PTK students submitted detailed written entries describing the chapter's 2016 College Project and 2016 Honors in Action Project. At PTK headquarters, the entries were evaluated against a rubric, scored and the scores sent to regional coordinators across the country. Rho Theta accumulated the third-highest combined score in the Rocky Mountain Cascade Region and was awarded one of three regional Distinguished Chapter awards. The Rocky Mountain Cascade Region includes 25 PTK chapters throughout Oregon, Utah and parts of Idaho.

PTK chapters identify College Projects in collaboration with their college presidents. For its College Project, Rho Theta contributed photos of student life at MHCC (circa 2016) to the time capsule that was buried last fall, marking the start of the college's second 50 years.

Honors in Action Projects are interdisciplinary, research-based, and often service- or action-oriented. Rho Theta researched sugar—natural sugars, added sugars, artificial sweeteners—and in the process learned about new nutrition labels that will show added sugars on food products in the United States. The new product labeling was approved by the U.S. Congress in 2016 and should go into effect summer of 2018. However, the federal government could still repeal or block that effort, so the Rho Theta members established an online petition, collecting more than 14,000 signatures, to keep the new labeling requirements. They plan to send the petition to some of Oregon's state and federal legislators.