In the past, each leader on the Leadership Board was expected to plan and organize a community event promoting one or more of the Four Defining Hallmarks of our honors society: Leadership, Scholarship, Fellowship, and Service. For example, as I have already discussed before, last semester I organized a beach volleyball tournament fundraiser. The event reached out to the Santa Barbara community, raised proceeds to donate to charity, and inspired a few students to take on leadership positions by working in teams under my supervision to take care of the different tasks necessary to set up the tournament. The other members of the PTK Leadership team also organized interesting, fun, or community-oriented events, such as lectures, fundraisers, and cleanups. 
This semester, at our very first meeting, the PTK Leadership agreed to change the way we reach out to PTK members and we impact our college and community: instead of holding each member accountable to organize or join an event— which often resulted in the PTK leaders joining cleanups and volunteering events organized by other organizations— this semester we decided to focus our strengths on one single event that would focus on the Hallmark of Scholarship. As a group, we decided to organize a day-long conference on April 15, and the day has finally arrived.
Friday April 15, indeed, was an important day for the leaders and members of the Phi Theta Kappa - Beta Gamma Upsilon Chapter at Santa Barbara City College. And it was an important day for me… That’s because as Vice President of Leadership in said society, I worked hard throughout the semester to contribute in organizing the event.
The conference was a 3-part event by the title “Shaping the 21st Century.” Each panel focused on a different topic, but all were connected by the common theme of “Past, Present, and Future,” or, in other words, a discussion of each topic throughout time in order to facilitate deeper understanding and speculate about what to expect in the future.
The leaders and some volunteers from our membership gathered between 8:30 and 9:00 am to start setting up. Around 9:30am we kicked off the event with a nice breakfast, and the first panel began the presentation around 10:15am. This was the event that I contributed organizing, and it was titled “War and Civilization.” With speakers such as Dr. Joe White and Prof. Mark Sanders, our hope was to provide a picture of the history of wars, and explore the possibilities of how we can work towards a peaceful global community in the future.
Joe White's "2020 A Year Without War" is one step toward global peace, and I invite you to check out their Facebook page and Like it!
Secondly, our conference covered the importance of Female Leadership in the 21st century. Using her personal experience, Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson explained how she has and currently is working to encourage female leadership and gender equality in her political work. Our PTK Leadership Historian Ida Sjöberg also had a chance to screen her self-produced 8-minute film portraying young women and students in leadership positions at SBCC. It was touchy and inspiring, and you can watch it on YouTube by clicking here. Finally, the panel consisting of California Senator Jackson, Santa Barbara Mayor Helen Schneider, SBCC Scheinfeld Center Director Julie Samson, SBCC professor Dr. Phylissa Eisentraut, and the President of the SBCC Black Studies Union Chiani Dri, answered important questions on future challenges of female leadership.
After a longer lunch break, Attorney Donna Lewis, Chief Investigator Dave Saunders & Professor Eric R.A.N Smith led us into the complex matter of Social Trust. By analyzing the past, present, and future of this issue, the experts tried to answer questions such as How can we regain social trust in our political communities? How does social trust impact voting behavior? Election outcomes? And why should we prioritize a healthy relationship between authorities and citizens?
These were all very interesting topics, that gave space to some very informative and inspiring speeches from our guest speakers. On behalf of the Phi Theta Kappa Leadership, I would like to extend our appreciation to the scholars who attended our event, and we hope you found it useful and interesting.
A presto,
-Fede
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