May 31, 2006

PTK PARTNERS FOR BOOK COLLECTION

BOONEVILLE, Miss. --  Phi Theta Kappa, international honor society for the two-year colleges, recently announced a new partnership with Better World Books, an organization that sponsors PTK chapters around the country to run book drives at the end of the semester.  Members of Northeast Mississippi Community College’s Iota Zeta chapter chose to pursue a drive for the National Center for Family Literacy---Hurricane Relief, which provides educational materials and books to at-risk children and families in the region affected by the recent hurricane disaster (www.familit.org).  Members solicited donations from students during book buy-back at the college’s bookstore by encouraging students to donate books that were no longer being used and/or ones that they were getting little returns on. Northeast students donated some 500 books. Phi Theta Kappa officers at Northeast recently packaged the books for shipping.  Pictured are officers Mary Hansen, New Albany, vice president for service; president Rusty Whitten, Corinth; and Cody Burchell of Booneville, vices president for service.  Burshell also serves as regional vice- president for the Mississippi –Louisiana Region.  Northeast’s Iota Zeta chapter was awarded a Pinnacle Silver Chapter Award recently in recognition of their membership acceptance campaigns in 2005, signifying an increase of 10 percent in membership over the previous year.  The chapter was also recently as a Five Star Chapter, the highest rating given.  Phi Theta Kappa is an international organization composed of 1100 chapters at colleges in the United States and Canada.   Phi Theta Kappa’s international headquarters are located in Jackson, Miss.  The honor society seeks to foster the development of leadership and service, to provide an intellectual climate for the exchange of ideas and to encourage the establishment of scholarships for advanced education.  Phi Theta Kappa is recognized by the American Association of Community Colleges as the official honor society for two-year colleges.