Catawba Students Attend 2016 Alpha Chi National Convention

L-R: Taylor Spillman, Collin Denton, Josh Hill, Andrew McCollister, Blake Brewer, and Ashley Everidge Several Catawba College students and their faculty sponsor recently attended the 2016 Alpha Chi National Convention held in Alexandria, Va. The six students included Ashley Everidge, Taylor Spillman...

Several Catawba College students and their faculty sponsor recently attended the 2016 Alpha Chi National Convention held in Alexandria, Va. The six students included Ashley Everidge, Taylor Spillman, Josh Hill, Blake Brewer, Collin Denton and Andrew McCollister (class of '15), along with Dr. Margy Stahr, the faculty sponsor for Catawba's chapter of the national honor society on campus.

All six students made presentations of their academic/creative work. The students, and the titles of their presentations include:

• "Salty Waters," Andrew McCollister
• "Academic Transfer at Catawba College: Tracking Undergraduate Student Transfer through Writing Assignments," Ashley Everidge
• "Soy Proteins and their Effect on the Health of Women," Taylor Spillman
• "The Harry Potter Series: Rowling's Political Manifesto," Blake Brewer
• "SOX with Holes: An Investigation of the Loopholes and Omissions in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act," Josh Hill
• "Clark's Cross," Collin Denton

Additionally, the Catawba contingent was invited by the Alpha Chi National Council to lead a "Chapter Strengthening Session" on Catawba's process for choosing national scholarship nominees. Alpha Chi Executive Director Trisha Yarbrough, who attended a portion of the session, later told Stahr how impressed she was with the level of engagement the Catawba presenters were able to generate among audience members.

Although none of the Catawba nominees won national scholarships this year, one of the highlights of the convention, according to Stahr, was hearing student Josh Hill's name called as the recipient of one of the Region III 2016 scholarships. Hill won this scholarship for his honor thesis, "SOX with Holes: An Investigation of the Loopholes and Omissions in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act." Dr. Eric Hake served as Hill's thesis advisor.

Catawba's chapter of Alpha Chi, also referred to as the North Carolina Omicron Chapter, was founded in May 1978 with the induction of 13 members. To date, more than 700 members have been inducted. Membership is open only to those students in the top 10 percent of the junior and senior classes.