Pictured (from left) is: Lochlan Scott, Monserrat Rivero-Sanchez and Noah Pettey.
Each fall the Phi Theta Kappa Texas Region Alumni Association give out highly competitive Walter B. Cooper Scholarships to students who are well-rounded in the four Hallmarks of Phi Theta Kappa: scholarship, leadership, service, and fellowship. This year, three NTCC students were among the twelve recipients named at the conclusion of the Texas Leadership Conference recently held on the Tyler Junior College campus: Monserrat Rivero-Sanchez, Lochlan Scott, and Noah Pettey.
Monserrat Rivero-Sanchez received the $1,500 top prize. The current International Vice-President for Division II of Phi Theta Kappa, Monse is the former Chapter President. As an International Officer, she helps take care of the 4 million members in the organization, and represents Phi Theta Kappa Headquarters at various events across the country. She is an ardent supporter of first-generation college students, pioneering the “First Generation in College Celebration” on campus. Under her leadership, the chapter built a bilingual lending library and placed it in the community. She is involved in numerous projects on campus, and is often seen helping the Director of Mental Health, such as with the daylong interactive activity on raising awareness for underresourced students held during Faculty In-Service. The speech she gave before the Texas Community College Teacher’s Association was so well received that she gave the speech again at a NTCC Faculty Meeting.
When learning of her win, Monse noted “The Texas Region Alumni Association has been the epitome of my success; they fundraise throughout the whole year to provide memberships to different chapters across Texas called “Golden Opportunity” because of this I was able to join Phi Theta Kappa without going into a financial burden! Today thanks to their input I am the International Division II Vice-President of Phi Theta Kappa, who, with the other four student international officers, take care of over four million members. Also, thanks to them I can receive the biggest scholarship awarded so far by the Texas Region! But none of this would have been possible without Dr. Fulgham's guidance throughout the application process, she was the patient person who believed in me and pushed me to sharpen my application, and that is why I was able to receive this scholarship. We were able to get help throughout the application process from several members of our community like Mrs. Irvin, Mrs. Stansell, and Mrs. Shurtleff, as well as alumni eagles like Michelle Calderon, Ruby Ferretiz, and Fatima Fuentes. So thank you so much for all the hands we receive during this long and fun process!”
Lochlan Scott, from Glasgow, Scotland, received a $700 scholarship. A member of NTCC’s Men’s Soccer Team, he is also the Vice-President of Service for the Phi Theta Kappa chapter on campus. One of Lochlan's most admirable qualities is his ability to take initiative and assume leadership roles. As the chapter’s Vice-President of Service, he collaborates with the Region 8 Educational Service Center (ESC) Outreach Coordinator to facilitate the organization of Paving the Way conference for parents, youth, educators, transition specialists, and education administrators. He serves as a point of contact between the ESC and college volunteers from the PTK chapter and the college soccer team to help with providing conference information to the participants, directing them to the corresponding workshops, facilitating sessions, assisting with the exhibition, and supplying attendees with the resources that they need.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity PTK has given me in regards to this scholarship," Lochlan noted when he learned of the win. "Especially being an international student, this will go a long way in paying for my tuition. I was first skeptical when hearing about PTK however after meeting the great team, I knew I made the right decision!”
Noah Pettey received a $350 scholarship. A writing tutor on campus and the current Vice President of College Project for Phi Theta Kappa, Noah has played a key role in helping put together the Organization and Club Fair on campus. In addition to his work with Phi Theta Kappa, Noah is an active member of Film Club, Tabletop Club, and Sigma Kappa Delta English Honor Society.
Noah shared "When I found out I had won the WB Cooper, I had just gotten back from work when I received a text message from one of my friends giving me congratulations. I recall thinking: Did I win a scholarship? So, I immediately went to Instagram, saw a recording of the scholarship awarding where I quickly gathered that I had indeed won a scholarship. My thoughts about winning were along the lines of: Ok, what do I do now? I had never won something like the WB Cooper, so I didn’t really know what to do with the knowledge that I’d won, what the protocol was for it, or anything of the sort. However, another thought also dwelt inside my mind, it sounded as follows: I really want to tell my friends about this. The issue being that most of those friends knew about it before me. So, needless to say, I was a tad bit excited about the notion of winning."
The current three winners make a total of twelve Walter B. Cooper Scholarship winners from NTCC. Previous winners include Maxime Risner (2021), Brian Ramirez (2021), Carolina Alcocer-Salas (2020), Tonya Hammonds (2019), Jazmin Garcia (2018), Alicia Cantrell (2017), Tanika Santos-MacSwain (2016), Mary Smith (2015), and Kayleah Cumpian (2014).
Phi Theta Kappa offers experiences in its four hallmarks: leadership, scholarship, service, and fellowship. Founded in 1918, Phi Theta Kappa is the official honor society of two-year colleges and has chapters in the United States and ten other nations. Membership is by invitation only and is based on having a cumulative GPA of 3.50 after having completed 12 college credit hours. For more information about the organization, please visit www.ptk.org. For more information about NTCC’s chapter, see the chapter Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/alphamuchi/ or advisors Dr. Melissa Fulgham mfulgham@ntcc.edu, Dr. Maryna Svirska-Otero msvirskaotero@ntcc.edu or Professor Athena Hayes ahayes@ntcc.edu. Alison Majors serves as the Chapter President of a great team and can be reached at amajors029@ntcc.edu. Chapter meetings are held each Monday at 12:30 in SUB 101.
