Students at Mohawk Valley Community College will prove their commitment to college completion on Tuesday, Sept. 10, by signing a mass pledge to complete their associate degrees or certificates before leaving the College for transfer or to enter the job market. 

Both MVCC campuses will host events: In Utica, activities will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. under a tent in the Quad, where students will be invited to sign the Completion Wall, get a free T-shirt, and read the completion stories of MVCC faculty and staff. The Rome event will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Plumley Complex and will feature everything from the Utica event, plus an ice cream social. 

MVCC administrators, faculty, and staff also have been asked to sign the pledge, committing themselves to do whatever they can to facilitate completion of student credentials. 

The event is part of College Completion Day, a national community college movement, and is being hosted by MVCC’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for two-year colleges. 

Statistics show that students who complete their degrees or certificates will earn an average of $500,000 more over the course of their careers than their peers who did not complete. In addition, individuals with credentials are less likely to become unemployed than their co-workers who did not complete their credentials. 

Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society is the largest honor society in higher education. More than two million students have been inducted since its founding in 1918, with approximately 135,000 students inducted annually. Learn more about Phi Theta Kappa at www.ptk.org. Learn more about the Community College Completion Challenge at www.cccompletioncorps.org.