At the March 23, 2021, OCC Board of Trustees meeting, OCC Student Trustee and Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Vice President for Service Eleanor Petrucco ‘21 and PTK Chapter President Gina Segreti ’21 gave a special presentation on behalf of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society to OCC Executive Director of Communications Roger Mirabito.
That morning, the tables were turned and both students had the chance to highlight and honor Roger Mirabito for his dedicated commitment to student success at OCC. On any given day, Roger can be found across campus interviewing students and faculty, conducting podcasts to share with the community, or escorting media to cover another OCC success story. But this time, it was OCC’s own PTK students shining the light on him.
Phi Theta Kappa is the official international honor society of two-year colleges and OCC’s chapter is Alpha Sigma Zeta. The award-winning chapter is student-run with a very active leadership team and directed by OCC’s long-time and devoted PTK faculty advisors Associate Professor of Sociology Dr. Annie Tuttle and Honors College Coordinator Jackie Barstow. The PTK Distinguished College Administrator Award recognizes college officials whose work goes far beyond a commitment that helps provide students with more opportunities and stronger pathways to completion, transfer, and employment.
OCC’s own Roger Mirabito and the other recipients were nominated for the award by students on their campus. In making OCC’s presentation, Eleanor Petrucco said, “We nominated Roger because he is one of the biggest supporters of Phi Theta Kappa on our campus.
As the Executive Director of Communications, he takes every opportunity that he can to spread awareness about Phi Theta Kappa to our students and community. He has written countless stories on our chapter and members for our campus website and continuously features our members in student spotlights on the website, interviewing them about their personal educational journey through PTK. The value our members receive from interviewing with Roger is measured in the tangible impact he makes on our students. It never fails that after one of our members meets with Roger, they continuously sing his praises. He makes students feel seen and helps our members understand that the projects we work on through Phi Theta Kappa matter.“
OCC PTK President Gina Segreti added, “ Roger has also featured our chapter, members, and advisors in the OCC podcast, shares information about our projects and promotes ways for students to join and get involved. We could continue to go on about how amazing Roger is, but we will close by saying thank you for all that you do for our chapter and our members.”
Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society (PTK) will recognize Roger along with 25 other college administrators across the country.
