Co-curricular opportunities, designed for personal and academic enrichment, and just plain fun, are a staple of Honors Programs. Last Saturday we had a big recruitment event here on campus, our Black and Gold Day, and in speaking to a large group of prospective Honors students and their parents, I mentioned the various outside-of-class activities our students had enjoyed over the past 10 days alone. They organized and performed at a Coffee House night in the lounge of the Honors House, held a white elephant sale as one of the peer mentor organized events, organized a bingo night at the local Lakeside Assisted Living facility here in Highland Heights (our Honors volunteer club organized), held an Honors Night Inn at Callahan Hall (organized by Honors student residents) with a massive pizza delivery to the residence hall at midnight, and more. Not to mention deciding on possible scholarship opportunites, leadership team applications (peer mentoring and Honors Ambassadors), future travel, Capstone projects, and end-of-semester projects. As President Votruba told the incoming first-year Honors students last year, "You will get out of this Honors Program exactly what you put into it." Our Honors students truly do invest in their education, both inside and outside the classroom, and they have fun in doing so.

Three Honors faculty members have been awarded a grant from NKU’s Scripps Howard Center for Civic Engagement to support a service learning trip for six Honors Program students to go to New Orleans, Louisiana and Moss Point, Mississippi next May! Students will need to enroll in one of the following spring courses in order to be eligible to apply for support: Commemoration Nation; Women Across Cultures; or The Written World.

Students selected for the trip, which will be May 10-15 2010, will only be asked to provide a $150. “good faith” deposit for meals, and all other expenses will be paid, including airfare and lodging. This is an outstanding opportunity for students, and congratulations to Jodi Ferner, Ali Godel, and Belle Zembrodt on their successful application for this award.

Students who have questions should contact one of these Honors Program instructors. To reiterate, only students in one of the three classes listed above are eligible to apply. These courses still have seats remaining. Ah, New Orleans! Po Boys, étouffée, beignets! Students, jump on this opportunity!

The Honors Program is currently recruiting up to 25 Honors Program students to serve as Honors Ambassadors. Nationally, most Honors Programs and Colleges use Honors Ambassadors primarily to help in recruitment and publicity efforts, and while we will be using our Ambassadors in that role, we envision a much wider array of opportunities, including travel opportunities, leadership training, interaction with both NKU and community leaders, partnerships with entities such as Vision 2015, research opportunities, interaction with our visiting speakers, and more.

Eligibility:

·         Cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher (include transcript with application)

·         Good standing in the Honors Program

·         Active status in the HP (If you have already completed the Honors Program, you are not eligible, but students selected as Ambassadors my remain Ambassadors for one full academic semester following completion of the HP minor)

·         Open to first-year students as well as continuing HP students

Application Process:

·         Respond to the 2 short essay prompts on the application form

·         Provide a current transcript (unofficial is OK)

·         Schedule a 20-minute interview with the Honors Program Director

·         Initial application deadline is December 15 2009. The maximum number of Honors Ambassadors at any one time will be 25. If there are remaining openings after the December deadline, students will remain eligible to apply.

Opportunities:

·         Serve as liaisons between the HP and upper-level NKU administration

·         Participate in “leadership luncheons” with NKU and community leaders

·         Domestic and international travel, including NCHC, NCUR, and student leadership retreats

·         Interact with visiting speakers

·         Assist with recruitment efforts

·         Compete for undergraduate research awards

·         Assist in fostering dialogue with HP alumni, including alumni luncheons

·         Potential future student employment opportunities within the Honors Program

Requirements

·         Attend Honors Ambassador meetings, held at least twice a semester

·         Participate in a minimum of 2 Honors Ambassador events per semester

·         Maintain an upbeat, positive, professional attitude and demeanor in representing the

Honors Program to both the NKU and the greater regional community

Last week we finalized the application process and learning outcomes for one of several mentoring opportunities we offer Honors Program students. Students who have completed Honors 101 and at least one Honors 300-level course are eligible to apply to be a Peer Mentor for a section of Honors 101 next fall. This is our required course for incoming Honors Fellows, the Honors First-Year Seminar. We recently revised the catalog description of this course as follows: “Introduction to the NKU Honors Program and the Honors style of learning. Emphasis on dialogic, seminar-style education; Honors education within the context of the University’s mission; methods of independent student research and creative projects; collaborative learning.” Peer Mentors will work alongside Honors 101 instructors in delivering the course, modeling their own success in the course for incoming first-year students. In addition, we will be offering several opportunities for leadership training for the Peer Mentors next academic year, both on and off campus.

Mentoring is a key concept in Honors education, and part of what I see as crucial to mentoring is that it is an ongoing process, not an isolated experience. I recently spoke to the SOAR Honors Fellows, a group of first-year Honors students working in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines, on another mentoring opportunity. Part of what I spoke about was the need to be mentored, and the opportunities to mentor, that occur throughout our life streams, not just during our formal education at the university. We all need mentors in various guises for various aspects of our lives. While we want to choose them wisely, we also can’t afford to let the opportunity to select a solid mentor pass us by. In our Honors Program, all Honors faculty and staff mentor students on a regular basis, but our professional roles will to some extent shape that mentoring. An academic advisor, for instance, might mentor in a different way than a course instructor. But what is consistent in our Program is strong, consistent support of students in all their academic endeavors.

