National Society of Collegiate Scholars Recognizes Embry-Riddle Chapter

This achievement, which is one of NSCS’s highest honors, recognizes the Daytona Beach Chapter for implementing engaging, student-centered events on campus and in the community.

According to the national society, the Embry-Riddle chapter has “truly proven their commitment to the ideals that NSCS holds dear. Their exceptional work is not only a credit to them as a chapter, but as students of Embry-Riddle as well.”

Current chapter president John Fadroski, an Aviation Maintenance Science senior, and advisor Debra Smith attribute the success to former chapter president and recent alumnus Dynamite Obinna, who they said thoughtfully planned activities to increase attendance as well as organized events to draw attention to issues impacting young people.

Obinna, who graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics, is now a crew mission integration engineer at SpaceX. He said the NSCS made a positive impact on him and he was determined to increase attendance and engagement, which had previously dropped to an all-time low. In between an internship in Washington, D.C. with NASA last year, he planned meetings and events and returned to campus in the spring to continue doing projects with the club.

"NSCS is not your typical honor organization. Besides the numerous scholarship and discount opportunities it provides to members, it inspires and provokes its members to discover a unique perspective of what academic excellence and leadership is,” Obinna said.

In addition to bonding trips and activities for its members, the chapter also reached out to other groups on campus and youth in the community. Members organized tours on campus for students and parents from Atlantic High School and Galaxy Middle School. To raise awareness about Mental Health, in April the chapter sponsored an “Activity Fair” involving several departments on campus.

The chapter held an Integrity Week in February, encouraging students on campus to write about what important values they stood for such as love, courage, loyalty, honesty, truth and justice.

 “Our officer board worked closely and very diligently to complete all of the tasks set forth by our corporate office to the best of our ability all while keeping our members engaged and interested in attending meetings,” said Fadroski, who was also instrumental last year in obtaining school funding for the chapter to help with activities. “We quickly grew from just a few students per meeting to 20 to 30. This key group of supportive members really helped us to achieve our goals.”

Fadroski and Obinna said they are proud of the chapter’s more than 200 members for receiving the Certified Gold Star Status and plans are in place to increase both community outreach events and on-campus activities in the fall semester.