Nagle Leads a busy Eta Lambda Chapter!
Anne M. Nagle was recently selected as a recipient of the William C. Hine Distinguished Service Award. As National Counsilor at Providence College, she has stepped forward with members of the Eta Lambda ASL chapter to reach out to both campus and community. Anne has taken an opportunity to share with the Midnight Oil many of the chapter's activities.
Our chapter has been very active for many years in service projects. Each fall we coordinate a Thanksgiving Food Drive (collecting 15-20 complete dinner baskets, including turkeys, for local families in need); a Christmas project in which gifts, clothing, and toys are purchased for a local family, and a complete dinner basket is provided; a coat and blanket drive in January to benefit a local organization serving many Providence, RI residents; and an Easter Basket drive in the spring to benefit the children served by the same local organization.
We have a few hundred total members in our chapter, but a much smaller, yet dedicated and committed, number of regular participants. We are holding our annual induction ceremony in December of this year, and expect to induct approximately 30-35 new members and 2 honorary members. At the induction, we provide each student with a folder containing national ASL information, bookmark, etc. Our ceremony is followed by a formal sit-down dinner; it is a memorable evening.
Our chapter also offers an annual scholarship named for a former member of the P.C. faculty to assist an adult continuing education student in financing his/her tuition; the scholarship amount ranges from $1,000 - $1,500, and all SCE students are eligible to apply if they meet the g.p.a. / credits completed requirements.
Our chapter is very visible on campus, as we employ posters and college-wide emails to advertise the above events, inviting College staff, faculty, and students to participate. We also have several honorary faculty members of our chapter involved in our annual projects, and they serve as a “liaison” between the members and the students in their classes in announcing projects, scholarships, etc. Our College president and/or academic vice president speaks at our annual induction ceremony, offering his congratulations and admiration for the hard work and perseverance of our adult learners.
We have an "Eta Lambda" section of our School of Continuing Education website, highlighting activities and projects and including photos.
Regarding member development and services, we have utilized various letters to solicit the one-time dues payment from newly inducted members, and have tried an approach inviting members to make a one-time contribution of an amount with which they are comfortable. In this year’s letter we will continue to highlight the work of the chapter and include specific meeting dates to attract more new members to meetings / projects.
In the past, members have assisted at New Student Orientations – as speakers and "facilitators", and have also made personal phone calls to new students to welcome them and ask about first experiences, questions, issues, etc.
Eta Lambda members were also involved in a call-out project I organized in my role as Enrollment Services Assistant Dean. The project was organized to help discern why inquirers were not coming to PC SCE; a telephone script was used and much valuable information was garnered.
Members have also been involved in selling raffle tickets for our annual "Split-the-Pot" raffle and staffing our winter "come for a cup of hot chocolate and drop off a coat or blanket" table.
Thanks for your time and consideration.