Honors Wednesday Memo
Opportunities and Information for Honors Students
edited by Brad Rentz
Volume 1, Issue 25
April 11, 2018
Message from Dean Jeff Vahlbusch
Honors Students Define the Honors College. I love to listen to Honors students talk with prospective and admitted Honors College students and their parents--high school juniors and seniors visiting campus to explore how App and the Honors College can help them develop themselves and shape their futures into something wonderful. Nearly all of our students highlight similar things:
· The Honors Curriculum, especially HON seminars (“the beating heart of the Honors College”) and great departmental Honors courses
· The Honors Community, in Cone + Summit, in Honors courses, and in our growing number of Honors extracurricular and co-curricular activities
· The Honors Mentoring and Advising Experience, which extends from course choice in your very first semester to guidance on life and community service and graduate school and career(s)
· The Honors Thesis Experience, which for nearly every Honors student moves from scary to interesting to formative to triumphant.
We’ll never be perfect, but these are impressive signposts and stages on the journey thither.
Yours,
Jeff
Upcoming Opportunities:
Dr. Vahlbusch will be delighted to assist with applications!
Mayo Clinic Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program
Do you feel that you need more research experience to be more competitive for the top Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. programs? The focus of the Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) is to help meet the critical need for diverse investigators in basic and translational research. The deadline for applications is May 1. Please visit: https://honors.appstate.edu/mayo-clinic-post-baccalaureate-research-education-program-prep to learn more.
Summer 2018 Undergraduate Research Assistantship
The Office of Student Research is now accepting applications for our Summer 2018 Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) Program. The Summer 2018 URA deadline is Wednesday, April 25, 2018, with award notifications made by mid-May. For more information, and how to apply, please visit:https://honors.appstate.edu/summer-2018-undergraduate-research-assistantship-ura-osr.
Appalachian Global Symposium Now Accepting Proposals
The Appalachian Global Symposium highlights the global education activities of Appalachian faculty, staff, and students by providing a platform for the sharing of recent activities that contribute to the university's global mission. The deadline to submit a proposal is May 25. To learn more, please visit:https://honors.appstate.edu/appalachian-global-symposium-accepting-proposals.
Solar PV Design and Construction Workshop
Interested to get into the solar field and can't fit the semester-long class into your schedule? This 40-hour workshop will introduce participants to the fundamentals of solar energy, types of solar energy systems, system sizing principles, and the electrical and mechanical design of photovoltaic arrays. The first deadline is April 23. To learn more, please visit: https://honors.appstate.edu/introduction-photovoltaic-system-design-construction-workshop.
Turtle Tracks: Slowing Down/Showing Up
An Expressive Arts Session If you could use a couple of hours to unwind, consider attending a session of expressive arts on Thursday, April 12th from 3 to 5 pm in RCOE 301. To learn more, please visit: https://honors.appstate.edu/turtle-tracks-slowing-down-showing.
Upcoming Thesis Defenses:
Jeff says: Support your fellow Honors College students and faculty by attending Honors thesis defenses! You'll marvel, learn, and grow. And each defense you attend, you'll make your own easier.
Mackenzie Laney: April 13, 10 am, Appalachian Hall 163, an Applied and Public History major, will present Doing Digital History as a Public Historian: the Implications and Uses of the Growing Digital History Field for Public History.
Emily Berdal: April 16, 9:30 am, Appalachian Hall 163, an Exercise Science major, will present Investigating the Relationship Between Anxiety Sensitivity and Chronic Illness: A Replication and Extension.
Sydney Blume: April 18, 10 am, Appalachian Hall 163, a Sustainable Development and Spanish major, will present Vamos Adelante: Exploring the power of Zapatismo as discursive resistance to global hegemony
Evangeline Giaconia: April 18, 1 pm, Belk Library Conference Room 421, a Multidisciplinary Anthropology major, will present Look, Son, This is Your Country": Spatializing Influence on Perceptions of Indigeneity
Amber Daniel: April 18, 1 pm, Wellness and Prevention Services Conference Room, an Exercise Science major, will present Student-Athletes and Mental Health: An Exploration of Potential Hurdles to Student Success.
Annie Pharr: April 19, 10:20 am, Beacon Heights Room 417 of the Student Union, a Sociology and Recreation Management major, will present The Benefits of Camp: Necessity of the Outdoors and Community in the Digital Age.
Mackenzie Brown: April 20, 10 am, Room 211 of the Student Union, A Cell and Molecular Biology major, will present Construction of a ΔpotBΔvpsL Mutant and the Effects on Biofilm Formation in Vibrio cholera.
