1. Summarize the chapter’s goals for involvement in the primary and secondary focuses of the Scholarship Hallmark and describe the process by which the chapter set these goals.

      At the beginning of the year, one Sigma Zeta meeting was dedicated to a goal-setting session to determine the chapter's primary areas of focus for the coming year. After much discussion it was decided that for the Scholarship hallmark we would focus on one major research project, a couple of smaller projects, and sponsor the travel to both the international and regional honors institutes for officers. For our major project, although several organizations existed as potential study subjects, it was eventually decided to study dynamics of power within the United Nations. In order to study how and from where the UN gleans power, we planned to first look at the history and beginning structure of the United Nations, its current activities and sponsors, and its impact on the world. Our then-Vice President of Fellowship took the lead on many aspects of this project.

      The group brainstormed and talked about many small project options. We decided to sponsor movie nights, tentatively entitled “Reel Dynamics of Power,” during winter and spring terms. Our plan included having a member of faculty or the community speak about the movie, guiding the discussion and hopefully providing questions for deeper analysis.  Our Secretary volunteered to coordinate this project. The second small project we voted to complete was subscribing to and presenting the 2007 Satellite Seminars on campus.  We planned to invite the campus community through brochures and flyers posted around campus and would try to get additional "experts" to discuss the topics after the showings.

      In deciding to sponsor the travel of officers to the honors institutes, we decided to convene a planning session to determine how to select the participants, fund the travel and share the information. Our advisor volunteered to guide us through the process.

      Ultimately, each of our goals relating to the International Honors Study topic were geared towards fostering deeper analysis into issues of power, understanding how mechanisms of power functioned in our society, and providing our chapter and community members with the tools to recognize how these issues played out subtly in their daily lives. The average person, after all, likely would not think to look for issues of power in something meant to be “pure” entertainment, such as a movie.

      For our secondary areas of focus we talked about ways to incorporate scholarship and help the college. The approach we decided to take was two-pronged: when examining requests the college administration made for our assistance, potential study topics could be searched out and community or campus-wide discussion could be engaged in. This method, if handled correctly, would allow our chapter to take scholarship from the realm of passive knowledge to active engagement. We also wanted to research the most successful recruitment tools available today through advertising. Two of our chapter goals are to increase membership and become more visible in the community. Each member of the officer team took responsibility in looking at the issues of advertising and promotion. 

2.  Using no more than four total examples, describe your chapter’s Honors Study Topic projects (related to The Global Dynamics of Power) that contributed to fulfilling your chapter’s goals for the Scholarship Hallmark.

      We wanted to explore the dynamics of power in the current global landscape with respect to what we considered a paradox: the United Nations (UN). There is no doubt that the United Nations has some, if albeit limited, power around the world - yet its mission is to help achieve peace and security through international cooperation.  How, then, did the model of the United Nations fit within the premise of our 2006-08 Honors Study Topic, as quoted in the program guide introduction: "Wealth or resources (gold), religion or spirituality (gods), and honor or pride (glory) continue to be sources through which power is attained, and forces that motivate individuals and nations to seek power."

      It is easy to wonder how an institution, with no particular power source of its own, managed power in the global community. If the United Nations derives its power from the nations which support it, is it impartial or an arm of the strongest or wealthiest nations? Members of our officer team took an in-depth look at the United Nations, its history, role in the world community, and its future. We all know that the organization is one which promotes peace, both through peacekeeping operations and acting as a forum for conflict resolution. One of our officers spearheaded the efforts to learn more of current UN activities. We learned the United Nations and its family of agencies work daily to enhance human rights, education, healthcare, medical research, environmental protection and agricultural development. They work to alleviate poverty, advance women's rights, protect workers, provide emergency and disaster relief. The United Nations primary task seems to be to improve people's lives around the world in nearly countless ways, or as Kofi Annan said on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the UN Charter:

      The second step in our information gathering efforts was to send two chapter members and our advisor to the United Nations. Our Vice President of Fellowship applied for, and received, college funding for the trip and we sent our members with a group of young ambassadors from Student Visions, a Portland, Oregon-based, non-profit organization dedicated to "[h]elping students achieve academic excellence, personal success and physical well being." For our traveling members the experience was an unequaled opportunity to observe the diplomatic process. Following a guided tour of the United Nations, the group attended briefings given by UN personnel. The sessions went into detail about the history of the United Nations, terrorism, peace and security, and conflict resolution. The group met with Ambassador Gerald Scott, Senior Advisor for Africa, who discussed his role in the UN and answered questions. They also visited the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Moldova to the United Nations and met with Mr. Alexandru Cujba, Counselor, Deputy Permanent Representative, and Mr. Victor Leu, First Secretary. The group visited the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan to the United Nations where they met Mr. Nurbek Jeenbaev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary's representative.

      Upon returning home the group was anxious to share what they had learned with the rest of the chapter. We talked about how best to share not only the multi-faceted work of the United Nations, but its appreciation for humanity - community and global which leads to peace. There was so much new information about (and appreciation for) the work of the UN that it was difficult to focus on our original objective. To some extent, it was easy to feel almost as if it didn't matter how the United Nations gets its power; we were just glad it has a role in our world. In our exploration, we realized that without the support of powerful nations, like the United States, the work and influence (power) of the United Nations would be greatly diminished. Why the nations of the world support the UN and share their power became a new question... one that couldn’t be encompassed within the study of merely a year.

      One of the ways we decided to share our experience with the rest of the college and the community was by creating peace bracelets to represent our commitment, as a chapter to unity and peace, and a reminder of what can be done in the world when people work together. Inspired by the United Nations objective to promote women's equality and well-being we decided to sell the bracelets on campus and donate the proceeds to WomenSpace, a local shelter for victims of domestic violence.

