Baseball and Stories | Honors In Action: 2024
Write-up by Benjamin Nash
On Friday, August 2nd and Saturday, August 3rd ΒΓΕ (Beta Gamma Epsilon) Chapter President and Ohio Regional officer Ben Nash, Chapter advisor and Ohio Region Coordinator David Sigmund, and two Chapter Alumni Krystal Nash and Cristina Kyle joined members from chapters throughout the state of Ohio to get together in Eastlake and Kirtland, Ohio for the Annual ΦΘΚ (Phi Theta Kappa) Honors In Action Conference.
On Friday night for a fellowship event, the Phi Theta Kappans were treated to a picnic dinner and a Lake County Captains baseball game at their home stadium, Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio. The Captains game featured start pitching prospect Matthew “Tugboat” Wilkenson and 2024 number one overall draft pick of the Cleveland Guardians, second baseman Travis Bazzana. The Captains, The Cleveland Guardians High A-ball affiliate, won the game against their opponent the Beloit, Wisconsin Sky Carp, an affiliate of the Miami Marlins, by a final score of 3-1. Fireworks were enjoyed by those who could stay until the end.
On Saturday we came together again for a day of learning, planning, and recognition.
During the first general session, Stacy Jarvis, our Ohio Regional President from Washington State College of Ohio called us to order followed by the singing of the National Anthem by Grace Blatt, the President of Ohio’s ΦΘΚ Alumni Association, Alpha of Ohio.
Lakeland Community College President Sunil Ahuja welcomed us all to the college and April Hubbard, President of ΑΨΡ (Alpha Psi Rho) Chapter and Ohio Northern District Representative welcomed us on behalf of our host chapter. We were then welcomed by Stacy, who introduced the rest of the Ohio regional leadership team: Western District Representative Sean Allen, Northern District Representative April Hubbard, our own Eastern District Representative and ΒΓΕ Chapter President Ben Nash, Vice President Rachel Descipio-Ketler, Regional Co-Coordinator Rick Clever, and Regional Coordinator and ΒΓΕ Chapter Advisor David, Sigmund. Rachel then proceeded to take the Regional Chapter roll call before Stacy gave her Regional Address.
Lakeland Community College President Sunil Ahuja welcomed us all to the college and April Hubbard, President of ΑΨΡ (Alpha Psi Rho) Chapter and Ohio Northern District Representative welcomed us on behalf of our host chapter. We were then welcomed by Stacy, who introduced the rest of the Ohio regional leadership team: Western District Representative Sean Allen, Northern District Representative April Hubbard, our own Eastern District Representative and ΒΓΕ Chapter President Ben Nash, Vice President Rachel Descipio-Ketler, Regional Co-Coordinator Rick Clever, and Regional Coordinator and ΒΓΕ Chapter Advisor David, Sigmund. Rachel then proceeded to take the Regional Chapter roll call before Stacy gave her Regional Address.
Stacy’s speech was about finding solace and relaxation in nature as well as finding common ground and understanding with other people before judging them harshly. She urged us to look to the example of
great leaders such as Ruth-Bader Ginsburg and make our voices known through participating in our democracy by voting if no other method. Her address was followed by the keynote address delivered by
Professor Mitchell James, author of the book Seldom Seen.
Professor James spoke about the relevance of narratives to our honors study topic, “The Science of Stories”. He then engaged us in an activity where we were instructed to pair up and collaboratively develop a character and then construct a short narrative involving that narrative. He asked us to introspectively examine the writing process we had just employed and then to share some of our narrative details and writing insights.
After a break, Dave Sigmund discussed the state of the region, personal responsibility for participation and leadership, and opportunities to learn and build oneself up as a leader through ΦΘΚ including the PTK Edge Program. The regional officers helped Dave distribute Edge completion pins to all members present who had earned them since the Awards Conference. He was followed by Alpha President Grace Blatt.
Grace reported on Alpha’s recent events such as a session on navigating higher education with disabilities and plans including goals for the year like raising more scholarship money and upcoming events such as Hallmark award submission assistance.
We had the honor of two International Officers attending HIA this year. Ohio’s own International Division I Vice President Alyssa DeFlorentis and, also from Ohio, International President Annalise Smith were present to provide the official updates from ΦΘΚ Headquarters. Alyssa provided the updates with occasional additions and commentary from Annalise.
