A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: Aug. 10 All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be emailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, student correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Garrison Reid, special contributor; Lisa Huang, special contributor; Nick Young, photography and layout.
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Collin student is SMU-bound
By Sydney Portilla-Diggs
Campus Correspondent
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| Evelyne Wilk graduated Collin with an Associate of Arts degree. She is pictured with Tommy Thompson,District II coordinator for Phi Theta Kappa, receiving the Hall of Honor plaque. | Evelyne Wilk decided to attend Collin County Community College because of its proximity to her home, its affordability and its stellar reputation.
After completing her core curriculum, which included four honors courses, Wilk graduated Magna Cum Laude from Collin with an Associate of Arts degree. Wilk has been a member of Collin’s Alpha Mu Tau Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society since April of 2004. She held the offices of officer-at-large and vice president of Spring Creek Campus.
In October 2005, Evelyne Wilk was placed in Phi Theta Kappa’s Texas Region District II Hall of Honor as an outstanding chapter officer. As a member of Phi Theta Kappa, Wilk knew that she was guaranteed at least a half-scholarship to Southern Methodist University (SMU); therefore, she did not apply to any other university.
However, Wilk says she did not allow herself to think about the possibility of receiving the full scholarship.
Wilk said, “I was aware that there were 24 other people who were at least as qualified as I was, since there were twenty-five interviewees. I tried to answer all the interviewer’s questions as thoroughly as I could, and I felt very good about the interview as I walked out of the office. After I left the building, I decided to try not dwelling on this issue and began preparing for my upcoming vacation. My vacation and the preparations served as convenient distractions until the telephone call on Friday.”
According to Wilk, when the phone rang, she noticed that “SMU” showed up on the caller ID. She was worried that she was among the 15 students who would be notified that they would not be receiving the full scholarship that day.
“I had considered letting the voice-mail get the call to delay the agony, but I took a deep breath, picked up the phone and said ‘hello.’ The gentleman on the other end told me his name and that he was from SMU. He then said, ‘Congratulations’ and I didn’t let him utter another word before I said, ‘Yes.’ Then he said, ‘You didn’t let me finish. How did you know what I was going to say?’ I told him that I didn’t think he would be cruel enough to say, ‘Congratulations, you didn’t get the scholarship',” Wilk said.
After receiving the good news, Wilk called her husband, her parents, her children, a series of friends and Collin’s President Cary Israel. Wilk credits much of her success to the support of President Israel and other Collin faculty members and Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Thom Chesney. On SMU’s essay questionnaire applicants are requested to choose two words to best describe themselves. Wilk chose two words—honest and reliable.
“I have always felt that those were two of my greatest attributes. If I say that I will do something, you can be assured that I can and will complete the task in a thorough, accurate, and timely fashion,” Wilk said.
To other Collin students hoping to obtain transfer scholarships, Wilk suggests being active in the community. Volunteerism has been a part of Evelyne Wilk’s life since she was a grammar school student. She remains active in her children’s school and her family’s church. While maintaining a high grade point average, Wilk was active in her home owners’ association. The Collin student is also active on the Communications and Pool committees, and the Neighborhood Watch. In addition to volunteerism, Wilk suggests that hard work and academic excellence is paramount to success.
“When I was a young girl, my grandfather used to give me pages of math problems to work on. It was how we bonded. [Because of this] I was always years ahead of my peers in math," Wilk said. "Fortunately, my grandfather was unaware of the theory that females are not supposed to excel in mathematics. I was like the bumblebee. It is said that a bumblebee is not aerodynamically supposed to be able to fly. [But somehow the bumblebee flies, and I excel at math.] I firmly believe that more females would excel in mathematics if they weren’t constantly told that they could not.”
Wilk will be attending SMU in the fall to pursue a degree in finance law.
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