A cornerstone of mentoring in Honors is the exit project we call Capstone, a two-semester, six credit hour experience that involves the production of a research or creative project under the direction of a faculty member. This one-on-one independent project allows each student in the Program to develop a professional, working relationship with a faculty member in the student’s chosen academic discipline. The Capstone is the “crown jewel” of the Honors experience, and it is designed to be the unique, signature project for each individual student in the Program. In an ideal situation, the project director becomes a long-term mentor, one who will continue to support the student in their future academic endeavors (often the journey to graduate or professional school), and in many cases their future personal endeavors. I recently spoke with a retired Dean of an Honors College who described a long-term friendship with a former student-mentee. The Dean remained in contact with the former student over the years, watching his family and career grow, even as the former student moved across the country. Some years went by, and suddenly a large donation for the Honors College materialized, earmarked for student scholarships. The gift was from the former student, now a highly-successful businessperson.

The outcome of mentoring need not be this dramatic. What is significant is the potential for educational mentoring in Honors to foster a lifelong friendship. This is a very large part of what all of us in Honors strive to do, on a daily basis.

We were driving to Savannah GA for a little getaway, and a song came on the radio. I turned it up and said to my wife, “I could never have made it through graduate school without that song.” While I meant that almost literally, and while I still love that song, the funny thing is, it probably wouldn’t make my all-time top 300. I’m not going to tell you what the song is, except to say that I was in graduate school in New York City during the Eighties, and I still have a soft spot for textured, atmospheric synth-pop.

I listen to so many radio stations on the Internet. Every now and then I pull up WXPN in Philadelphia. They recently ran a promotion where they asked several musical artists to name “the song I can’t live without.” What an impossible task! Are we talking about yesterday, today, or tomorrow? What genre do you want? Can we maybe do it by decades? OK, today I’ll go with John Coltrane’s version of “My Favorite Things.” But check back in with me tomorrow.

I’m going to ask our Honors students to do the impossible. I’m going to run a short essay contest and ask them that question. What is “the song you can’t live without”? I’m going to give them a window to think and write, and set a 400 word limit. They will be advised to make sure they address why the song means so much to them personally, and what another person, not the writer of the essay, would likely find particularly appealing about the song. The “prize” for the best essay(s) will be dinner with the Director, where the selected student-writers will get a meal on me, get to tell me about their experiences in Honors, and where they think the Program should go in the future. I hope it's fun for us all.

I’ll keep you updated on the results as the weeks go along toward semester’s end.

We're back from our whirlwind 3 days at NCHC in Washington. Our students presented on international travel experiences, and I was struck by the array of educational opportunities afforded by such travel. More of our Honors Program students need to take advantage of this unique opportunity. When I say "unique," other Honors Programs and Colleges certainly offer their students the chance to travel out of the country, but not to the degree that our Program does. In short, we receive tremendous support from the President and Provost to make this happen for our students. We are in the midst of a reevaluation of how we want to open the travel opportunities to more students in the Program, so keep your eyes and ears open. We won't be announcing any formal changes or new opportunities until next spring, but we are analyzing and exploring ways for more sophomores and juniors to apply to travel, and we do want it to be a competitive process, something of a reward that students earn through their investment and performance in the Honors Program.

I also want to announce to both Honors students and faculty teaching in Honors that I will begin forming a group of Honors Ambassadors, strong students who can represent and assist our Program in a variety of ways. I envision the Honors Ambassadors as an opportunity for leadership training. Student Ambassadors can help us recruit students, serve as liaisons between our Program and upper-level University administrators, represent the Program on our web site, mentor other students, and help us plan events. If you would like to apply to be an Honors Ambassador, or if you would like to nominate a student, please get in touch with me.

I focused on administrative sessions at NCHC, drawing upon the wisdom and experience of Honors administrators who have been in leadership positions for many years. They are invaluable mentors, and I teasingly tell them that I have them all on speed-dial. But as insightful and astute as their advice is, my single greatest "takeaway" from NCHC is not something I heard from any session or individual this weekend. It is this: in comparison to the wide array of types of Honors Colleges and Programs around the country, the NKU Honors Program is in a great position going forward. We have much to be thankful for and much at our fingertips. Yes, we can and will grow and improve, but we have a very strong foundation to build on.

I'll blog again in a couple of days.

Welcome to the Honors Director's blog. I'll be blogging here 3-4 times a week to keep everyone up to date on what's going on in our Honors Program, as well as sharing various thoughts about what our students are up to, where we're going as a Program, and higher education in general. We're off to the annual NCHC (National Collegiate Honors Council) conference in Washington, D.C. tomorrow. Six of our students will be co-presenting with two of our Honors faculty on their international travel experiences within the Program. I'm eager to attend the session and see what they have to say.

In addition, the conference will give us the chance to see what some other Honors Programs and Honors Colleges around the country are up to, and to learn from their successes. For me personally, I'll get to reunite with some friends, including the 28 or so other Directors I worked with this summer at the NCHC Summer Camp for Directors. What could be better than a summer camp reunion?!? I'll expect a campfire and marshmallows. While I’m in the nation’s capital I’ll see what I can do about getting that health care bill on the fast track.

Once we return we'll be in the home stretch for the fall semester, and moving toward the presentations of Capstone projects by some 19 students who are finishing their Honors minor. The Congress of Honors, as we call it, will showcase students synthesizing and discussing the outcomes and results of their 6 credit hour research or creative projects. Then we'll have a recognition breakfast to honor them, awarding the inaugural Outstanding Capstone Project awards to the two projects we deem as the very best. So it's a busy, exciting time in Honors here at NKU. I'll blog again after we return from NCHC.