Kappa Delta Pi (KDP) Honor Society in Education, was founded in 1911 to foster excellence in education and promote fellowship among those dedicated to teaching and education. The Omicron Pi Chapter of KDP was established in November 1981 with 100 charter members. Today, our chapter has intiiated over 3560 members into the Society. Using a variety of programs, services, and resources, KDP supports and advances educators throughout the phases and levels of their teaching careers. The Omicron Pi Chapter provides professional development to its members through the Teacher Toolbox Tuesday workshop series. To promote the profession of teaching, the Celebration of Teaching event is co-sponsored by the Omicron Pi Chapter each fall/spring. To promote literacy, the Love of Reading service project is hosted each fall/spring.

Chapter Newsletters

Membership

Persons who exhibit commendable personal qualities, worthy educational ideals, and sound scholarship, without regard to race, age, color, religion, sex, or handicapping conditions are invited to join. Both undergraduates and graduates are eligible for invitation. Recommendation is given to undergraduates and graduate certificate/MAT candidates who have earned at least 3.0 GPA after 6+ hours of education course work in an approved Teacher Education/graduate program. Invitations to join KDP are sent via Charlotte email in the fall and spring to undergraduates and graduate students (CERT/MAT). The KDP Omicron Pi Chapter initiation ceremony is held on Reading Day each semester. An interest meeting will be held in October/March – click HERE for link to information session presentation.

Benefits

The benefits of joining KDP are many. National benefits for teacher candidates and new teachers can be located at www.kdp.org. Local chapter benefits include:

• an honor cord to wear at commencement
• invitations to professional development and annual events
• seminars and conferences
• service learning projects
• scholarships and travel opportunities
• networking with other educators in your career phase
• leading through serving as an executive officer

Omicron Pi Chapter Meetings

Once a semester, the Omicron Pi Chapter hosts chapter meetings. Chapter meetings are held on the last Thursday in October and March at 5:30pm. All chapter meetings will be held virtually via Zoom. During chapter meetings, KDP officers share updates and provide information about chapter events. KDP members will receive an email with dates for chapter meetings.

Teacher Toolbox Tuesday

Since 2012, the Omicron Pi Chapter has been providing weekly professional development workshops for teacher education candidates, called Teacher Toolbox Tuesdays (TTT). Topics for these workshops have included classroom management, culturally responsive teaching, active engagement strategies, teacher wellness, and how to get a teaching job to name a few. Presenters include faculty, NC Principal Fellows, and NC New Teacher Support Instructional Coaches. To date, more than 300 workshops have been delivered to over 2000 pre-service teachers. For dates/topics and to register, click on this link.

Celebration of Teaching

The Celebration of Teaching event will be held virtually each spring. This celebration will feature a motivational keynote speaker and will honor all current teachers and aspiring teachers. KDP Chapter members will receive an email with more information mid-semester.

Service: Love of Reading

Kappa Delta Pi and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Societies have partnered with Niner University Elementary School in Charlotte to host our 5th annual Love of Reading (LOR) event. The in-person read-ins will be held Friday, December 1, February 9, and March 22. Chapter members are encouraged to volunteer to read selected books and shared the recordings via website created for each school. Copies of the books will be donated to Niner University along with “love of reading” bookmarks for each student.

Corey Lock Chapter Scholarship

In 2006, the Corey Lock Scholarship Award was established from a gift given by the Omicron Pi Chapter to recognize our longest serving Counselor, Dr. Corey Lock. Each spring, active chapter members can apply for the scholarship by completing an online application and submitting an essay based on the KDP motto – Knowledge, Duty, Power. One-two scholarships are awarded each spring at the initiation ceremony.

Awards

The Omicron Pi Chapter is an award-winning chapter receiving distinction as the top world chapter winning the 2017 Florence B Stratemeyer Award for Chapter Excellence. To see our award-winning video, click here. For six consecutive years (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, 2023), the Omicron Pi Chapter has received the ACE Award – Achieving Chapter Excellence. Established in 1995, the ACE Awards Program recognizes Kappa Delta Pi chapters that exhibit outstanding programming in support of the Society’s mission and strategic goals. Since its inception, chapters across the country have aspired to offer creative, purposeful programming and a full slate of chapter activities with the hope of earning this coveted award. Three times, the Omicron Pi has received the Program of Excellence award for First 3 (2013), Teacher Toolbox Tuesday (2018), and Literacy Alive (2020). Since 2013, the Omicron Pi Chapter has received awards for their annual service project –Literacy Alive Read-In. Awards have included Bronze 2013, Silver 2014, Gold 2015, Gold 2016, Silver 2017, and Bronze 2018. In 2019, 2020, and 2021, the Omicron Pi Chapter received the Gold Award for our Celebration of Teaching: Future 49ers Teach event. In 2023, the Gold Award for the Celebration of Teaching event was received at Convo. In 2020, the Love of Reading event won the Gold Award for Program of Excellence. Counselor Hathcock was inducted into the Eleanor Roosevelt Chapter, an honor bestowed only to 100 living Kadelphians.

Fundraiser

The Omicron Pi Chapter will be selling Charlotte Cato COED t-shirts ($15) and masks ($10) in the COED atrium during the academic year. KDP Chapter t-shirts will be available to chapter members during initiation and at other times throughout the year.

For more information, contact

Chapter Co-Counselors Dr. Misty Hathcock mchathco@charlotte.edu or Debra Diegmann ddiegman@charlotte.edu

Chapter Officers kappadeltapi@charlotte.edu