Three Marietta College students recently traveled to San Diego, Calif., to participate in the Alpha Lambda Delta National Leadership Workshop.
Alpha Lambda Delta is a national honorary society for students in the top 20 percent of their class with a 3.5 GPA or higher in their first year of college. Marietta College’s ALD officers, President Taylor Myers ’15 (Beallsville, Ohio), Secretary Angela Sipes ’14 (Wexford, Pa.) and Treasurer Michael Fahy ’15 (Washington, Pa.), attended the event, which took place Oct. 18-20.
“The conference was eye-opening for (us),” Sipes says. “We didn’t really know what we were in for, beyond what the schedule described.”
Dr. Suzanne Walker, the faculty adviser, considered sending students to the conference to achieve her goals of increasing the chapter’s activity on campus. However, Walker says Myers was the one to solidify the trip.
“Taylor actually beat me to the punch,” Walker says. “He sent me an excited email and said, ‘I’ve registered us for the conference — what do we do now?’ ”
The three officers were able to attend the conference on a partial scholarship from Alpha Lambda Delta, with Sipes acting as the stand-in trip adviser.
While in San Diego, Myers noticed the Marietta College chapter of ALD was very different from others across the nation, some of which had hundreds of members and performed service projects at their schools every month. This inspired him and the other officers to improve ALD at Marietta.
“This is my theory: at Marietta, other organizations that aren’t Greek Life consume everyone’s time so much that academic honor societies are put on the back burner,” Myers says. “In reality, they could be some of our greatest resources in getting students involved in the local community.”
In the past, being in ALD at Marietta College focused mostly on participating in an induction ceremony and nothing else. As a result of what they’ve learned during the workshop, the officers have already made plans to implement two annual service projects as well as a second ceremony in the spring to honor the academic achievement of graduating ALD seniors. They also intend to increase their efforts in telling members about available scholarships, some of which have never been communicated before according to Walker.
Their first service project, a basketball court restoration at the Jackson Dog Park, occurred Oct. 29. They will host a canned food drive in the spring. Myers says they are also considering collaborating for a statewide service project in the future with ALD leaders they met from Bowling Green State University, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Mount Union.
Walker says the Marietta College ALD chapter will continue to send students to the conference in the future.
“With the enthusiasm they came back with and the ideas they’re excited about sharing, I think it’s a great way for the students to gain experience and make the honorary more active on campus,” Walker says.
Sipes confirmed this, saying that the motivation she gained from the conference will help the officers bring their ideas to life at Marietta College. “We’re looking to make ALD something more than just a name.”
LAURA KEATING
