By Gabriel Secundino
Staff Writer
The tops of the tables in Q201 were filled with assortments of cookies, snacks and two dispensers filled with coffee.
Alpha Delta Pi, Brookhaven College’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa International Honors Society, hosted Coffee Night Oct. 21. Members were there to raise awareness of two of their projects.
Mike Navarro, vice president of Phi Theta Kappa’s District 2 Texas Region, said one of the initiatives for Coffee Night was to promote Community College Completion Corps (also known as C4).
Phi Theta Kappa and five other associations started the initiative. Navarro said the C4 initiative raises student awareness of the benefits completing an associate degree yields.
According to the U.S. Census Bereau, a person with an associate degree earns about $8,500 more than a person who just has a high school diploma.
Members from the honor society also promoted C4 with pins and stickers printed with the phrase “I’m committed to community college completion.” Students could sign a poster to pledge to complete an associate degree.
Coffee Night also served as a pool to gather information for Alpha Delta Pi’s “Honors in Action” project.
In the Oct. 14 Phi Theta Kappa orientation, Kaitlin King, president of Alpha Delta Pi, spoke to members of this year’s “Honors in Action” project.
She said the project requires gathering information about the amount of imported clothing Americans wear as opposed to clothing made in the U.S. The project also raises awareness of jobs being outsourced due to imported clothing and the direct or indirect effect on the U.S. economy.
At Coffee Night, a computer projecting a world map set the stage for members to input their findings.
King asked members to help each other look at the tags on the back of their shirts.
One by one, members went up to the map and placed a sticky note to show where their clothing was made; most where not from the U.S.
Sheri Van Court, ESOL professor and Phi Theta Kappa adviser, said she launched Coffee Night in 1992 and that the event has been a regular occurrence ever since.
She said the event has been used to raise funds and host guest speakers.