Camden County College and its Alpha Nu Mu Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society will cap off participation in the first New Jersey PTK Community College Completion Challenge (NJ C4) Kick-Off Week by hosting the PTK Middle States Honors in Action Conference, featuring a keynote address by PTK executive director and chief executive officer Rod Risley, on Oct. 19.
NJ C4 is an initiative among the New Jersey Council of County Colleges, the New Jersey Education Association and the PTK chapters at the state’s 19 community colleges. It aims to increase the number of community college students completing associate degrees and certificates to transfer to four-year institutions, earn bachelor’s degrees and enter careers that provide family-sustaining wages. NJ C4 is part of the national Community College Completion Initiative, which began in 2010 with the goal of producing five million more associate degree and certificate holders by 2020. Further information is available at www.cccompletionchallenge.org and www.cccompletioncorps.org.
At CCC, PTK members and chapter advisors Bernadette Carlin, Dan Flisser and Eileen Radetich have spent the week leading efforts to have students sign pledges to complete their community college credentials and to have faculty and administrative employees sign pledges to commit to helping students succeed. The College’s academic division and campus with the highest percentage of signed pledges will be awarded a recognition plaque during a ceremony at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18. During this event, which will be held on the Blackwood Campus courtyard where graduation is held, a report on all of the CCC commitments collected will be buried in the hopes that these “seeds” will “flower” into more graduations.
From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, top community college students from throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware will gather on the Blackwood Campus for education and dialogue about competition and completion. Risley will speak from 10 to 11 a.m., and NJCCC Center for Student Success coordinator Louis Venturelli will focus on the C4 initiative from 1 to 1:20 p.m.
Attendees also will take part in workshops on the service, leadership and fellowship activities their chapters engage in throughout the academic term. A seminar on honors projects will be presented by Flisser and chapter co-president Rachel McDonnell-Mojica of Clementon. Another workshop will be given by CCC chapter co-president Sarah Kamal of Sewell, and it will highlight PTK’s Five Star Competitive Edge professional development program.
A special feature of the day will be the presentation “Sounds of Baseball: A Culture and Competitive Composition” by CCC music instructor Rob Smith. This lecture will be given from 2:20 to 3 p.m. and include collection of used sports shoes to donate to the Alpha Nu Mu Shoe Recycling Drive.
