HANCEVILLE – Wallace State’s Phi Theta Kappa Chapter – the college’s math honor society – adopts a college project each academic year and is raising awareness about heroin usage this semester, informing the student body and the community about the drug’s addictive and deadly properties.
Heroin-related deaths doubled in Alabama in 2014 and have been on the rise ever since. According to the CDC, Alabamians receive more painkiller prescriptions than anyone else in the country, and heroin use is directly linked to prescription painkillers such as Lortab and OxyContin.
“This seems to hit home for people. A lot of people know someone who’s been affected by drug use or heroin,” said Wallace State Phi Theta Kappa co-sponsor and math instructor Brandon Smith. “All of our projects are intended to benefit the campus and community, and we feel like this is an important one to tackle. You never know who you might positively influence.”
On Thursday, Sept. 29, Wallace State’s Phi Theta Kappa is showing “The Triangle,” as part of a Learning Communities event across campus. The video series is an Atlanta-based television report about the rampant heroin usage across the Atlanta suburbs and the devastating effects of the drug. It will be screened at the Burrow Center at 9:30 a.m.
Wallace State’s Phi Theta Kappa chapter is a 5-Star Chapter, the highest the program can achieve. The annual college projects have helped Wallace State achieve the 5-Star Chapter accomplishment.
Phi Theta Kappa is the largest honor society in American higher education with 1,285 chapters on two-year and community college campuses in all 50 states and in Canada, Germany, Peru and other select republics or territories. More than 2.5 million students have been inducted into Phi Theta Kappa since its founding in 1918, with approximately 135,000 students inducted annually.
For more information about Phi Theta Kappa or its campus project, contact Smith at 256-352-8207 or Stacey Sivley at 256-352-8241.
For more information about Wallace State, visit www.wallacestate.edu.
