The 17th Annual All-Colorado Academic Team Luncheon and Awards Ceremony that honors the top high-performing community service oriented students from 14 Colorado community colleges will be held Wednesday, March 11, at the Denver Athletic Club’s Grand Ballroom. These students belong to their college’s chapters of the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) honor society and have been selected as being the “best of the best” from their respective institutions. Recognizing the academic achievement of two-year college students, PTK is the largest honor society in American higher education.
Twenty-seven outstanding community college students will be recognized and the highest rated of those will be presented as Colorado’s “New Century Scholar” award honoree and given a $2,000 scholarship from the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation and the Coca-Cola Foundation. The New Century Scholar will be invited to represent Colorado at the annual American Association of Community Colleges national convention.
Additionally, all 27 students will receive scholarships from Johnson & Wales University and Regis University.
Trinidad State’s honoree is Mary Carpenter. She’s an active sophomore from Albuquerque and at 6’4” tall, plays on the Women’s Basketball Team. She’s the oldest of six children and says her goal in life is to be a positive role model for her younger siblings. She’s a second year member of the acclaimed Trinidad State Robotics Team and will graduate in May with an Associate of Science Degree. Mary hopes to get a four-year degree in electrical engineering and eventually merge her love of robotics with the development of prosthetics.
Invitees include all members of the Colorado General Assembly, the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education, senior staff of the Colorado Community College System, community college presidents, community college PTK advisors and student guests.
To be eligible to belong to the PTK honor society, students must complete at least 12 hours of associate degree coursework and earn a minimum 3.5 grade point average. Colorado’s first PTK chapter was chartered in 1932 and today there are nearly two dozen active chapters in the state. More than 51,000 Colorado Community College students have been inducted over the last 83 years.