About Psi Chi:

1996 Psi Chi Award

From the Article Published in the Summer 1996 PSI CHI Newsletter (Volume 22, No. 3)

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PSI CHI CHAPTER AT SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY (SEMO) for winning the 1996 Psi Chi/Ruth Hubbard Cousins National Chapter Award. This award-winning chapter will receive a $2,000 check to further the programs of the chapter, in addition to receiving travel expenses for a chapter officer to attend the 1996 Psi Chi/APA National Convention in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where the award will be presented. Psi Chi would especially like to recognize and congratulate the Psi Chi officers and faculty advisor at SMSU who were responsible for the chapter's winning submission: Chapter President Jeff Hewes, Chapter Secretary Susan Burt, and Faculty Advisor Martha Zlokovich. This award recognizes the one chapter that best achieves the purpose of Psi Chi, which is to encourage, stimulate, and maintain excellence in scholarship of the individual members in all fields, particularly in psychology, and to advance the science of psychology. The award was established to honor Psi Chi's former executive director, Ruth Hubbard Cousins, for her 33 years of dedicated service to Psi Chi.
     The SMSU Psi Chi Chapter was chosen as the winning chapter because of the outstanding accomplishments and activities of its members during the past three academic years. The award is granted to a chapter that excels in the following areas: effective programming of chapter activities, effective membership practices, and participation in national and regional activities.
     The following narrative account of the SMSU's chapter activities was submitted with the 1996 award winning entry for the Cousins Award. It is hoped that Psi Chi chapter members reading this account will gather ideas and inspiration on how they might help their chapter strive toward becoming a future award-winning Psi Chi chapter. The 1995-1996 calendar of events for the winning chapter follows the activities account. This calendar should serve as an outstanding example for other Psi Chi officers and members to use in planning a winning 1996-1997 year. The chapter's essay on "How to Become a Successful Psi Chi Chapter" will be presented by a SMSU chapter officer at the 1996 Psi Chi/APA Convention in August. A copy of this essay will be published in Psi Chi's Fall 1996 newsletter, along with the chapter's proposal for how it will use the award money. Watch for this essay to glean valuable insights and helpful tips on how you can strengthen your own chapter. You are then encouraged to send in your chapter's submission for the 1997 National Chapter Award by the February 1 deadline. Your chapter could be the next recipient of the $2,000 award and a trip to the 1997 Psi Chi/APA National Convention!

SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY CHAPTER:
NARRATIVE ACCOUNT OF THE CHAPTER'S ACTIVITIES

     Psi Chi is a society of honor and scholarship at the national level. At the university level, however, it is this and much more. Over the past three years, our chapter of Psi Chi has been extremely active. We have offered our members consistent programs of interest and education. We also have strived to improve and progress each year from what we were the year before. Throughout these past three years, it has been our intention and our goal to provide service to our community, our campus, students in our discipline, and our members, as well as to just have fun. We feel as though we have succeeded.
     Our chapter has consistently provided service to our community over the past three years through the Missouri Adopt-a-Highway program. The stretch of highway which we have adopted is just outside of the city and is marked by a highway sign that reads that the stretch of land has been adopted by the Southeast Missouri State University Chapter of Psi Chi. The chapter cleans it twice a semester.
     Furthermore, our chapter has remained actively involved with our campus over the past three years. Each year, members of our chapter have been present at the university's annual Carnival of Clubs. This carnival takes place during Southeast's opening weekend and serves as a way for organizations to advertise themselves and talk with new students. Our chapter's members have also been present at Family Weekend over the past three years, talking with both parents and students about Psi Chi, what it means to be a member, and what we do.
     Our chapter's most important service to our campus is the organizing and sponsoring of our annual Student Research Conference. The conference is interdisciplinary in nature and any Southeast student may submit an original research paper or research poster for presentation. When we first sponsored this event four years ago, we experienced a very small turnout with only 6 students presenting over the course of a few hours. However, over the years, due to persistence and organization, we have made the conference into a two-day event with over 50 students from 14 disciplines presenting. Because of this vast increase in numbers and commitment, our chapter has had to add a Conference Committee Chair to our list of officers.
     Aside from these commitments, we also have a commitment to provide programming for students in our discipline. In order to fulfill this commitment, our chapter has invited various speakers to lecture on an educational level to members of our chapter and other interested psychology students. These speakers include Dr. Moore, a local physician, who held a lecture discussing the physiological and psychological aspects of pain, and Dr. Jim Korn, who spoke to our members about the differences between psychology and psychiatry.
     Our chapter has also hosted numerous discussion groups among our own faculty and students. While some of these discussions have been very entertaining, such as the discussing of the portrayal of behaviorism in the movie A Clockwork Orange, or the one about the portrayal of psychologists in the movie Basic Instinct, others have been very informational. One such program was a discussion designed to eradicate the stereotype that all of psychology is clinical in nature and to inform psychology students about the many different subdisciplines of psychology. In this annual panel discussion, faculty from the areas of physiological, developmental, social, comparative, clinical, and cognitive psychology talk about their area of specialty. The students are informed of career options as well as research opportunities. Another informational discussion lecture that our chapter hosts annually is entitled "How to Get Into Graduate School." This lecture is actually an informal talk given by one of our department's faculty members. During the talk, the professor advises our members on what graduate schools are looking for in their applicants and what students should be doing now in order to improve their chances of acceptance later. Based upon attendance at this program, it would seem that our members have found this lecture extremely beneficial from year to year.
     As a service to our members, our chapter also offers the opportunity for fun and relaxation. Every semester over the past three years, we have held a psychology department picnic at the local park which incorporates food, fun, and a chapter "challenge" to our faculty. Considering that we have several university athletes listed on our roster, the sports we play seem to be the most fun. However, we also offer indoor recreation during the winter holiday season. This recreation, a holiday party held each year, serves as a great study break for our members during finals week.
     Aside from these activities, which have been occurring consistently over the past three years, our chapter has been striving to improve itself. During this year we have increased and improved upon our programming and commitment to our community, our campus, and our discipline. While we have not yet accomplished all that we had hoped, we have plans to implement still more programs next year.
     This year our chapter has also improved upon its programs for both the community and the campus. One event that we have become involved in is "Grim Reaper Day." Sponsored by various campus organizations, this program is a day dedicated to educating our students about the danger involved in drinking and driving in association with Alcohol Awareness Week. It is our intention to continue to be involved in this important program.
     Another new program this year that is both a service to our campus and our members is our bimonthly hot dog sale/bake sale. Not only are hungry students able to forego walking across campus for unappealing cafeteria food, but our chapter benefits from the money that this fund-raiser creates. Our chapter also benefits by the increase of membership involvement in the planning for and working at such a fund-raiser.
     Another service to our members, which was just begun this year, is a lecture series entitled "What to Do With an Undergraduate Degree in Psychology." This series has included information on internships that are available to Southeast's students in the discipline of psychology and talks with some of our alumni members who found jobs directly after completing their undergraduate degree in the field of psychology.
     In further service to our chapter and our members, we have implemented a new program in conjunction with membership responsibility. Our members are now required to complete three hours of participation in Psi Chi activities per semester. If they complete these hours, the member will be awarded Psi Chi honor cords to wear at graduation. If, however, they do not complete these hours of participation, then they will be required to purchase the honor cords if they want to wear them at the graduation ceremony. All of this information is imparted to the eligible applicants prior to induction at our informational meeting. It is our hope that this program will benefit the chapter by increasing its membership numbers and level of activity and benefit the members by giving them the opportunity to participate in better programming.
     The programming that we provide is the key to our chapter's fulfillment of service to the community, campus, and discipline. Only effective programming will enable us to meet the goals which we have set, and for programming to be effective there must be membership participation. Over the past three years, our chapter has taken the steps to make programs available to our members and to entice them to participate. Many of our attempts have produced favorable results, such as the consistent programming, the participation requirements, and the informational meeting before induction; however, we are far from being content to relax our efforts.

September 6     Lecture: "How to Get Into Graduate School" by Dr. Snell
September 8     Fall Kickoff Picnic in the Park
September 13   Bake/Hot Dog Sale
September 14   General Membership Meeting
September 27   Bake/Hot Dog Sale
September 29   Psi Chi Induction Ceremony
October 4        General Membership Meeting
October 7        Homecoming Day Parade
October 11      Bake/Hot Dog Sale
October 18      Lecture: "What Can You Do With an Undergraduate Degree in Psychology?"
October 25      Bake/Hot Dog Sale
October 27      Undergraduate Consortium in Experimental Psychology at the University of Memphis
November 6     Panel Discussion "What is Psychology?"
November 8     Bake/Hot Dog Sale
November 11   Show Me Day (Meet the incoming freshman)
November 14   Lecture: "Internships Available in Psychology" by Dr. Lloyd and Mr. Hoover
November 15   General Membership Meeting
November 29   Bake/Hot Dog Sale
December 6     Holiday Party
January 26       Faculty Sponsor Reception for Past Three Annual Student Research Conferences
January 31       Bake/Hot Dog Sale
February 7       Lecture: "What Can You Do With an Undergraduate Degree in Psychology" by Psi Chi Alumni from Southeast
February 14     General Membership Meeting
March              "How to Take the GRE" Seminar
March              Mock GRE Practice
April 23-24      Fourth Annual Southeast Missouri State Student Research Conference
April 26           End of Year Banquet Induction Ceremony/Installation of Officers

Standard Chapter Meetings: Officers meet every Tuesday; Student Research Conference Committee meets every Thursday; general membership meetings held once a month.