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PTK Members at 2019 Commencement
The research project of OCC's chapter of honor society Phi Theta Kappa has been recognized internationally. PTK members (pictured above) wear gold stoles at commencement.

Onondaga Community College's chapter of international honor society Phi Theta Kappa continues to be recognized for excellence. On the heels of back-to-back years of the College's chapter being named in the top five in the entire world, a research project done by students has been published internationally in Civic Scholar: Phi Theta Kappa Journal of Undergraduate Research. The title of OCC's PTK chapter's research is "The Cost of Being A Woman: Increasing Education and Reproductive Justice in our Community." Nearly 500 PTK chapters submitted their research for publication. OCC's was one of only 16 chosen.

OCC PTK's project abstract was as follows: "Despite many examples of societal transformations toward gender equality, women continue to face countless forms of economic and reproductive injustice. Women earn on average 80 cents to each dollar earned by men. Women experience the 'pink tax' when items marketed to women cost more. The mental and financial burdens of contraception are usually borne by women, and the stigma around menstruation and accessing affordable feminine hygiene products are monthly struggles for women around the globe. Therefore, we developed a multi-tiered education and outreach project to help combat these injustices and educate our community. We wrote a $5,000 grant to provide free feminine hygiene products on campus and collected 11,152 feminine hygiene products for women in need. We collaborated with community partners to provide free contraception and education in our dorms and organized a community educational health forum led by an OBGYN Nurse Practitioner. We also held an educational event focused on the pink tax, wage gap, and other costs of being a woman. Our project helped bring awareness to these issues of gender inequality and transformed our campus and community by increasing reproductive justice."

"I'm so proud of this team! They identified a real problem in our community, researched the topic, and put their research into action! Their service was informed by research, which is what Phi Theta Kappa is all about. Our students really make a difference through scholarship and leadership," said Dr. Annie Tuttle who is a Sociology Professor at OCC, the PTK Faculty Advisor, and the New York Regional Coordinator for PTK.

 

"We all know the key to success in college is driven by student engagement," said PTK President and CEO Dr. Lynn Tincher-Ladner. "These projects are the very best examples of how students apply innovative research and take meaningful action on the issues they care about most on their campuses and in their communities."

Keywords
OCC
Onondaga Community College
Phi Theta Kappa