Tau Sigma National Honor Society at Iowa State has spent the past two years working to create a space to encourage transfer students to engage with the Ames and Iowa State communities and achieve academic distinction.

Labeeha Rehaman, the president of Tau Sigma and a senior in interdisciplinary studies, said Tau Sigma is dedicated to honoring transfer students who have made an outstanding GPA of 3.5 or above in their first year as Cyclones.

“Our philosophy is centered around a dedication to service and community involvement, which is best represented by our upcoming volunteer project at the Free Food Market Pantry in April,” Rehaman said. “This is an inaugural event that represents our commitment to volunteerism.”

The volunteering event at the Free Food Market Pantry, held April 6, was Tau Sigma’s first off-campus volunteering event.

“My goal as president is to build a foundation for the next generation of exec members, to say, ‘OK, this is what we can do in Ames,’” Rehaman said. “I’m sure next semester in the future, [Tau Sigma] will choose a different service project that’s centered around another community issue, but this semester, I think that the Free Market Food Bank is a good place to start.”

Rehaman said she chose the Free Market because Tau Sigma has been doing an ongoing canned food drive with the SHOP and the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center Resource Room at Iowa State.

“We are so young that we’re kind of beginning to get rolling on volunteerism,” Rehaman said. “And so we’ve been having the ongoing canned food drive, and we have a lot of meetings. We’re building momentum.”

Rehaman said the organization is a source of pride for Iowa State’s varied transfer student body, many of whom are from out of state.

“At Tau Sigma we vouch for a good support system for transfer students, and hopefully, by joining Tau, the transfer students can feel more at home at Ames with a purpose,” Rehaman said. “So hopefully in the future, volunteerism will continue to flourish and maybe expand into more consistent service projects.”

Ruth Marth, a senior in kinesiology and health and Tau Sigma’s treasurer, said the organization is looking to grow by highlighting the transfer population and connecting transfer students to each other to create a support group for transfer students at Iowa State.

Marth said she joined Tau Sigma after her second semester at Iowa State, and it helped connect her to people within her new university.

“I’ve met several people through Tau Sigma, and actually, it’s really cool to see I have people from my community college who are now in Tau Sigma so they can carry that on and grow those connections there,” Marth said. “It’s also a national organization, so it connects you to people outside the university as well and to other universities and community colleges. So it does grow a big community.”

Rehaman has transferred from two universities before attending Iowa State, which she said felt like a journey. During her first year at Iowa State, Rehaman said she felt kind of lonely. She said joining the organization allowed her to connect with other pre-med transfer students like herself.

“I think that Tau Sigma overall has given me, along with my academics, just a purpose, to help the community and organize and just be a leader,” Rehaman said. “You don’t have to be an exec member; you don’t have to be president to feel like you’re doing something for the community. Even though we’ve made small steps, they are towards a bigger mission in the future. And so that’s what Tau Sigma has been able to give me.”

Marth said transfer students all have their own diverse backgrounds, which gives the organization an inclusive and all-encompassing environment.

“It’s very diverse and very inclusive of lots of different people,” Marth said.

In the future, Marth said Tau Sigma will continue to help out in the Ames community and surrounding areas.

“We know that there’s more to the community than just Iowa State University and that the community does give a lot to Iowa State University, especially just the land that it’s on. So [we want to] help the community so that the university can flourish, and we see that need,” Marth said.