By Tevye J. Schmidt

Despite the challenges of the past year, the Lindenwood chapter of Kappa Delta Pi (KDP) displayed excellence in their work. KDP is an International Honor Society in Education founded in 1911 to support and promote fellowship among educators. Their effort to celebrate teachers and teaching earned the Tau Phi chapter a 2020-2021 silver award from KDP International for their project, “Celebrating the Educators in Our Lives.” The chapter received both the 2020-2021 Community Service Chapter Program Award and the 2020-2021 Chapter Program Award for their Literacy Alive! program.

All the work that Tau Phi did in the previous year was overseen by Dr. Nancy Schneider, who retired from teaching in 2020 after 21 years at Lindenwood. She remained the faculty sponsor for KDP until this year. Schneider said that lack of in-person social interaction made keeping members engaged in the honor society activities difficult for her and the students involved, especially when it came to holding Zoom meetings instead of engaging with everyone face to face. Even so, their Tau Phi chapter remained active and won three awards in the meantime.

The "Celebrating the Educators in our Lives” project focused on serving and inspiring former and current teachers. The Tau Phi chapter did this by purchasing coffee bar items and custard coupons from Andy’s for the Lindenwood University College of Education and Human Services faculty, and handwriting letters to former teachers. Schneider said that “each member who wrote a letter or sent a card to a former teacher did so on their own time and with their own supplies.”

The Chapter Program Award for Literacy Alive! honored their work in setting up a student essay contest that was open to all children enrolled in 2nd through 7th grades throughout the St. Charles area, including homeschooled children. The Community Service Chapter Program Award celebrated the chapter’s success in their Tech with the Teach outreach program that focused on teaching older adults to use technology with more confidence and skill.

Aside from the awards won, they also secured the donation of a painting Warner Hall. The painting came from Zack Smithey, an alumnus of Lindenwood, who has a cousin that is an active member of KDP. It is a depiction of Mark Twain, from the artist’s Mark Twain series.

The members of KDP’s Tau Phi chapter rose to the challenges the previous year presented and soared above expectations. “As you can see, even with the COVID restrictions, KDP at LU was an active chapter this past year,” said Schneider. They are a source of pride for the university.