Virginia Peninsula Community College inducted 31 members into its Phi Theta Kappa honor society Wednesday, April 17. The guest speaker for the ceremony, which was held at the Peninsula Workforce Development Center, was Antonio Dill-Word.
Dill-Word is the program manager for The Shop, whose vision statement reads, “the shop is to be the premiere support and developmental resource for minority men at Virginia Peninsula Community College.” Speaking from experience, discussed the importance of resilience. He struggled at his first college, landing on academic probation before transferring to VPCC.
Shortly after joining the College, he had a talk with one of his mentors about what makes a great leader.
“What I learned from that conversation was every leader has a high level of resilience,” he told the students, family members and friends on hand supporting the inductees. “It’s not about the IQ that you have. It’s not about the skill set. It’s about what you do when you hit that rough patch, when you hit that moment when your genius isn’t working, when your creativity isn’t enough to get you over the hill. What do you do when you fall flat on your face?”
He said the resiliency the students have shown on their path to PTK is similar to what they will face once they leave VPCC, whether they move on to a four-year institution or head into the workforce.
“At some point, you are going to hit that rough patch, life is going to be hard,” he said. “As long as you’re willing to bounce back and build up your strength … and continue to push forward and persevere, you’ll be OK.”
While the ceremony focused on new members, it also was a celebration of recent success. VPCC’s Phi Sigma chapter recently was lauded for an outstanding year, earning the following accolades:
- Continued Excellence chapter;
- First place Distinguished Honors in Action project;
- Second place Distinguished Chapter Officer Team (president Daryn Fahlbusch and VP Shane Smith);
- Second place Distinguished Chapter award;
- In addition, Smith was named a Coca-Cola Academic Team Silver Scholar, which came with a $1,250 scholarship.
PTK adviser Adrianna Hardage said the Continued Excellence award was particularly rewarding as the chapter earned the highest award, five stars.
“VPCC was one of just four chapters in the region, which covers 47 colleges in Virginia and West Virginia, to win this award,” Hardage said. “We’ve been a five-star chapter since 2019.”
The club’s Honors in Action project was titled “The Role of Nostalgia in Promoting Engagement with College Sports.”
“Our students this year wanted to focus on how to improve the campus community,” Hardage said. “Essentially, we were trying to see if student nostalgia regarding sports can be used to improve the student culture at VPCC, specifically by building community.”
Hardage said the study showed most students has some prior connection to sports, they are interested in a variety of sports on campus, and the major barrier to student attendance is time constraint.
“However, the data also demonstrated previously unseen barriers influencing student attendance, such as a large proportion of students not knowing the events are free to them,” she added.
The chapter plans to meet with the athletics department and the marketing team to discuss its findings.