For many students in Phi Theta Kappa, obtaining the necessary service hours is usually the hardest part of being a member. PTK members are often required to have a minimum of 10 service hours per year. If a student wants to be an “outstanding member,” they often need more than that. However, there are many ways to gain these hours that also offer plenty of opportunities for service hours and fun experiences. The PTK Art Club is no exception.
Hosted by Mark Brown, one of the PTK advisors, the PTK Art Club is slowly growing in recognition. A handful of PTK members around the campus have joined the club in order to gain their service hours or, sometimes, just to have fun and meet new people.
“We have provided backdrops for Fine Arts, paintings for various things on campus, a city marker for Stonewall, and we have also assisted at various events,” Brown said.
Students have not only gained service hour opportunities from the PTK Art Club, they have also gained different skills that will be useful to them in the real world, including a variety of different artistic skills.
“From an artistic standpoint, students learned how to enlarge images for murals using graphing techniques, how to work as a team, and how to delegate tasks,” Brown said. “I think it also reinforces responsibility in students as they know that we are working with various deadlines.”
PTK often teaches students how important it is to give back to the community through volunteer work. They also encourage teamwork.
“I like that we get to work together with new people for the PTK art projects and make new connections,” said Josie Bryant, a member of both PTK and the art club.
PTK is a service organization. Whenever students join the club, they’re giving back to the community by volunteering and by working on things for the community.
Students are will soon begin working on a mural for biology professor Dr. Melinda Butler, who requested a 4’ x 8’ painting of a simplified “tree of life” (phylogenetic tree) that illustrates the evolutionary relationships among all living organisms on Earth.
As of right now, the art club is only available for PTK members, but that may change in the coming months if there is enough interest shown.
To join the PTK Art Club, all a student has to do is reach out to Brown at mark.brown@jcjc.edu. There is no sign-up process or fees to join.
by Chloe Tanner
