James Hagan
Published: February 4 2004
Arguably, the most prestigious accomplishment to be awarded by PJC is to be named a member of the All-USA Academic Team.
Only two students are chosen among the college’s three campuses to be a part of this elite group.
Unfortunately, of the thousands of qualified applicants that could apply, only five students did so.
For such a prestigious award the turnout seems exceedingly low.
The search for the best that PJC has to offer academically has seemingly fallen through the cracks.
This award is sponsored by Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), an honor society that has chapters on all three of the college’s campuses.
Students need not be members of PTK to apply.
Some students have speculated that the number of applicants may be low because PTK is not making an effort to attract qualified applicants.
For 14 years, PTK, USA TODAY and the American Association of Community Colleges have sponsored the All-USA Academic Team.
The award annually recognizes 60 outstanding two-year college students, spread out over first, second and third place teams.
The 20 first place students receive $2,500 in scholarships and all 60 students get their name printed in USA Today, the world’s most read newspaper.
Each PTK campus chapter is allowed to nominate two students.
Those nominations are then forwarded to the President’s Office and with input from PTK advisors, two students are selected for the main competition.
The reason for the PTK input, said Pensacola campus PTK advisor Jeff Wooters, is because the PJC administration knows that its members, who are required to have a 3.5 GPA to join will meet the eligibility requirement.
However, the scholarship is open to any sophomore student with a 3.25 GPA and 12 hours of completed course work at the college.
Those aren’t terribly stringent guidelines, yet last semester only two students from the Pensacola campus, both members of PTK, applied. The same scenario happened on the Milton campus, while on Milton only one student submitted an application for the award.
Wooters sees nothing surprising about that.
“Students usually don’t respond to scholarship opportunities. I’ve been on committees in the past and we’ve studied this. Oftentimes the money just sits there.”
The application form for the All-USA Academic Team is involved, said Wooters.
This could discourage people from taking the time to fill it out.
A 10-page form must be completed, letters of recommendation are required and an essay must be written describing the student’s most significant experience at their community college.
Although Wooters does acknowledge that many students may not even know about the award, he said in past years members have put up flyers advertising the award and have done more to promote it.
Due to time factors, he said, that sometimes is hard to do.
The Corsair has a calendar of events/ news briefs section which informs students of campus happenings and academic deadlines, but the student paper was never notified of the opportunity by PTK advisors or officers.
As a result, it’s very likely that many PJC students, staff and faculty are unaware about the award or its requirements.
In fact, the head of PJC’s Honors Program was unaware that the scholarship is available to all students.
“I thought it was restricted to PTK students,” said Dr. Charlie Schuler. “It’s something that honors students would be interested in.”
Wooters said they do make a point of alerting PTK members about the award by mentioning it at meetings and including the information in group e-mails.
That claim is refuted by one member, however.
“I’m in PTK and I don’t think I’ve heard of the scholarship,” said Jesse Olivieri, also a PJC honor student. “It hasn’t been in any e-mail the club has sent me. I think it’s kind of messed up if they’re hiding this from us.”
At the Pensacola campus Financial Aid office, which has dozens of forms detailing scholarship information, no form regarding the All-USA Academic Team is there.
The Corsair isn’t claiming that the PTK officers and advisors are attempting to rig the competition or is engaging in a “good ole boy network” of only allowing their hand-picked students to apply.
What seems to be happening is an error of omission.
Perhaps it didn’t dawn on responsible parties that more effort needs to be made in alerting a broader range of students who may be interested of the honor and accompanying scholarship.
Any academic group has a duty to educate members to every available opportunity for scholarships and academic accolades. If it is truly the goal of PJC, PTK, USA Today, and the American Association of Community Colleges to find the cream of the crop then it is vital that all students be made aware of this award and given a chance to apply.
E-mails should be sent to members of PTK reminding them of the deadlines for their applications.
Teachers and administrators should also be alerted.
Also, student publications, like The Corsair, should be made aware so that a maximum pool of applications can be submitted.
Finally, information should be made available at all the financial aid offices for curious students.
The Corsair realizes that PTK serves a valuable purpose at PJC but if club advisors want to remove even the appearance of impropriety, then a more concerted effort should be made to make all students aware of the scholarship opportunity.