and students from both Allegheny College and Carlow College) and informally between faculty and students who are Education majors at Mercyhurst. The development of an Education Leadership Honors Program represents the outcome of this lengthy collaboration.
..... It might have been a simpler, yet honorable endeavor to just initiate a chapter of Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society in Education here at Mercyhurst College, as the climate is ripe for such an endeavor. It might also have been simpler to begin a campaign to encourage students who major in Education to strive to join the existing Honors Program at the College. We felt through our exploration that we needed more to effectively prepare educational leaders.
.....The International Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society’s requirement for students is a 3.2 G.P.A. to enroll. Given that students must attain a 3.0 for admission into the Education Program, this would make the Honor Society attainable for nearly all of our majors. We are suggesting a G.P.A. of 3.6, to be consistent with the College’s Honors Program.
.....Given the rigorous challenges of the Honors Program, along with the extensive field experience required in the Education Program, many of our students choose not to participate in the Honors Program and miss the tremendous opportunity for gaining depth of understanding of the excellent Liberal Studies curriculum available to them at Mercyhurst College. Considering this fact, along with the recognition that the field of education is in desperate need of leadership, it seemed evident that an opportunity to develop leadership within the pre-service teacher training program was not just a good idea, it is imperative. The most frequent comment from our highest achieving students reflects the disconnect between the Honors Program and their desire to become better teachers. Our challenge became evident: we needed to find a way to make show teachers the relevance of Liberal Studies.
.....Two discussion forums were held between Allegheny College (which has 3 different types of Honors Programs, each with a strong emphasis upon community service), Carlow College (whose non-traditional Honors Program encompasses several years of research for its participants) and Mercyhurst College faculty and students. All three colleges require service- learning. Both Carlow and Allegheny have very strong reflection components required of their students. Both Carlow and Allegheny allow the students to direct their learning, which further develops the leadership concept. We sought to develop a leadership program founded upon these two components while immersing students in the Liberal Studies core that becomes relevant to education majors because their academic challenge is seen through the eyes of an educator.
.....One critical factor in this process has been collaboration with our existing Honors Program. This highly successful program offers students a challenging Liberal Studies opportunity in a supportive learning environment. Our students have expressed two concerns; relevance to the profession of teaching, and scheduling the requirements in addition to the requirements within the education program. Many who start in the Honors Program find it difficult to finish. We are working to cultivate a more relevant, collaborative program to build educational leaders.
.....The inauguration of the Kappa Delta Pi Chapter, and the collaboration with the existing Honors Program are aimed at overcoming this disparity. While there are still a few minor details being discussed between the Mercyhurst College Honors Program and the Educational Leadership Honors Program, there are 25 students, from all disciplines in education who are qualified, and interested in starting this exciting program at Mercyhurst College. September 23, 2004 at 8:30 p.m. Kappa Delta Pi International will send two representatives to conduct the formal induction ceremony, and to initiate the Charter members of Alpha Beta Pi, Mercyhurst College’s Kappa Delta Pi Chapter.