The North Carolina Phi chapter of Alpha Chi represented Chowan University in Louisville, Ky., at the national convention on April 6-8 with 22 students.

Chowan took the largest contingent in the country, 20 of whom presented. Two won presentation prizes: Lewis Wrenn Woodard received the Blake and Trish Janutolo Prize in Organismal and Ecological Biology for his paper “Salinity Alters Behavior, Growth, and Development in Xenopus laevis Tadpoles,” and Warren Powers II received the Ellen Millsaps Prize in American Literature for his presentation titled “The New Sorrow Songs.”

Alpha Chi Sponsor Syble Shellito shared her philosophy, “The opportunity for students to attend a convention is invaluable. It gives them a measure by which to gauge their current thinking and research methodology. Some students will feast off the creative atmosphere, developing new ways of viewing old problems. For others, the guest speaker’s message will resonate, altering those perspectives forever. Others will see cities they may never have the opportunity to visit again.”

Shellito said that after each convention, she finds herself wishing the experience had taken place earlier in the year. It provides her with an opportunity to connect with students, learn how funny they are, how creative, how well they operate under pressure, how kind, how selfless and supportive they are of each other, and how they really hope for the best for their peers. She continued, “It is one of my favorite experiences. I suppose that ending the convention really feels more like a beginning, the start of something truer, long-lasting, and more personal than any conversation we could have in my office.”

Additional presenters included the following Suffolk students:

• Calvin Bowe — Criminal Justice
• Kevin Wilson — Criminal Justice
• Christopher Rodgers — Exercise Science

Alpha Chi National College Honor Society is an American collegiate honor society that recognizes achievements in general scholarship. There are 300 chapters throughout the United States. Alpha Chi is comprised only of high achieving juniors and seniors within the top 10 percent of their classes.