Wallace State’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society encouraging students to join Community College Completion Corps initiative

HANCEVILLE, ALA. – Wallace State Community College’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society has joined the Community College Completion Corps (C4) initiative this semester as part of its annual project. The Commit to Completion drive allows students to pledge their intentions of graduating from their respective community colleges with either an associate degree or certificate.
Wallace State’s Phi Theta Kappa group has secured scores of signatures from students since the campaign began on campus.
“Wallace State President Dr. (Vicki) Karolewics thought this was a great project for us to pursue, and it’s been a lot of fun and encouraging,” said Brandon Smith, a Wallace State math instructor and Phi Theta Kappa co-sponsor. “We’re wanting students to become completion champions.”
Various Phi Theta Chapters across the community college landscape have recently adopted the C4 project. According to Phi Theta Kappa, students who complete their degree or certificates will earn an average of $500,000 more over the course of their careers than their peers who did not complete. In addition, individuals with credentials are less likely to become unemployed than their co-workers who did not earn credentials.
The C4 student pledges include the commitment: to plan for college completion; to discuss career planning with college instructors and staff; seek advisement on course selection to ensure timely college completion; to learn about and use college support networks and resources aiding college completion; to serve as a role model by attending classes, being prepared, participating in and engaging in discussions with instructors and students inside and outside of class; to reach out to students in need by encouraging, nurturing and guiding them toward college completion; and to help at least one other student succeed.
Wallace State’s Phi Theta Kappa sponsors and members have encouraged students to sign the pledge at monthly Freshman Faculty lunches and at the Health Fair earlier this semester.
Wallace State’s PTK group focuses on a pair of projects each academic year. One is a college project and the other is an honor study topic. The C4 commitment drive is the current project, while the honor society is working to inform students about emergency preparedness on campus as its honor study topic.
Phi Theta Kappa launched the Community College Completion Corps initiative in 2010 after leaders of six national organizations, representing the nation’s 1,200 community colleges, signed The Call to Action, a pledge to increase student completion rates by 50 percent over the next decade. Phi Theta Kappa was the only student organization asked to participate.
Phi Theta Kappa is the largest honor society in American higher education with 1,285 chapters on two-year and community college campuses in all 50 states and in Canada, Germany, Peru and other select republics or territories. More than 2.5 million students have been inducted into Phi Theta Kappa since its founding in 1918, with approximately 135,000 students inducted annually.
For more information about Wallace State, visit wallacestate.edu.
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