Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

PHOTO PROVIDED BY DR. CLAY DREES

Phi Alpha Theta earns much success

By america ballerini

aballerini@vwc.edu

Virginia Wesleyan’s national history honor society, Phi Alpha Theta, recently attended the Phi Alpha Theta Virginia Regional History Conference at Christopher Newport University on Saturday, March 8. Four Wesleyan students presented papers, two of the papers received awards.

“We are gratified that the research and scholarship being done by VWC history students stacks up so well against the better schools in Virginia,” said Dr. Clay Drees, faculty advisor.

Some of the schools that participated in the competition were Old Dominion University, James Madison University, Christopher Newport University, Mary Washington, Lynchburg, and Bridgewater. Out of the 12 possible awards, VWC took home two of them.

The four students and their papers that competed were: Brandan Adams “The Starving Time: Jamestown and its Environment,” Jennifer Brownell, “Bonne Cure: The Catholic Church and the Counter-Revolution of the French Vendee,” John Maravich, “The Evolution of Currency and Coinage During the Civil War,” and Charlie Swift, “St. Paul of Tarsus and St. Augustine of Hippo.” Brownell won second place in the European history category and Swift won first place in the world history category.

“A different college hosts the convention every year,” Drees said. “Next year, the convention will be hosted by Bridgewater, and in 2010, Wesleyan will be the host.”

The history honors society was established at Wesleyan in 1980. Currently there are seven active members and 12 friends.

“Friends of Phi Alpha Theta don’t qualify for the society yet but enjoy history,” Drees said. “Friends are treated the same as the members, they also have their own friends officer.”

Being a friend of the society allows incoming freshman and students working on a history major, to get involved with the society and see what it is about. To join the society, a student must have at least four college history classes and a 3.0 GPA or better.

Most of the society’s activities are off campus. On April 8, Phi Alpha Theta, as well as Psi Chi, had a movie night and showed “The Aviator.” The night usually consists of a movie with historical interest, followed by dinner. Other activities include historical field trips. One of the bigger trips was to Gettysburg in November, where about 12 members and friends attended. The society also has a used book sale every year. This year, they held two sales and they earned around $495 during the spring sale.

“Phi Alpha Theta is the glue to holding the history department together,” Drees said. “Informally, the entire history department is involved with the society.”

Drees has been a lifetime member to the society and is also the chair of the National Paper Prize Committee. He came to Wesleyan in 1992 and became the advisor in 1994. Not only does he teach classes at Wesleyan, Drees also receives between 50-60 student paper entries per year from around the country.

“My job is to sort the papers into groups by region, make new title pages without author names or schools (to preserve anonymity), and then send them out to my 12 judges around the country--from Hawaii to Maine” Drees said. “I served as a judge for 6 years myself until the national PAT office asked me to chair the committee.”

Phi Alpha Theta is a national honor society and is part of the Omega Pi chapter. There are about 900 societies nationwide.

“We are extremely proud of all four students for representing VWC so well at the state level,” said Drees.