Year: 2013

2013 South Africa Conference Travel Grant Recipients

2013 South Africa Conference Travel Grant Recipients

The South Africa Conference Travel Grant awarded recipients $2,000 to cover their registration and assist with the cost of travel/accommodations to attend the 2013 Golden Key South Africa Conference in Cape Town from September 20-22, 2013. All Golden Key members that do not live in […]

Key Chapter Winner Highlight: California State University, Los Angeles

Key Chapter Winner Highlight: California State University, Los Angeles

The Key Chapter Award is an annual honor that is given to chapters who exemplify outstanding achievement and/or contributions in the areas of the three pillars: academics, leadership and service. One of the winning chapters, California State University, Los Angeles, participated in over twenty service […]

2013 Chapter Facebook Contest

2013 Chapter Facebook Contest

Contest-imageGolden Key is excited to announce our 2013 Chapter Facebook Contest for chapters in North America!  The contest officially launches today and your chapter could win $500!
Every Golden Key chapter in North America has a chapter Facebook page, which is a great tool to connect with your fellow chapter members.
The goal of the 2013 Chapter Facebook Contest is to increase the number of likes on your chapter’s Facebook page. It’s that simple!

How The Contest Works:

1) Chapters are sorted into categories based on their existing number of likes:

Category 1: More than 250 likes on the chapter Facebook page
Category 2: Between 100 and 249 likes
Category 3: Between 30 and 99 likes
Category 4: Less than 30 likes

2) Throughout the month of September, your chapter works to increase the number of Facebook likes on your page.

3) The chapter that increases their likes the most for each category wins $500. That’s $2,000 total given away! Winners will be announced on October 7.

How To Participate:

  • Chapter Leaders and Officers: You should have received an email with instructions on how to enter and participate in the contest. If you did not receive this or have further questions, please email marketing@goldenkey.org. Participating in this contest is great real-world experience for you in social media, promotions, marketing, and planning.
  • General Members: Support your chapter by liking their Facebook page! The chapters that win may use the money to give back to their chapter with more events or awards.
Links to each chapter’s Facebook page can be found by selecting your chapter from the Locate A Chapter page of our website.

Good luck and have fun!
For more about Golden Key, visit www.GoldenKey.org.

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

This is the third and final blog post about Ian Sankey’s travels to Peru through G Adventures. First, Ian told us about getting ready for his journey to Machu Picchu. Next, he covered the first half of his trip with fellow GK members. In this […]

2013 North America Key Chapter Award Winners

2013 North America Key Chapter Award Winners

The Key Chapter Award is one of Golden Key’s most esteemed honors. Chapters must have achieved a Gold chapter standard status, the highest possible reporting standard in the Society, before they can apply to become a Key Chapter. Chapters that receive a Gold Standing have fulfilled all […]

Classical Education ‘Revamps’ Modern Schooling

Classical Education ‘Revamps’ Modern Schooling

As education is constantly reformed due to advances in technology and innovative classroom trends, new “classical schools” are starting their own movement in the US.  These schools aim to teach students to cultivate wisdom by learning about Plato, Latin and great literary works of Western civilization, rather than how to utilize technology. The school curriculum educates students in the fields of humanities, language and the fine arts– a regimen that ancient Greek philosophers would have supported as an idyllic education. Students are also held to strict behavioral standards in classical schools, as well. They are taught about noble characters in history to emulate in both etiquette and virtue.

These schools don’t just add a few classical classes to modern curriculum, either. Some classical schools divide the syllabus into a three part series consisting of grammar, logic and rhetoric. For example, students from kindergarten to fourth grade will learn about ‘grammar’, which would be education in basic math, poetry, spelling and phonics, music and the history of human civilization. The ‘logic’ curriculum, which is grades five through eight, would teach students to study algebra, think through arguments and propose and defend theses. The final stage, the ‘rhetoric’ stage, would pertain to grades nine through twelve and would concentrate in expressing ideas through written and verbal communication and how to apply knowledge.

Although this is not a new concept to education, it has certainly affected enrollment in parochial/ religious schools, as well as inspired new public schools. In fact, there is a strong following for the concept of classical education. Susan Wise Bauer, an author and educator, published a book on classical schooling at home, which has sold over a half-million copies.  There is also an organization called the “Association of Classical and Christian Schools” that consists of a couple hundred schools and thousands of students that focuses on the classical method of teaching.  Some would not consider the program to be fully classical, though. An article from CNN’s Schools of Thought interviews Bauer, who said, “As the movement has grown, there’s been an increasing tendency to define a classical education as ‘This is what Plato or Aristotle would have recognized.’ But there are whole new fields of knowledge since then. We wouldn’t reproduce their view of women, which was that they shouldn’t get an education. What we’re really doing now is neo-classical education.”

