Sarah Shelton – Features Editor
On April 4, a group of students, including the Southern News copy editor Wula Cham and I, got inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa.
According to their website, “Omicron Delta Kappa, the National Leadership Honor Society, recognizes and encourages superior leadership and exemplary character. O∆K encourages collaboration among members across the five pillars of leadership celebrated by O∆K: academics, athletics, service, communications, and arts.”
The university’s circle was established back in 2017, making it a somewhat recent honor society.
According to President Joe Bertolino, we were the biggest group of inductees that the society has had yet at this university.
Back on March 9, I received an email that stated, “Congratulations! You have been recommended for membership in Southern’s chapter of Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Society (OΔK)…Only sophomores, juniors, and seniors who rise to the top 35% of their class and demonstrate leadership on Southern’s campus and in the community may be nominated for initiation into OΔK.”
Honestly, I still do not know who recommended me, but I am glad they did because now I get to be a part of something cool, and something that makes me feel good for all the hard work I have put into my academics, Southern News and Crescent Magazine.
Only 10 days later, I received an email saying I had been accepted as a lifetime member and was invited to the induction ceremony on Monday, April 4.
This ceremony was quite something. We heard some great words from Bertolino, the current president of Omicron Delta Kappa and had a little ceremony where they lit five candles to represent the five pillars: Academics, Athletics, Service, Communications and Journalism, and Creative and Performing Arts.
Then we, the inductees, each got to have our name called, in alphabetical order, to go up, shake President Bertolino’s hand, receive a certificate from Vice President for Student Affairs Tracy Tyree, and get a special pin with the ODK letters.
In the end, we took a group photo and got to have desserts and refreshments. Honestly, They had a very pretty cake. The cake had the Omicron Delta Kappa logo on it.
They also had very yummy, and different kinds of, brownies and some fruits.
The weirdest part will be when my family members ask me what the name of the society is and I have to tell them it is Omicron Delta. In the recent years of COVID-19, the virus had an Omicron variant and then a Delta variant. It makes me laugh because at least those words are now a positive in my life.
