Twenty-four chapter members have submitted critical or creative work (essays, poems, short-stories, and creative non-fiction) to the 2011 Sigma Tau Delta International Conference to be held this year in sunny Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.We estimate that it total travel costs for the conference will be $10,000 if all twenty-four students and two sponsors attend the conference. The dean of the School of Culture and Society has generally agreed to fund six first-time attendees and one chapter sponsor. Nonetheless, we want all students whose work is accepted (and we should know by the end of January which students have had work accepted) to attend the conference and bring back the leadership skills they learn.
Students have already been actively fundraising for the conference. During the fall, our students worked with Terhune Orchards in Princeton, New Jersey, picking and bagging apples and doughnuts (we know some of the doughnuts even made it into bags). Students earned $1,440 through their hard work at the orchard.
We're beginning a Gertrude Hawk fundraiser, selling chocolate to fuel the end-of-semester flurry of studying and grading. And students will be hosting and serving at a Saturday morning breakfast at Applebee's in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, in early March, 2011.
