Volume 33, Issue 1

After a year of hard work, members of the Beta Lambda Delta and Pi Pi chapters of Phi Theta Kappa are about to enter their travel season! 

• March 1-2, the Beta Lambda Delta chapter will host the Alabama Regional Phi Theta Kappa Convention at Jefferson State’s Shelby-Hoover campus.  Members from around the state will gather to learn about the convention theme:  “Transformations Through Creativity.”  Breakout sessions will include lessons in Irish dance, Indian dance, street art, slam poetry, and Tai Chi. 
• April 4-6, the students will travel to Orlando, Florida for the Phi Theta Kappa International Convention.  Approximately 4,000 Phi Theta Kappans from around the globe will converge upon the Gaylord Palms for three days of workshops, general sessions, and fun.  They will also squeeze in a date with Mickey on Friday night! 
• This June, the chapters will travel to San Diego, California for the PTK International Honors Institute at San Diego State University.  They will hear from world-renowned speakers as they explore the PTK honors topic:  “Transformations:  Acknowledging, Accessing, and Achieving Change.” 

Phi Theta Kappa is the official honor society of two-year schools and is the largest honor society in the world.  For more information, Clanton and Shelby students may contact Liesl Harris at (205) 983-5956 or at lwharris@jeffersonstate.edu.  Jefferson and Pell City students may contact Matt Boehm at 856-5200 or at mboehm@jeffersonstate.edu.

The Jefferson State Speech and Debate Team will be hosting a Speech and Debate Showcase on the Shelby Campus on April 8th from 6-7 pm.  It will be held in HSB 129-D and will feature a debate as well as individual speaking events.  This is a great opportunity to learn about what the team does as well as how to get involved.  Everyone is invited and refreshments will be served.  Full-tuition scholarships are available for team members.  Please contact Dr. Janice Ralya for more information (jralya@jeffersonstate.edu). 

The Jefferson State Speech and Debate Team competed with 24 other colleges and universities at the Eddy Shell Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament, hosted by Bossier Parish Community College on February 15-17.  The team won 2nd place in Individual Event Sweepstakes and 4th place in Overall Sweepstakes.

In the individual event portion of the tournament, Atiyah Muhammad won 1st place in Dramatic Interpretation, 6th place in Impromptu Speaking and 3rd place in Individual Sweepstakes.  Jason Alder won 7th in Impromptu Speaking and Rich Quarles took home 4th place in Impromptu, 5th in Extemporaneous Speaking and 2nd in Program Oral Interpretation.

The second half of the tournament was IPDA debate, a type of debate in which students are assigned as either the Affirmative or Negative speaker and are given 30 minutes to prepare their case for a debate that lasts 26 minutes. The debate topic changes each round and can range anywhere from politics and philosophy, to pop-culture and current events. Nathan Wright and Heaven Sheppard broke into double octofinals in novice IPDA.  Jacob Humphries advanced to quarterfinals in the same division and ranked as 8th overall novice debate speaker out of 80 competitors.

• The team is currently looking for new members and scholarships are available. 
• Contact Dr. Janice Ralya (jralya@jeffersonstate.edu) for more information.