The annual October vote of the members of the Great Plains Honors Council (GPHC), an association of 80 honors colleges and programs, recently confirmed†Matthew Jordan,†a Presidential Scholar at Northeast Texas Community College, as the 2013-2014 Student Representative of its Executive Council.
Jordan, the 2012 Salutatorian of Pittsburg High School, will become the highest ranking student in an organization that represents thousands of honors students, including those at large and prestigious universities. Moreover, Jordan is the first community college student in memory to have obtained that distinction, according to GPHC archivist, Ryan Diehl, whose records on this question extend through the last ten years.† Jordan defeated the president of the Honors Scholars Council at John Brown University, Kelsey Gulliver, by two votes to win the election.
The president of the Great Plains Honors Council will introduce Jordan at this year?s 2013 meeting of the GPHC, held during the conference of the National Collegiate Honors Council, in New Orleans on November 8.† Jordan, who already is president of the Honors Student Council at NTCC, will have a full vote in meetings of the seven-member, GPHC executive council.
?Jordan has had a phenomenal record at NTCC and the story of his accomplishments made him a formidable opponent, even for top honors students in university programs,? Dr. Andrew Yox, Honor Director, said.
According to Yox, Jordan was the driving force behind NTCC?s first-ever $600 group First-Place Caldwell Award of the Webb Society of Texas.† His team proposed a new Caddo museum for NTCC.† He spearheaded a Caddo grant that won $1,000, and visited the headquarters of the Caddo Nation, Caddo archeological sites in Oklahoma, and the major collection of Caddo artifacts at the University of Texas at Austin.
Interested at the same time in becoming a petroleum engineer, Jordan won a research internship last summer, and will present the results of his research on the hydrogenation of Acetylene at the Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society this fall.†While being introduced for the first time as the student leader of the GPHC, Jordan will also present work at two sessions at this year?s meeting of the National Collegiate Honors Council.
