For the first time this year, the Phi Theta Kappa International Honour Society will hold its annual Faculty Scholar Conference outside its headquarters in Mississippi.
And it is holding the event here in the Virgin Islands.
The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College will host the conference, which starts Tuesday and ends on Feb. 2.
PTK is an international honour society for two-year colleges and academic programmes. It boasts more than two million members and 1,200 chapters in all 50 of the United States, the US territories, Canada, Germany, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, United Arab Emirates, Palau, and the VI.
The purpose of the organisation is to recognise and encourage scholarship among two-year college students, according to HLSCC.
Each year the society selects faculty members to participate in its Faculty Scholar Conference and to serve as seminar facilitators at its Honors Institute.
In the VI, this year’s faculty scholars will launch PTK’s first biennial honours study topic, “Frontiers and the Spirit of Exploration.”
The scholars also will be prepared to serve as facilitators during the PTK Honors Institute in June. Intense training will be provided by academics to prepare participants to lead groups of 15-20 honour students or advisors in the seminar discussions during the institute, according to HLSCC.
VI academics presenting at next week’s conference include Dr. Charles Wheatley, Eileene Parsons, HLSCC President Dr. Karl Dawson, Dr. Bryan Penn and Dr. Michael O’Neal.
Drs. Angel Smith, Katherine Smith and Michael Kent will lead the scholars on a tour of historic Road Town. Participants also will tour the national parks of Virgin Gorda.
As part of the conference, the public is invited to attend a panel discussion themed, “Ideas and Ideologies as Frontiers: The Founding of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College.” The event will be held at 10 a.m. on Jan. 31 at the Eileene L. Parsons Auditorium at HLSCC. For more information call Dr. Sauda Smith at 852-7260.
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