For a select number of students at Jefferson Community College, the day was a crowing achievement. They were inducted into the prestigious Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, and Gianna Donahue congratulated every one of them.

“It’s definitely a historic, monumental moment for a lot of people, just being a part of an honor society, and especially a Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society to their name is something that a lot of people take pride in,” Donahue said.

One of the students was Donahue. She not only helped organize the ceremony, she was an inductee as well.


What You Need To Know

  • Phi Theta Kappa is a prestigious honor society that helps students as they navigate college and life 

  • Jefferson Community College has a chapter of Phi Theta Kappa and a few military students earned the honor of induction

  • Gianna Donahue is one student who is proud to be a member, knowing how hard she worked and how much she and her family moved around because of military life

“It’s an amazing honor for not only me and my family, but just to show that all the hard work that I did in high school and so far in college is paying off,” she said.

It is a lot of hard work because for Donahue, the journey to get here was anything but normal.

A member of a military family, her father was honorably, medically discharged from injuries suffered in a deployment to the Middle East. She now lives with her uncle, who is a solider on Fort Drum.

Her experiences have helped her truly understand what it takes to move forward successfully.

“Yeah, I didn’t want to let that sacrifice go to waste, especially because our GI Bill expired. I wanted to take as much pride and as much opportunity that I could,” she added.

As Donahue took the next step toward her lifelong dream of becoming a veterinarian, she was not alone. Military families pick JCC for a reason.

Forty-two percent of its student body has direct military or military family affiliation. It’s full of people that understand what it takes for a military student to reach these heights.

“We’re able to relate to each other. We’re able to confide in each other. We don’t really know the area that well, so we’re able to kind of explore it, our campus and explore student relationships as someone who didn’t grow up in an environment like this,” Donahue said of her military classmates.

For the forks in the road she had to take to get here, her family, the school, the honor society, it’s all pointing her in the direction she always wanted to go.

Students who are inducted into Phi Theta Kappa must have and maintain a 3.5 grade point average.