Northern Michigan University’s Telion chapter of Mortar Board was among the outstanding chapters recognized with a Silver Torch Award at the 2015 Mortar Board National Conference held recently in Phoenix, Ariz. The award recognizes those that execute all national criteria and deadlines while promoting scholarship, leadership and meaningful service to their institutions.

Victoria Penny, president of NMU's chapter, said, “I was and am very proud of Northern’s chapter for receiving the Silver Torch Award, and proud of all that we have accomplished. It inspired me to be driven toward making sure that the Telion chapter maintains its standards of excellence and to ensure we are truly doing our best to benefit the greater good in any way that we can.

Mortar Board is the premier national honor society recognizing college seniors for outstanding achievement in scholarship, leadership and service. This organization provides its members with opportunities for continued leadership development, promotes service to colleges and universities and encourages lifelong contributions to the global community. NMU’s chapter of Mortar Board has about 50 members for the 2015-2016 academic year.

            The Mortar Board national project is “Reading is Leading,” promoting literacy for all individuals. NMU’s chapter promotes this project with events including a Halloween “Ghouls for Goods” Trick-or-Treating Drive, where chapter members will accept books to donate to local libraries and day care centers. They are also setting out donation boxes for Better World Books around finals week in both the fall and winter semester, so students who don’t want their books can simply donate them and the books will be recycled or repurposed.