and to get involved in the College and community-wide activities,\u201d said faculty member Ted Wygant, who oversees all PTK advisers on each of the six DSC campuses.<\/p>\n

In Daytona Beach, the PTK campus chapter meets the first and third Thursday at 2 p.m. in Building 130, room 110. Hours and meeting times vary at the other five campuses, but Wygant welcomes phone calls for those interested in participating. He can be reached at 386-506-3517.<\/p>\n

To join this honors organization, there are a few minimum requirements. A student has to have at least a 3.5 GPA and maintain at least a 3.2 to be allowed to continue to be a part of the group. In addition, student who wish to join PTK must have at least 12 credits under their belt, which, unfortunately, means that a student cannot join PTK during their first semester of college. Membership costs $70, which helps fund a variety of activities including the annual induction dinner at DSC, which recognizes incoming officers at the News-Journal Center on Beach Street.<\/p>\n

In the average year, PTK will give away $37 million to the most deserving students in a multitude of scholarships that range from tuition scholarships to academic excellence scholarships. This money has been spread between more than 700 four-year community colleges all across the country.<\/p>\n

Locally, at the Daytona campus, PTK is known as the \u201cMu Rho\u201d chapter, the name coming from letters in the Greek alphabet.<\/p>\n

In PTK, students learn the value of dedication and hard work through community service. PTK participates in several different types of service-based programs each year. Students go out into the community, sometimes a community that isn\u2019t their own and try to make a different in the lives of the people around them.<\/p>\n

One of the programs PTK raises money for is Life Straw, which sends and installs water filters in third-world countries so the people who live there can have clean drinking water.<\/p>\n

Members of PTK also volunteer with the blind \u2014 such as the Conklin Center for the Blind adjacent to Daytona State, a special project for the DSC chapter \u2014 as well as item drives for domestic abuse shelters and organizing assorted fundraisers every year. Even though a major part of PTK focuses on community service, the organization also aims for academic excellence.<\/p>\n

Using a five-star critical thinking program, the leaders of PTK teach members how to analyze arguments, and see through false assumptions in a unique and effective way that helps mature and train the brains of the young people who join the organization.<\/p>\n

This is one of the reasons, if not the most important one, that PTK members have an edge on those who are not. Perhaps that is one reason why PTK has increased overall enrollment nearly 30 percent since last year.<\/p>\n

DSC President Dr. Carol Eaton lauded the leadership of campus advisers, student officers and the Co-Curricular Activities office for nurturing the growth of Daytona State\u2019s chapter of the prestigious student organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cPTK is the only nationally recognized honor society in the U.S.,\u201d Dr. Eaton said. \u201cSo, increasing student participation in PTK encourages continued growth in academic quality and integrity at Daytona State College.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel French In Motion Staff WriterNews In a framed quote on the desk of Steven Pruitt, it says: \u201cIt is never too late to be what you might have become.\u201d No one knows that better than Pruitt, who over the course of five years, went from being a tattoo artist Continue reading PTK makes leaders while serving College<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1199"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1203,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199\/revisions\/1203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daytonastateinmotion.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}