Emily Rabe: April 20, 3 pm, Peacock Hall room 2018, a Supply Chain and Marketing major, will present Sustainability Within The Business Environment.
Shaina Katz: April 20, 5:30 pm, Appalachian Hall Room 163, a Political Science major, will present Jordan Within the Shifting Balance of Middle East Politics
Stay in the Know…
AHA will meet *Tuesday, April 17* in the Honors College Library at 5:15!
Slavery in the Appalachian Mountains Talk
The Honors College, Southern Studies Minor Program, and the Department of History are sponsoring a talk of Slavery in the Appalachian Mountains by Professor Emeritus Wilma Dunaway of Virginia Tech University. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, April 18, 6 pm in Appalachian Hall room 161. For more information, please visit: https://honors.appstate.edu/slavery-appalachian-mountains-talk-wilma-dunaway
Diversity Celebration Week
Diversity Week is this week at Appalachian! There are numerous events scheduled all over campus this week ending on Sunday, April 15. For a complete list of events and activities, please visit: https://honors.appstate.edu/2018-annual-diversity-celebration-week-schedule.
Holocaust Remembrance Day
On Thursday, April 12, Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day), there will be a public reading of the names of European Jews murdered by the Germans and their allies during the Holocaust. This reading is scheduled to take place from 10:00 am until 6:00 pm in the outside square between Belk Library and the Bookstore in Plemmons Student Union. Tonight, there is a public lecture at 7 pm in the Blue Ridge Ballroom of the Student Union. For more information, please visit: https://honors.appstate.edu/yom-hashoah-holocaust-remembrance-day.
John Brown’s Children
Part of the Civil War Speaker series from the Department of History, Professor Bonnie Laughlin-Schultz of Eastern Illinois University will present “John Brown’s Children: The Long Reach of the Civil War.” The lecture will be held on Monday, April 16 at 6 pm in Belk Library room 114. Please visithttps://honors.appstate.edu/“john-browns-children-long-reach-civil-war” for more information.
Black Mountain College Lecture
Program Director of the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts center Alice Sebrell, will speak at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on Wednesday, April 18 from 6-7:30 pm. For more information, please visit:
https://honors.appstate.edu/black-mountain-college-lecture-alice-sebrell.
Broken Lives Lecture
On Thursday, April 19 from 7:30-9 pm in Belk Library room 114, Professor Konrad H. Jarausch will present "Broken Lives: How Ordinary German Jews and Gentiles Experienced the 20th Century.” For more information, please visit: https://honors.appstate.edu/broken-lives-professor-konrad-h-jarausch.
In the Honors Spotlight
Global Peacebuilding Project
Three Honors students are getting a rare experience in their Junior level Honors seminar this semester. In the HON 3515: Global Diversity Project seminar, students are proposing their own peacebuilding projects targeting issues of inequality and conflict in our local region. Dr. Martin Schoenhals created and is teaching this course cross-listed in Sustainable Development and the Honors College. Dr. Shoenahals, a cultural anthropologist, and former U.N. globalization specialist, led the original U.N. Diversity Contest conducted in 2015-16. That project awarded funding (20,000 euros) to 10 college students across the world to implement their own proposals for peacebuilding. With the Global Peacebuilding Project (GPP), Dr. Shoenhals has brought this grassroots platform for social justice to Appalachian.
To learn more about these Peacebuilding students, please visit: https://honors.appstate.edu/news/honors-students-work-global-peacebuilding-project
The First AHA! Formal was Saturday
The Appalachian Honors Accusation’s first Formal was on Saturday, April 7, 2018. The event, held in the Blue Ridge Ball Ballroom of the Student Union, was also a benefit for the OASIS Organization. Honors students had the option to pay $3 or a toiletry donation for OASIS to attend the formal. Honors Director of Student Services Dr. Angela Mead said this about the formal “The first annual Spring formal was a fantastic success! Many Honors Students showed up to dance, eat drink and be merry and to celebrate the looming end of another year and to have a great time before getting busy with exams. Everyone had a great time. I was pleased to be able to join the students for the formal!”
To see more photos of the formal, please visit: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TpQfmMOnTJIZ07vA3
Appalachian State Honors College on Social Media!
We’re now on Snapchat!!! Add us with this Snapcode or by searching "apphonors."
Check us out on Instagram also! Find us by searching “Appalachian Honors College”
Don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook at Appalachian Honors: https://www.facebook.com/Appalachian-Honors-482157301971520/.
Submissions to honors@appstate.edu should be received by 5:00 p.m. on Thursdays for the following week’s issue.a