beta theta omicron membersSkyline College’s Omicron Theta Beta Chapter was named Fifth Finalist for Most Distinguished Chapter at the 2015 Phi Theta Kappa Conference in San Antonio on April 18. The Most Distinguished Chapter is an international award and the highest honor given to a Phi Theta Kappa chapter. Skyline College ranks sixth out of 1,280 chapters. Nearly 4,000 community college students participated in the three-day conference that was filled with scholarship and leadership forums. Keynote speakers included physicist Michio Kaku and songwriter John Legend.

“I’m proud of our students and chapter officers for their dedication to excellence and service,” said Christine Case, Phi Theta Kappa Advisor. “This recognizes their outstanding service to our college and the community and makes our chapter one of the top ten chapters in the world.”

Skyline College’s chapter also received the 2015 Distinguished Honors in Action Project and 2015 Distinguished College Project Award. The chapter has consistently earned national recognition since it’s chartering in 1999. And has earned the Nevada/California Regional Distinguished Chapter award five times.

The awards were the result of competitive essays documenting the chapter’s multiple projects this year, including a year-long service project that taught computer literacy to local senior citizens called Together We Thrive and a project that brought science labs to middle schools.

Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society is the largest honor society in American higher education with more than 1,280 chapters at two-year and community college campuses in all 50 of the United States, and Canada, Germany, Peru, the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the British Virgin Islands, the United Arab Emirates and U.S. territorial possessions. There are 94 chapters in California and more than 3 million students have been inducted since its founding in 1918, with approximately 135,000 students inducted annually.

Photo from left: Jaimelynn Alvarez, Sam Reveles, Livius Darmawan (front), Oladipo Toriola, Susan Wu, Donway Sy

Article and Photo by Christine Case