Graduating senior looks back at time spent at USF

In thirty-five days, Kathleen Carter will be graduating from the University of South Florida. With dual degrees in biology and chemistry and laboratory research under her belt, she will leave USF knowing she had the distinction of being a student leader.
 
For the 2010-2011 school year, Carter served as the President of Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity. Phi Sigma Pi is a co-educational, academic-orientated fraternity on campus of which Carter has been a member since her second semester at USF (in the spring of 2008).
 
Carter joined Phi Sigma Pi after experiencing a rough start to her campus involvement. An out of state student from Rocky River, Ohio, Carter was attracted to USF by the sailing team. Sailing since childhood, Carter was a member of USF’s sailing team in her freshman and sophomore years. Since the team is located at the USF St. Petersburg campus, Carter spent much of her first semester commuting back and forth for practice.
 
In the spring of 2008, Carter decided to search out other involvement opportunities.
 
“I wanted to be involved on the Tampa campus,” said Carter. She joined the newly-founded Chemistry Society but found that starting an organization can be challenging.
 
“Starting an organization is a lot harder than joining an organization. There were some complications [with the Chemistry Society],” Carter said. That same semester Carter rushed Phi Sigma Pi and “fell in love.”
 
Soon Carter became very busy when Phi Sigma Pi started to take up much of her time as she sought out leadership positions within the organization. Carter was elected Brother at Large, a very significant position to the fraternity, in the spring of 2009 and served as ICR Chair and as an alternate delegate to Phi Sigma Pi’s National Convention.
 
After National Convention, Carter saw “Phi Sigma Pi on a whole new level” and was inspired to aspire for more.
 
“I really liked being involved with Phi Sigma Pi and I thought I could lead it well. We were on the cusp of going from being good to great,” Carter said. Carter was elected to serve as president during her senior year.
 
Being heavily-involved in an organization has not always been easy for Carter. An academically-focused student, Carter has taken over the maximum 18 credit hours a semester several times in her college career as well as pursued multiple research projects in various laboratories.
 
“I overly involved myself in college,” Carter said. “I missed out on huge aspects of college [like] partying [and] forming close bonds with friends.”
 
Carter has had a successful year leading Phi Sigma Pi and acknowledges that it has had a significant impact on her.
 
“Being a leader you have to make certain sacrifices,” Carter said. “I learned to work with different people and learned about diversity. I learned to fend for myself and problem-solve. I am really happy with my success.”