Student Elected to Regional Honor Society Position

May 12, 2009

 

Oklahoma Baptist University student Elisabeth Wright recently was named a regional representative for the international English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta. Elected to the position of associate student representative for the southwest region of the country, the OBU senior from Wichita, Kan., now has the opportunity to serve Sigma Tau Delta on a larger scale.

Wright's responsibilities for the post include assisting the student representative with regional duties, contributing to the fall and spring regional newsletters, and serving on the Student Leadership Committee and other board committees for the society. Wright is one of only 12 students elected for regional positions. The southwestern region includes Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico and Arizona, which means that Wright and another student representative elected to the region will represent chapters of Sigma Tau Delta from more than 80 universities.

"OBU's [Sigma Tau Delta] chapter is really quite amazing for a school our size," Wright said. "We had eight students attend the convention, and everyone who submitted a work for the convention was accepted."

The eight students who presented work in addition to Wright were Hillary Anderson, a senior from Oklahoma City; Brooke Dockery, a senior from McLoud, Okla.; Jessica Hill, a senior from Colorado Springs, Colo.; Mackenzie Hufty, a senior from New London, Mo.; Will Korver, a senior from Broken Arrow, Okla.; Anne Risch, a junior from Topeka, Kan.; and Lydia Wanger, a junior from Stillwater, Okla.

Wright, who is pursuing a double major in English and Spanish and a minor in graphic design, has been involved with the society for nearly a year and a half. She was elected during the regional caucus at the international Sigma Tau Delta convention. The 2009 convention, Wright's first to attend, was March 25-28 in Minneapolis, Minn., and saw more than 300 students attend from about 165 different universities.

"It certainly is an honor to be chosen to represent chapters across five states," said Dr. Sidney Watson, an OBU associate professor of music and sponsor of the local Sigma Tau Delta chapter. "It's also an opportunity [for Elisabeth] to hone her leadership skills and to form contacts with students and faculty around the country."

The international convention is an event where students can present critical papers, poetry and works of fiction. Students also have the opportunity to hear from respected authors and meet with other students and faculty to share ideas about the study of English literature.

For more information about Sigma Tau Delta, visit their Web site at http://www.english.org/.