The Journey
         A newsletter for Phi Theta Kappa chapter advisors, chapter officers, and regional officers.  

Implementing the Honors Study Topic - Chapter Examples

Among the chapters which have already begun to implement the new Honors Study Topic is the one at Tyler Junior College in Texas. This chapter is planning "round table" discussions on issues from the Honors Study Topic Program Guide. The participants will include a good cross section of the community, including such leaders as the district attorney, a civil rights leader, the college's faculty senate president, a prominent minister, and leaders from local public and private high schools.

Round table discussions are planned for the fall and the spring. The chapter expects an audience of more than 100 people for each. These audiences and others will be polled and their answers analyzed for a chapter report on such issues as what local institutions have had the greatest impact on their lives and why.

Society members at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, Iowa, are busy planning their yearly meeting calendar. Most of the meetings will feature an "honors topic program," featuring discussions, readings, performances, etc., by members and college faculty.

In addition to these programs, all induction speeches are by faculty, and all such speeches are on some aspect of the current Honors Study Topic. And each year the recipient of the President's Outstanding Faculty Award makes an address on the Honors Study Topic.

In north Georgia, Truett-McConnell College will use the Honors Study Topic in all of its speech classes on all five of its campuses. Materials selected from the Program Guide have already been placed on reserve. All research for speeches must come from these sources, making it easy for faculty to monitor research, note-taking and speech development.

Exceptional speeches delivered on the five campuses will be awarded during the college's Honors Day in the spring. The college hopes to be able to allow some of the students to give their speeches at this time.

Among the many college honors courses based on the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Study Topic is the one just approved at Broome Community College in Binghamton, New York. Topics in the course outline include "Becoming Human: The Emergence of Humanoids," "Inventing Civilization," "Developing a Conscience," "Accidents of Geography," "Uniting the Planet," "The Pursuit of Liberty," and "The Prospects Before Us: Great Expectations."

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