Reaping the Rewards of Hard Work

Balkees Rekik was recently awarded the 2022 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholarship. She is one of 207 Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) members who was awarded this scholarship. PTK is an international honor society, and it is only one of the various activities that Rekik participates in outside of the classroom.

Rekik moved to Charlottesville from Tunisia in Fall 2021 to attend PVCC. Since then, she has become the vice president of service for the PTK and the vice president of the International Club. She also volunteers weekly at the UVA Hospital’s oncology unit. Although she is thriving now, her initial move to the United States was not easy. Rekik said, “Being away from my parents was definitely the hardest. I developed panic attacks and anxiety, which was not fun.”

Rekik’s four older sisters are all graduates of the Virginia Community College System, and two of them transferred on to Cornell University. She plans to follow in their footsteps by applying for transfer to Ivy League colleges, majoring in psychology in the Fall of 2023.

 Rekik said, “I encourage people to  be more active and to join as many clubs as possible. That way, you’ll get this sense of satisfaction and this feeling of belonging, and it would definitely look good on your resumé and application to schools or job applications.” However, she also mentioned that she treats herself whenever she experiences burnout so that she can recover and feel more energized for the activities to come.

Rekik believes that being active outside of the classroom is overall a very rewarding experience as it has allowed her to make new connections and even minimize college expenses. 

She said, “I don’t usually check my emails. I was in D.C. with my parents. Right before going to bed, I was opening my email and I saw an email from PTK saying that I got this scholarship. I read the email probably three times, until I realized that I got this scholarship. It was like the last thing that I could ever imagine. So yeah, I was so happy. I yelled at the top of my lungs to my parents.”