By learning Latin and Greek, students would be learning skills that could be beneficial if they were to enter the medical or science field. And by being educated in logic and thesis defense, students could be better prepared for studying law or humanities. But would a curriculum such as this, which does not concern itself with utilizing technology, be beneficial or damaging to students who want to enter a newer educational field in the future?  Do you think these students will be prepared when they enter college?              

Peru… What An Adventure!

Peru… What An Adventure!

This post is by Ian Sankey, Golden Key’s Director of Canada, who traveled to Peru through G Adventures. We are back from our whirlwind tour of Peru. Our trip included 3 cities, multiple Incan historical sites, an animal sanctuary, an Alpaca wool factory, flying condors, […]

2013 Society Election Results

2013 Society Election Results

Golden Key is pleased to announce the election results for our 2013 open Society Leadership positions. All candidates will take office on 1 August 2013. The ILC Student Member and the Council of Student Members’ terms will end on 31 May 2014. The ILC Secretary, ILC […]

Scholarship Recipient Highlight: Ifemayowa Aworanti, 2013 Emerging Scholar Award

Scholarship Recipient Highlight: Ifemayowa Aworanti, 2013 Emerging Scholar Award

Our congratulations go out to Ifemayowa Aworanti, a rising junior and the Chapter President at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, on being named the recipient of the 2013 Emerging Scholar Award! Golden Key’s Emerging Scholar Award recognizes a sophomore who has made a significant difference in their chapter.
Ifemayowa HeadshotOriginally from Nigeria, Ifemayowa’s family moved to the U.S. for better educational opportunities. He is majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology at UMBC. He is currently performing summer research at Yale University as part of the Sackler/NSF REU, which enables undergraduate students interested in pursuing a career in the sciences to conduct interdisciplinary research that focuses on the intersection of biology, physics, and engineering.
Upon receiving the award, Ifemayowa said, “I am deeply grateful of, humbled, and encouraged, by this opportunity that Golden Key has allotted me, through the Emerging Scholar Award, to fund my education. It means everything to me. It will help me to more fully focus on my academic and research work towards achieving my life’s goal of becoming a physician researcher. I am encouraged by Golden Key’s confidence in me that I maybe can achieve my goal. This makes me even more resolute in my aim to keep working hard towards achieving it.”
Ifemayowa’s goal is to become a physician researcher who leads and conducts research against diseases such as AIDS, sickle-cell disease and cancer. He hopes to achieve this by entering into a dual MD/PhD program with a research focus in bioengineering after college. He is an extremely hard worker, studying every single day, including holidays.
Ifemayowa is involved in a multitude of activities outside of his academic work.  In order to financially support his education, he works as both as a writer for the UMBC newspaper and as an office assistant in the UMBC Office of Student Life. One of his proudest accomplishments on the newspaper staff was the creation of a “Researcher of the Week” column where they promote and encourage undergraduate research across campus. He is also member of the Health and Wellness sector of UMBC’s Student Government Association, where he works with other students to create ways to improve student health on campus.
When asked about being the president of the UMBC chapter of Golden Key, he said, “As a Golden Key member and officer I work hard, and I have the opportunity to work with an amazing group of hard working, motivated, and dedicated individuals: like our great members, our amazing executive board, our amazing chapter advisor, and our wonderful regional director.  Being around them has been a great motivation for me. And with their help, I have led our chapter in hosting the 2013 Baltimore Regional Summit. As part of the Summit, we made cards for the inhabitants of the Samaritan Women Center- a recuperation home for victims of abuse and human trafficking. Furthermore, during the spring 2013 semester, our chapter worked with two other student organizations to bring over 200 disadvantaged youths from a local middle school to our campus as a way of inspiring them to strive to achieve at least a collegiate education.”
Please join us in congratulating this outstanding student and Golden Key member!

Schools Implementing Iris Scanners to Identify Students

Schools Implementing Iris Scanners to Identify Students

When an app notification asks “Would Like to Use Your Current Location”, do you ever feel compelled to click “Do Not Allow” solely because giving out that kind of information seems frightening? We are in a day and age when access to unlimited knowledge is […]