Greetings PDK members.

It has been a busy year in our Chapter with many activities and organizational tasks.  We are proud of our recent scholarship recipients who well-represent hard work and dedication to our profession.  Please see the attached scholarship application for the selection of this year’s recipients.  Please pass this on throughout your network of prospective educators.  In addition, we are attaching a revised set of by-laws for our Chapter, which include many new requirements of Chapters from our PDK International organization. Please review and send me any questions or any hesitations as to why we should not approve these by-laws (send to James.Schwarz@oxfordschools.org).  We welcome and thank you for your input.  Our plan is to approve these by-laws as written within our March meeting.

In other news, we will soon have a website for our chapter up and running with all of our news, events, and professional development opportunities.  The new site can be found at www.pdkmi.org. It is currently under construction, but will be available soon.  This will provide a great service to our membership.

We greatly appreciate all of your efforts in positively impacting our students.  Please email me (address above) with any interest in becoming active with our chapter and its activities.  We’d love to include you and even expand on what we can do provide opportunities for prospective educators.

I hope everyone is staying warm and healthy in this new year!

Sincerely,

James Schwarz

President, PDK State of Michigan Chapter #1607

PDK Chapter Members who attended our Annual Dinner Meeting in Okemos last May were excited, happy and very pleased to honor our 2013 Prospective Educator Scholarship winners and their parents.  Each of our recipients received $1000 awards that evening.  What a pleasure to host these outstanding young people and catch the spirit of their enthusiasm for becoming future educators.  Two of our honorees were undergraduates at Michigan Universities:  Katie Schnettler, a graduate of Oxford High School and now a student at Wayne State University with plans to become an elementary teacher; and Lexie Sittsamer, a graduate of North Farmington High School & currently a student at Western Michigan University majoring in pre-Special Education.  Both Katie and Lexie expressed a sincere passion for teaching as they shared their goals and aspirations with us.  Their many positive experiences with children were admirable.

Our third recipient, Laquita Hart, a graduating Senior of Detroit Martin Luther King High School received the $1000 PDK Scholarship Endowment Award.  Laquita is now enrolled at Bethune Cookman College to prepare for a career in Secondary Education.  She was an energetic leader at her High School and an active participant in multiple activities, serving as a positive role model for her fellow students.  Her High School Principal, Dr. Deborah Jenkins, accompanied her and gave testimony of Laquita’s many contributions to her school and her desire to become an educator.

The Annual Dinner Meeting is a great opportunity to meet fellow PDK Chapter members and the outstanding scholarship honorees.  We hope you will be able to attend the 2014 Dinner this Spring.  Watch for the announcement when plans are complete.

The Scholarship application form can be found here [link removed].  Please share this form with students who are planning to become future educators in our schools:  high school seniors or college undergraduates.  Promote this opportunity with those in your area who can let students become aware of our State of Michigan PDK Chapter 1607 Scholarships.  We would like to see applicants from all areas of Michigan.  The deadline for the scholarship application this year is March 10, 2014.