North Lake Campus’ Phi Theta Kappa chapter attended the Texas Leadership Conference in Houston, Texas, from Oct. 7 – Oct. 9.

The three-day conference was meant for PTK members to develop leadership skills to utilize in each local chapter.

North Lake student Leticia Laranjeira has been in PTK for two semesters and is the Vice-President of scholarship for the Alpha Zeta Eta chapter. Laranjeira said the experience to attend the conference was a good experience.

“The experience of the trip was meaningful to me,” Laranjeira said, “I always liked the workshops and the speakers, but mostly I liked the small group sections because we can express our opinions and debate with other members, and this exchange of points of views and perspectives helps a lot to analyze situations and resolve problems.”

Laranjeira first joined PTK because she wanted something to put on my resume loves that she has met people through PTK. She said being an officer has allowed her to grow and improve herself.

Dr. Sherry Boyd has been a PTK advisor for the Alpha Zeta Eta chapter since 2016. She said that her favorite speaker at the conference was William Bess, chair of all advisors for the Texas region. She noted that Bess did an incredible job as a speaker, engaging the audience with powerful messages.

“The planning part and then being a facilitator are two things that I enjoyed about the leadership conference, but what I miss by being a facilitator is that I miss getting to connect with the other advisors,” Dr. Boyd said.

Dr. Boyd said the best part of being a facilitator at the conference was that she got to interact with students on a more personal level and work through the material with them.

Alpha Zeta Eta and the Cedar Valley chapter made a scholarship workshop, and they brought one of the students from last year to help them with the workshop.

Dr. Boyd said that it gives students the space to make workshops and presentations and helps them to accentuate their leadership skills.

She also said that part of PTK’s mission is to “Help build better leaders. If we don’t challenge our high-achieving students, we lose them at the same rate that we lose our low-achieving students. There needs to be a challenge for high-achieving students. There must be things that challenge their intellect and their creativity. And I feel that PTK does that.”

Dr. Boyd said that 93% of students in PTK transfer, which is a big deal, especially when looking at the low percentage from community colleges.

Laranjeira said that when she was at a university in Brazil, she felt like something was missing. She wanted the whole college experience, so she joined PTK and became active in the organization.

Laranjeira also said that she loves to connect with strangers at this event, “Fellowship is a hallmark of PTK. They embrace it. I love the part when you can sit with people that you never met and talk about anything.”

She said that PTK is not more schoolwork but an opportunity to be your best self and unlock a student’s potential.

PTK member Fatima Rodriguez said it was her first trip with PTK, and she said, “The trip made me realize the wonderful community that the PTK chapter has. The trip made me realize how lucky I am to have had this experience and to have shared it with the people that I did.”

Rodriguez said she attended the leadership workshops, the breakout groups, and the speaker presentations. She said her favorite moment was hearing a speaker talk about stereotypes and biases in our lives.

Rodriguez said that she is happy about the friendships that flourished at the conference and those that were reaffirmed because of the trip.

“During the trip, I worked on my communication skills,” Rodriguez said. “It is still difficult for me however, now I am not terrified of it anymore.”