Student members and faculty of the Westfield State University chapter of Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society attended this year’s national convention, held virtually, from March 25–27. Co-charing the event was Glen Brewster, Ph.D., professor of English, who has previously served as eastern regent, vice president and president of the national organization.
“Along with Stephen Adams, Ph.D., chair and professor of English, I founded the Sigma Tau Delta chapter at Westfield State over 20 years ago, and it has been recognized many times as one of the Society’s most active chapters,” Brewster explained.
Sigma Tau Delta is the third largest honor society, with over 900 chapters in the U.S and internationally, and typically inducts over 8,000 members annually—English majors and minors and from related disciplines as well. The organization gives over $200,000 annually in scholarships, internships, and project and service grants, and has partnered in recent years with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, Better World Books, and others to promote reading, writing, and literacy efforts.
The Sigma Tau Delta annual convention is the largest student-focused conference in the nation, with students presenting scholarly papers, creative writing, and roundtables on a variety of topics.
“We had over 450 registrants for this year’s virtual national convention, which surprised us because we were concerned that students might be burned out from online activities,” said Brewster
As information was presented through a series of roundtables via Zoom, student and faculty attendees shared research or a presentation.
English major Meaghan Davis ’21, secretary of the WSU’s Sigma Tau Delta chapter, presented at one of the event’s roundtables regarding her findings on linguistic diversity in the classroom.
“The experience of leading a discussion on linguistic diversity was wonderful. I proposed this topic to our chapter during a meeting, and from there it took off,” said Davis.
As members of the group came from different backgrounds, everyone present had something unique to offer. Attendees engaged in a live discussion, which included passionate dialogue about how and to what extent current and future educators should incorporate linguistic diversity in classrooms.
“Much of the discussion focused on finding ways to include linguistic diversity in a curriculum so focused on standardized testing, where we shared small-scale solutions to help combat a larger societal issue. I learned a lot on the topic during the discussion!”
According to Brewster, first-time student attendees were particularly excited to discover the student-centered roundtable titled, “Can Harry Potter Be Separated from J.K. Rowling?”
The Westfield State University-sponsored session had over 60 attendees, which exceeds what the convention normally has for an in-person set of presentations. First time attendee and communication major Lindsay Stenico ’21 attended this roundtable, noting that despite it having to be done virtually this year, the entire event went very well.
“The CVENT platform that they used had no hiccups. A lot of people had their videos on and so it felt like we were all there together despite it being virtual,” said Stenico. “I can only imagine how much fun it would have been in person. These conventions bring people together.”
Dr. Brewster said that although he is really looking forward to the Spring 2022 Convention in Atlanta, he and the Sigma Tau Delta committee worked hard to preserve the best elements of the usual in-person conventions with this year’s virtual one. “I continue to give many thanks to all the people who contributed to the convention, especially the Sigma Tau Delta staff with whom I spent so much time in planning sessions over the last year,” he said. “Despite all the difficulties in shifting to a virtual convention this year, it seems to have been a success.”