By Alison Blazer

Greetings Beavers! I hope Winter term is off to a smooth start for everyone. The beginning of a new term is always a fantastic time to make new connections on campus and really boost your involvement. To inspire all of you to pursue what you’re passionate about on our campus, I’m going to tell you a bit about one of my involvement positions over the past few years and where it has gotten me.

Lambda Pi Eta (LPH) is a national communication honor society that is recognized by the National Communication Association (NCA) and has over 500 chapters across the country. Last year (2012-13) I was our chapter Vice-President and this year (2013-14), as a senior, I have been fortunate enough to hold the position of Chapter President.

The question I get so often is, ‘What does it mean to be an honor society?’ As an honor society, LPH’s goals include bridging the gap between faculty and students, inspiring discussion and scholarship in the communication discipline, and encouraging academic excellence. In other words, our organization has academic eligibility requirements (i.e. a minimum GPA), puts on various events for communication students at OSU, and allows members to graduate with honors when they receive their Bachelor’s Degree.

Although our chapter of LPH is now gaining members and starting new traditions with each coming term, it did not always exist on OSU’s campus. Over the past three years myself and other dedicated communication students have worked to transform Comm Club into a nationally recognized chapter of LPH, and I’m pleased to say that it has paid off.

This Fall, OSU’s chapter of LPH was named Rookie Chapter of the Year by the National Communication Association, and our chapter’s Faculty Advisor, Dr. Trischa Goodnow, was named Rookie Advisor of the Year. These awards signify that our chapter best demonstrated efforts to achieve the goals of LPH during our first year as an official chapter, and that Dr. Goodnow helped us in our endeavors. Not only was this award a spectacular recognition to have received as a chapter, but the past Chapter President, Megan Bauer, and myself, as current Chapter President, were able to attend the National Communication Association Annual Conference in November in Washington D.C. to accept the award.

From Comm Club member to LPH Chapter President, I could never have imagined that my involvement would provide me with the opportunity to attend a national conference across the country. The Annual NCA Conference is the largest conference in the communication discipline and a hub at which communication professors and scholars gather from all across the U.S. to exchange ideas, hear panel discussions, and receive awards. With more than 5,000 scholars in attendance, this conference was a rather sudden introduction into the world of professional conferences as an undergraduate student.

Once I adjusted to the sheer enormity of the weekend’s events, I was able to make connections with the five faculty members from our own Speech Communication Department at OSU whom were travelling with me, discuss graduate programs and my future plans with professors from all around the country, and develop an entirely new perspective from which to experience the study of communication.

Now, in my second to last term as a Beaver undergrad, I am more sure than ever before that I chose not only the right major, but also worthwhile involvement opportunities, in my time here at OSU. As soon as I started taking communication classes my freshman year I wanted to talk about communication inside and outside of the classroom and resurrected Comm Club for that very reason. Some of the greatest student-faculty relationships I’ve built, events I’ve attended, and lessons I’ve learned have stemmed from my passion for LPH and the work I’ve put into it.

If there’s something in this world that interests you, whether it’s an academic subject, an environmental cause, or a political stance, I encourage you to bring it to life on this campus! Get out there, spread the word, and I guarantee you’ll find others among the student body that share your views and interests? My journey toward the NCA Conference in D.C. started more than three years ago on a whim. Who says your passions can’t inspire you to do more and go farther? Go Beavs!