They relayed that the ΦΘΚ goals from headquarters for the year are:
- To increase membership
- Improve communication throughout the society
- Raise overall awareness of ΦΘΚ
- Increase the number of chapters reaching five-star status.
They also revealed that a newly redesigned ΦΘΚ website including an AI-supported FAFSA mentor just went online on August 3rd. The Fall Phi Theta Kappa scholarship application is now open. Some important events coming up from headquarters include:
- The Publication of Civic Scholar and Change Makers Journals in mid-August
- A Virtual Transfer Fair on August 13th at 2:00 pm Central
- An Honors in Action Project Webinar on August 21st at 3:00 pm Central
- A Time Management Webinar on August 27th at 3:00 pm Central
- The Scholar Dash Fundraiser will happen in October on a date to be determined
- An Individual Hallmark Award Writing Webinar on October 2nd at 3:00 pm Central
- An Unlocking Financial Aid Webinar on October 8th at 3:00 pm Central
- A NASA NCAS Information Session on October 10th at 3:00 pm Central
- A College Project Hallmark Award Webinar on October 16th at 3:00 pm Central
- A Virtual Transfer Fair on October 17th at 6:00 pm Central
- A Mastering LinkedIn Webinar on October 28th at 2:00 pm Central
- An Honors in Action Hallmark Award Webinar on October 30 at 3:00 pm Central
- Fall Scholarship Applications are due December 3rd
- Chapter Member and Officer Hallmark Award Entries are due December 4th at 5:00 pm Central
- HIA and College Project Hallmark Entries are due on January 8th at 5:00 pm Central
- Regional Awards for Excellence/Regional Officer Awards due January 15th at 5:00 pm Central
- International Officer Candidate Applications due January 22nd
- Five Star Chapter Plan Final Deadline is January 31st
- ΦΘΚ Awareness Week is February 24-28
After lunch, Stacy read a proposed amendment to the Regional bylaws raising the regional officer stipend from $150 per conference to $200 per conference. Per bylaw amendment rules, this proposal will be discussed and voted on at the next Regional Convention, Leadership in Action at Washington State College of Ohio in October. She was followed by a full-group breakout session hosted by ΑΨΡ Chapter.
The breakout session revolved around how routine “boring” details can be fleshed out and made extremely interesting in the right context. This is useful both for writing and getting to know people better. This fact was demonstrated by asking people to tell the group something boring about themselves, by playing the game/icebreaker “two truths and a lie” and by groups of four collaborating to construct a narrative around four random images on a page. This session was followed immediately by a second breakout session.
For Breakout Session II, there were five separate sessions:
- Learning about publishing writing in Nota Bene, ΦΘΚ’s Literary Journal with Vice President
- Rachel Descipio-Ketler
- Learning about completing the PTK Edge programs with Northern District Representative April
- Hubbard and Western District Representative Sean Allen
- Learning about running for regional office with President Stacy Jarvis and Eastern District
- Representative Ben Nash
- Attending the Alumni Business Meeting
- Attending the All-Advisor Meeting
Finally, we convened for the third general session. This session began with, the three District Representatives, Sean, April, and Ben giving their district reports. Alyssa DeFlorentis gave a presentation on the recent adventures of our Regional Mascot, Howdy Bear before his new host chapter, ΑΡΕ (Alpha Rho Epsilon) Columbus State Community College, was announced. The winner of the price reimbursement for the purchase of the Ohio ΦΘΚ license plate was announced followed by conference
attendance, a formal invitation to all Ohio ΦΘΚ members to come to the Leadership in Action Conference on October 18th and 19th with fellowship at a museum on the 18 th and business at Washington State College of Ohio on the 19th. This was followed by the most exciting news of the entire conference.
On March 7th and 8th of 2024, the Ohio Region Awards Conference will be held at Kent State University- Stark Campus. The host chapter will be our very own ΒΓΕ Stark State College chapter! This is a tremendous opportunity for our chapter to show the entire Ohio Region what we can do!
Winners of the basket and 50/50 raffles raising money for scholarships from Alpha were announced and Stacy led us through a recitation of the ΦΘΚ Mission Statement before convening the conference.
