June 1998

...Pursuing "The Pursuit of Happiness"

Page 2.

Brainstorm the Issues

Once your chapter overview reaches the last item--issues from various academic fields--you may want to open the floor for brainstorming. Members will come up with many more issues and even think of instructors on campus who could address each issue or help promote some projects to illuminate them.

Once you have the issues that the chapter wants to address throughout the year, arrange them in the order which seems most appropriate. Then plan your programs and projects for each separate issue. You will want very complete planning for the first few issues before you begin to implement your plans. You may not be able to plan issues you will address later quite as completely in the beginning, but be sure you are continually planning ahead throughout the year.

Consider Campus and Community Events

It is important that an individual or committee research the college and community events which your chapter could participate in. You don 't want to reinvent the wheel or to schedule events which will conflict with community events.

Once you have done your homework and know what has already been planned in your area, plan your own comprehensive chapter scholarship program.

Suggested Projects and Programs

Now that you have planned to reach out and join the campus and community programs already planned, be sure that you now plan programs which allow the college and community to reach out and join you. Though there are dozens of projects which could be effective in learning about the pursuit of happiness, those which combine the college community and the local community are often the most rewarding. The following suggestions might help you integrate college and community resources:

Work with the college honors program to plan a lecture series. Each lecture could address an issue which is examined in the Honors Study Topic Program Guide. Lectures might be delivered by visiting scholars as well as college faculty and followed by a discussion session. If possible, the lectures should be free to the community.

Ask honor faculty and others in the community who are published authors to display their works on campus and participate in a round table on "The Arts and the Pursuit of Happiness."You might also ask these authors to read passages from their works which reveal "conflicting visions and values "in the pursuit of happiness.

Develop a panel from the faculty and the community which includes a psychologist, a sociologist, a biologist and a religion and ethics professor. Ask them to discuss among themselves the topic "What Is Happiness and How Do You Get It" and then answer questions.

Ask a local news anchor to conduct an interactive "town meeting" with a diverse local audience on the topic, "Happiness Is a Sense of Community."Use this as a springboard to a year-long educational promotion on community involvement.

One Chapter's Example

Among those chapters which have already made a fine effort to involve college and community is the Phi Theta Kappa chapter at Macon State College, Macon, Georgia. The chapter is now busy planning its annual film lecture, a program which is prominently promoted in the city newspaper under "Calendar of Arts and Letters Events."

An expected audience of 400-500 people will first view the film "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and then hear a film critic's lecture on how the movie relates to our individual and national pursuits of happiness. The audience will participate in a discussion which follows.

In a Community and College Day Lecture Program, which also attracts a large audience from the community each year, a faculty scholar and frequent traveler will address "The Definition of Happiness in Russia."

A chapter-sponsored essay contest on the new Honors Study Topic has received 43 entries from local high school students. Among other incentives for entering the contest, the essay receiving the first place award will be published in Macon State College's freshman composition anthology.

© Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society