BETH SAMMONS MOVES ON FROM RHO THETA AFTER 17 YEARS

This last Spring Term, Beth Sammons stepped down as adviser to Phi Theta Kappa, the honors student society here at Mt. Hood. It was a gratifying 17 years of service, she said.

Sammons started her career teaching in the K-12 school system, working there for four years before deciding that “I hadn’t read enough good books,” she said. So she went back to school herself for a master’s degree in English. 

In 1989, she found a job working part time in the MHCC English department, eventually getting hired full time in 1999.

In 2002, one of the previous advisers for Phi Theta Kappa stepped down, convincing Sammons to take his place through some “arm-twisting” and the line, “Wouldn’t you like to be the students’ adviser? The students do all the work!” she recounted.

That would bring many experiences that she will never forget, working with the students who meant so much to her. 

At first, there was a lot to learn. Laughingly, Sammons said, “It took me months to figure out the difference between Phi Theta Kappa, and Rho Theta.”

The latter is Mt. Hood’s chosen name for its campus chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa organization, which supports two-year colleges nationwide.

Sammons organized the traveling of the group to events roughly five times a year, filling out the to-do lists, thinking about things in advance so that they had regalia to sell, finding a location for the formal spring induction, and making sure that the students planned ahead for the projects they wanted to take on.

She combined her commitment with the honors society with her job as a full-time instructor, sometimes a real chore, she told the Advocate. “Other advisers got used to seeing me at the fall convention. They knew that if it landed on the weekend of the fourth week of the quarter, I was grading papers.

“So we might be holding (the convention) at a campus, and I would wander down the hall until I found an unlocked room,” she continued. “While the students were all in these training sessions learning about the Honors in Action project, or how to win the Hallmark Award, I would be hiding in a classroom somewhere grading essays.”

Coming up in 2020, Sammons will be going on a sabbatical to learn more about writing and how instructors should be teaching writing. “Things have changed since I graduated from Portland State University. I will be revamping one of my classes to reflect some of those changes,” she said.

“Back when I graduated, we taught students how to write essays, nothing but essays. We didn’t have cell phones, and we barely had computers. Think about how far technology has come, think about how that affects the way we communicate. It’s no longer enough to teach students how to write essays. We need to teach students how to be multi-literate.”

During her upcoming break, Sammons also looks forward to traveling to England and visiting family in Arizona.

During her advising, what did she enjoy the most?

“Working with the students,” she responded immediately. “I got to know students well, I got to see them succeed. I got to congratulate them when they got scholarships, I got to be there when they won awards. That was really fun. Serving as the honors society adviser was the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my career at Mt. Hood.

“I hope that Mt. Hood will find a way to support our Phi Theta Kappa chapter, because it serves the students, it’s worthwhile, and students have so many opportunities through Phi Theta Kappa,” she said.

“I would like to see a strong Phi Theta Kappa program here on campus, because I think it’s valuable.”