Marvin Langsam Receives 2010 Board of Directors Alumni Achievement Award
Most Phi Theta Kappa constituencies know Marvin Langsam as a former chapter
advisor - but like many advisors, he is also a Phi Theta Kappa member. Unlike
many advisors, however, Marvin reversed the order, becoming an advisor
first.
"Fairly early on in my time as an advisor I started to see
how Phi Theta Kappa really contributed to lives in a positive way and I decided
I would like to experience it for myself," said Marvin, recipient of the
2010 Board of Directors Alumni Achievement Award.
Marvin will
receive the award at the 2010 Convention in Orlando, and will be Keynote
Speaker for the Alumni Banquet.
"I was, and I continue to be very
proud of my membership," he says. "You may not always be an advisor but you
remain a member for life."
Marvin had been advisor at the Mu Epsilon
Chapter at Miami-Dade College in Florida for several years when he enrolled
in classes at the college, and made the grades to be officially inducted
as a Phi Theta Kappa member. He took this unusual step to be more connected
with his students, who were always his top priority. Most of the Mu Epsilon
members were first-generation students, ethnically diverse and from
economically fragile backgrounds. Marvin mentored, encouraged, pushed
and even threatened them - and it paid off. He was a pioneer in using chapter
programs to teach the value of scholarship, leadership and service.
Marvin
attended his first Convention in 1984, taking only a few students, including
a young man named Rene Perez. "Rene and I came to learn and we did." The following
year, Mu Epsilon was named the Most Distinguished Chapter and Rene was elected
National President.
This was the first of many successes - the
chapter was named Most Distinguished twice, and placed in the Top Ten year
after year. Marvin himself won many advisor awards, including Most Distinguished
Advisor and the Mosal Award. Many Mu Epsilon members received individual
awards, and four chapter members were elected International Officers,
including Phi Theta Kappa's first Hispanic National President, Rene Perez,
and first African American National President, Stephen Gilmore. Gilmore
was also invited to speak at the American Association of Community Colleges
Convention, one of the few students to ever receive this honor.
Marvin's
innovative and creative chapter programming also led to the creation of
the regional honors institutes. He always took large delegations to Honors
Institutes but because he wanted to extend the Honors Institute experience
to as many students as possible, he established the first Mini-Honors Institute.
Today most of the Phi Theta Kappa regions have incorporated honors institute
activities into their regional programming. His mentoring of a Mississippi
chapter laid the groundwork for the first Sister Chapter Program.
Marvin
understood how valuable the Convention experience would be to members,
and under his leadership Mu Epsilon raised money to help members in need
pay Convention fees. When Marvin retired from Miami-Dade, he wanted to
be sure that this fund would remain intact. Following a chapter vote, the
funds were transferred to Phi Theta Kappa to establish an endowment to pay
in perpetuity for Convention registrations for Mu Epsilon members.
Marvin
also worked to develop an alumni presence in Florida, as an advisor and also
after his retirement. He keeps in touch with hundreds of former students
and Phi Theta Kappa colleagues. Marvin and his wife Meira, also a Phi Theta
Kappa alumna, volunteer their time to serve on the Phi Theta Kappa Convention
staff every year.
And while the Society has seen many changes
since Marvin first became involved, the basic benefit that Phi Theta Kappa
provides its members remains unchanged.
"There is, as there
has always been, lots of information out there and everyone has access to
it - once mainly through books, now also with electronic media," Marvin
said. "And while everyone can know everything - people are not learning
how to actually do anything."
"Phi Theta Kappa takes the brightest
students and develops their abilities and skills, whether by pursuing
the Honors Study Topic, planning service events, developing leadership
training, managing an election campaign or preparing award entries. And
these skills stay with you."
"When I see students from 20-25
years ago and we talk about the good old days, what they are most grateful
for is their participation in Phi Theta Kappa activities and programs where
they learned how to do things. As adults, no one ever asks them to diagram
a sentence and they rarely have to solve an algebraic equation. But Phi Theta
Kappa gave them the life skills and the real world experiences they could
have gotten nowhere else. I am so very proud of my chapter members, but I'm
equally proud to be a member myself."
