Honors Wednesday Memo
Opportunities and Information for Honors Students
edited by Brad Rentz
Volume 3, Issue 6
September 25, 2019
Message from Dean Jeff Vahlbusch
We need more Service Opportunities in Honors!
Dear Honors students, faculty, friends,
An Honors College strategic goal is a "creating and nurturing a vibrant community of Honors students through co-curricular and extracurricular activities that make a difference—including leadership activities, civic engagement, community service, and Honors College governance."
Honors College students, faculty, and staff certainly do engage in service. Think of Farm Day, the Honors Service-Learning Weekend in the Smoky Mountains (see below), the many Honors College students serving individually every semester. on-campus, in Boone, and beyond. My outstanding lunch at F.A.R.M. Cafe this past Monday was expertly served by an Honors College student volunteer. Thank you, Rebecca!
But civic engagement and service are not fully integrated into what we do in the Honors College. We are not yet fully realizing our vast Honors potential for creating change and making positive differences in the communities we live and work in. Students: please send me an email now (vahlbuschjb) if you would like to join me in working to change this. Put "Change!" in the subject line.
Jeff
P.S. And please SAVE the DATE: Our second biannual HONORS COURSE PREVIEW for Spring 2020 is scheduled for Tuesday, October 8th, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Parkway Ballroom (PSU 420)! Appetizers and refreshments will be served!
Photos from last year’s trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. From left to right: Honors students Jackson Cooter, Gabby Lamb, Abigail Burchard, and Brittany Sparks. Photo submitted or by Dr. Waldroup.
Upcoming Opportunities:
Honors College Service-Learning Weekend
The Honors College is hosting a few students to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, October 25 through 27th! The weekend will include two nights of camping, communal meals, a service project to benefit the Park, meetings with various Park professionals, and visits to Oconoluftee Visitors Center and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Students will have time to explore some historic areas of the park, and we should see some elk. If you are interested, visit our website to fill out the interest form.
2019 Women in Educational Leadership Symposium (WIELS)
WIELS’ mandate is the development of an ‘armoring process’ that will equip women with pragmatic knowledge, skills, and dispositions that prepare them for success as educational leaders. Participants will have the opportunity to: Learn from and interact with scholars and leaders in education, select concurrent sessions involving best practices and research, and much more. The 4th annual symposium will be held from October 4 through 5. For more information about the Symposium, click here.
Happenings from the Career Development Center
There are three upcoming events from the Career Development Center! Careers for Impact, an event that will showcase businesses and nonprofit organizations whose missions are purpose-driven with a focus on creating a sustainable and inclusive economy will be held on October 2. A graduate and Professional School fair will be held on October 3. Lastly, on October 24, there will be a local Talent Jam event. For more information on any of these events, visit our website.
Holocaust Studies Research to Washington, D.C.
The Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies is providing funding for students to travel to D.C. to perform archival work. The excursion includes meetings with leading Holocaust scholars such as Dr. Juergen Matthaeus, the Director of Applied Research at the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming, the Director of the International Academics Programs and specialist in the Catholic Church and the Holocaust, curators, Holocaust survivors, archivists, ASU alumni working at the Museum, and much more. For more information on this learning opportunity, click here.
Apply for Graduate School at Appalachian State
The School of Graduate Studies is accepting graduate school applications for 2020-2021. There are several programs available from the graduate school as well as opportunities for Appalachian Students like a tuition waiver if you are eligible. For more information about the graduate school, visit our website.
AHA Upcoming:
Peer Mentoring: Have you connected with your mentor or mentees yet? Reach out to see how the semester is going!
Stay in the Know…
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
This renowned jazz band has held the torch of New Orleans music aloft for more than 50 years, all the while carrying it enthusiastically forward as a reminder that the history they were founded to preserve is a vibrantly living history. Tickets are on sale now, the concert will be held on September 27 at 8 p.m. Student tickets are just $15, for more information click here.
Smith Gallery Exhibition
The Smith Gallery is pleased to present Acting Hard, a two-person exhibition featuring new and recent work by the artists William Paul Thomas and Antoine Williams at the gallery’s Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts location through October 10, 2019. Artist Talks and a Reception will take place at the gallery on Thursday, September 26th from 6-8 pm. For more information, visit our website.
Keeping Time with the Hayes School of Music
There is still an opportunity to see the School of Music’s Ensembles before they begin there tour of the Asheville Area. On October 1 at 8 p.m. in the Schaefer Center, you can hear all the Hayes School of Music Ensembles in one grand concert! After this, the ensembles will travel to Asheville on tour for several concerts at local schools. For more information about this concert and tour, click here.
Student Memorial Program
The University will be holding its annual Student Memorial Program on Saturday, October 5 at 11:00 am in the lobby of the B.B. Dougherty Administration Building. The purpose of this program is to honor the memory of Appalachian State students who died while they were enrolled at Appalachian. Name plaques for the students are displayed on the Memorial Board in the lobby of B.B. Dougherty outside of the Student Affairs office. For more information, visit our website.
Zippin4LIFE
On October 6th for our inaugural Zippin4LIFE fundraising event. This is an opportunity to help raise funds for LIFE Village, while also participating in something fun: ziplining! This initiative will be hosted by Sky Valley Tours and sponsored by Fraternity & Sorority Life, ACT Office and LIFE Village. The goal is for teams of 10 to raise $1000 collectively ($100 each) for the event, which would pay for the zipline and a donation to LIFEVillage. If you are interested, sign up for this event by clicking here.
In the Honors Spotlight
Honors College gives “taste of what grad school would be like”
Top photo features Sarah Epplin at her graduation this past May from the University of Georgia master's program in classics. Photo submitted.
Honors Sarah Epplin ’17 completed her Master of Arts in Classical Languages at the University of Georgia (UGA) and is beginning a doctoral program in classics with full funding at Cornell University this Fall semester. She reflects,
“Looking back, one of the best things about the Honors College was that it gave me a taste of what grad school would be like while I was still an undergrad. The small, discussion-based classes, the high expectations of the Honors faculty, and the process of working with a mentor on a lengthy research project were all excellent preparation for grad school. It was a big challenge at times, especially as a freshman who was used to multiple-choice tests and one-page essays in high school but living in the Honors community with the support of other students and faculty close at hand made it easier. I can't imagine how much harder the transition to grad school would have been if I hadn't done Honors!”
For more of Epplin’s story, click here.
Academy at Middle Fork Hosts Poet-in-Residence Adrian Rice During May
Rice shares and acts out his poem, “Rinn Seimhne Blackbird.” Academy third-grade students eagerly watch. Photo by Troy Tuttle.
In the fall 2018 semester, Adrian Rice accompanied the Chancellor's Scholars to Dublin and taught at least one session of the Honors first-year seminar, Voyages, on Seamus Heaney. Rice served as the poet-in-residence at the Academy at Middle Fork this past May. He is an award-winning poet originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is also an adjunct professor and doctoral student at Appalachian State University.
For more on this story, click here.
To Stay in the Know and Learn About All Opportunities in Honors, please visit https://honors.appstate.edu/announcements
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Have news to share? Submissions to the Honors Wednesday Memo can be made by emailing honors@appstate.edu. Any content received by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday will be considered for the following week’s issue.