Leaders from the AACC chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society inducted 137 student members into their club in an online ceremony streamed on Zoom Monday.

Faculty adviser Elizabeth Wulbrecht said the event is typically held on campus every semester but after the college closed because of the pandemic, club officers began reimagining how the event would work.

“We kind of went through each step of the ceremony and thought about” how to do it virtually, Wulbrecht said.

“We had to figure out how to adjust the programming, at least at a binary level, to make sure that the inductees still got the full experience that they deserved,” PTK regional President Bri Barone, a third-year elementary education and communications student at AACC, said.

After introducing the honor society and explaining its mission of scholastic achievement, club President Matthew Barzal, information coordinator Mitchell Santos and events coordinator Adrianna Russell listed off the names of inductees.

“When we were reading inductees’ names, we had told them that they can unmute [their Zoom microphones] to cheer on whoever was just called for being inducted, and there were some people that [when] they unmuted there was like a torrential thunder of people just yelling applause,” Barzal, a third-year electrical engineering student, said.

“The members had family and friends on the call who were really cheering for them,” Wulbrecht said. “Getting to hear those celebrations, even online, that really just made me smile a lot. I thought that was great.”

After inductions, club leaders gave speeches on what PTK means to them, one speaker was outgoing President Barone, who left her position after becoming regional president of PTK earlier this month.

“Last night was kind of my way, as former chapter president, to just say goodbye to everybody and thank them and let them know that although I can’t be as involved in the chapter as I was before I will always be there to support them,” Barone said.

“I think it was a really impactful speech,” Wulbrecht said. “It was a nice addition to the program last night for them to be able to share their experience [being in PTK].”

College officials, including President Dawn Lindsay and Vice President for Learning Mike Gavin, attended the event.

Wulbrecht said those interested in joining PTK must be degree or certificate-seeking students with a 3.5 GPA and a minimum of 12 credits completed.