      During winter and spring terms we presented the “Reel Dynamics of Power” movie nights. We posted flyers around campus and published the events in our Sigma Zeta newsletter. We had faculty volunteers lead discussions, including an introduction to the topic and purpose behind showing each particular movie. After the movie, the speaker led a discussion about the possible power dynamics at work during the movie and our personal experiences with similar situations. Our movie nights were at their most effective, it seemed, when highlighting issues that did not receive much coverage in mainstream power discussions. One such film, Crash, dealt with issues of racism… not just between the white majority and individual minority groups, but between various minority groups as well. For anyone not well-versed in the intricacies of race-relations, this might seem like something of a contradiction. Racism is a white issue, isn’t it? Overall, our chapter was satisfied that these movie nights began fostering discussions into issues of power… if albeit to a limited audience.

      For a last small project, our chapter subscribed to and presented the 2007 Satellite Seminars on campus.  We previewed the seminars to obtain discussion questions and decide how to lead the attendees in a follow-up conversation. We then showed them to the campus community at a later date.

      In our planning session to determine how to select participants to sponsor for the honors institutes, we voted to send two officers to the international institute and to send the entire executive team to the regional institute. It was decided to send our President and our Vice President of Service to represent the chapter at International. We funded the travel with existing chapter money and proceeds from fundraising efforts. To enable all of our chapter officers and our advisor to attend the regional institute, we drove a college van to save money and cabins were shared on location.

3.  Discuss up to three projects unrelated to the Honors Study Topic that recognize and encourage scholarship. Include in your response projects relating to your goals for the Scholarship Hallmark.

      The college administration asked us to help with the college's entry in the local Eugene Celebration Parade. This opportunity allowed us to engage in study and discussion about the best way to represent the community college. The entry displayed the various areas of study available at the college and had students from several areas, such as Culinary Arts and Performing Arts to walk alongside or ride on the float.  We discovered in our inquiry as to why students don't join honor societies that, frequently, they didn't know about the existence, their eligibility, or the benefits of membership. Our chapter decided to wear graduation gowns to emphasize that, although occupational preparation can be a student's primary goal, graduation and transfer are also viable goals. We wore Phi Theta Kappa regalia to further emphasize that students not only graduate from community colleges, but can graduate with high grades and as members of the honor society. Comments from the crowd along the route, usually to the effect of “so you DO graduate,” may have been delivered jokingly, but served to underscore the need for this positive image of the community college student as a scholar.

      The administration also asked us to help with the college's entry in the local Springfield Holiday Parade in December. We spent a tremendous amount of time discussing how we wanted to portray the college within the parade theme which was "Main Street Magic." We agreed that the college presence in the community should be represented, but there was much debate about how to focus that presence. We questioned whether a "Christmas" theme was appropriate or if we should utilize a more diverse theme and show elements of many holiday celebrations or produce an entirely neutral float. The quandary led to scholarly research, discussions involving other members of the campus community, and open debates about honoring diversity. It turned out to be one of our most ardent scholarly pursuits!

      One of the projects we are most excited about involved our research as a chapter into methods of advertising to gain new members which dovetailed nicely with our efforts to improve chapter communication. One of our officers and our advisor researched the most successful communication forms utilized today and found that MySpace and YouTube are extremely popular and an excellent way to show off our chapter activities and benefits of membership, not to mention improve communication. Our advisor worked with us to develop both a MySpace page and several YouTube videos for our chapter.

4.  What were the specific outcomes of your chapter’s involvement with the Scholarship Hallmark, including the impact your activities had on chapter members and others?

      Our members learned new information about the work of the United Nations and the origins of power for that body. Our peace bracelets will serve as reminders of what people, groups and nations can do by joining together in a common goal and what we can do as a chapter. We sold enough bracelets to the community to donate over $100 to WomenSpace to assist them in their mission of helping victims of domestic violence. We realized, however, we need additional research and discussion time to understand the power structure within the United Nations and the reasons for the support it gets.

      The Reel Dynamics movie nights and the Satellite Seminars provided good introductions to some of the scholarship topics we are studying. It was also a good opportunity to meet nonmembers. Although thought-provoking, we needed to better publicize the events and possibly work with social science instructors to encourage them to offer extra credit for attendance by their students. We would like to see both of these activities grow in attendance. In addition to serving as a useful introduction to various facets of power, both the Satellite Seminars and our “Reel Dynamics” movie nights tied into our secondary focuses regarding the power of advertising. In the process of hosting these events, we learned what methods were quite effective in attracting attention… and which weren’t! This raised questions of the methods used to garner our attention each day. Ultimately, it became clear that, to better facilitate our goals of recruitment, we would need to explore another dynamic of power: that of images and words.

      The two officers sent to the International Honors Institute returned home with a myriad of fresh ideas for our chapter. We decided to postpone creating projects based on their experiences until after our Regional Honors Institute. All of our officers attended the Regional Honors Institute, and the small group discussion fit nicely with our larger chapter goal of helping to further our members’ examination of issues of power in their own lives. Sigma Zeta’s executive team comes from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. Led by skilled advisors from around the region, everyone felt comfortable discussing these issues. Each of our officers returned better able to communicate about issues of power, thus empowering them to feel better equipped to grapple with larger issues that affected their lives.

      Our new MySpace page and YouTube videos are growing in popularity. We are still accessing the impact and do occasionally hear comments about the positive image each conveys of our chapter.

      Working on the parade float entries gave us an opportunity we might not have had otherwise to think and debate about how to best portray the advantages of membership in Phi Theta Kappa. The ideas we came up with will be of tremendous value in future membership drives. The holiday float opened new avenues for discussion about issues of diversity, inclusion and cultural sensitivity.