Honors Wednesday Memo
Opportunities and Information for Honors Students
edited by Brad Rentz
Volume 3, Issue 9
October 16, 2019
Message from Dean Jeff Vahlbusch
Dear Honors College students, departmental Honors students, Walker College of Business Honors students,
With the blessing of aging comes the privilege of repeating oneself! This time every semester I find several ways to send out my guide to "How to Choose an Honors Course," a text that I first wrote a decade ago and have been tightening and polishing ever since.
Here's a new version:
How to Choose an Honors Course
1. Honors strives to “do undergraduate education as well as it can be done” (Sam Schuman).
2. The center of all Honors education is courses. Therefore: choose well.
3. Your course choices at university are opportunities, decisions that give you chances to develop at high levels, and to set yourself apart.
4. Choose HON seminars and other Honors courses that will challenge you to stretch and grow and change—intellectually, personally, professionally—and to understand the world in different and diverse ways.
5. Never take an Honors course just to meet requirements. Choose courses that will meet requirements and take you to new and challenging places—in your mind and your skill set, in your experiences, in the ways that you see and approach things, in the world.
6. Honors is a great place to venture into areas you don’t know, and to explore subjects you think you dislike or think you are not ‘good at.'
“In learning,” the great professor of literature Austin Warren said, “only everything is enough.”
7. In Honors and out: don’t settle for less.
Happy choosing! If you would like assistance in choosing, please reach out to me and/or your Honors advisor or mentor. We're always happy to help.
Jeff
Photos above are from the Honors Staff meeting on September 9. Photos submitted.
Upcoming Opportunities:
Yiddish Scholar Dr. Miriam Issacs Comes to Appalachian
From October 16 through 18, the Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies proudly hosts Dr. Miriam Isaacs, an independent scholar in the fields of Yiddish language and culture, heritage languages, and translation. Dr. Issacs will shed light on Songs by Holocaust Survivors and also offer a Yiddish Language Workshop. For more information, visit our website.
SNCURCS 2019
The State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium (SNCURCS) will be held at Duke University this year on Saturday, November 23. The call for abstracts for this symposium will end on October 21, so there is still time to submit your proposals! For more information about this research symposium, click here.
Equity in Action 2019
Applications are now open for Equity in Action (EIA). EIA is a student-run conference at Appalachian State University geared towards educating all participants on issues and topics relating to diversity, equality, equity, and social justice. In its sixth year, EIA aims to create a community atmosphere of inclusivity by addressing topics that both directly and indirectly affect the lives of oppressed and underrepresented individuals. This conference provides an opportunity for students to facilitate workshops and educate their peers on contemporary and relevant social issues. For more information, and how to apply, visit our website.
Community FEaST 2019
Appalachian’s 3rd Annual Community FEaST (Food Engagement and Story Telling) will be held on October 22 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Sanford Mall. This event is free and open to everyone! For more information, click here.
International Education Week Photo Contest
Have a great photo representing a global learning experience? Submit it in the International Education Week (IEW) Photo Contest! The contest is open to students and faculty/staff and you can submit up to two photos! Student and Faculty/Staff finalists will have their photos professionally printed and displayed in the Student Union during International Education Week, November 18–22, 2019. For more information, visit our website.
AHA Upcoming:
AHA Spooktacular: Save the date! October 26 from 8 to 10 p.m. - stay tuned for more updates!
Kazoo Band Interest: If you are interested in joining the AHA kazoo band for Homecoming, email ricoma@appstate.edu.
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”
Allison Farrell: October 22, 10:00 am, Holmes Convocation Center room 13B, an exercise science major, will present Parental Impact on Child Physical Activity and Sedentary Time.
Stay in the Know…
Sustainable Energy Series: Ronald DiFelice
Ronald DiFelice, Managing Partner of Energy Intelligence Partners, will come to Appalachian on October 21 to discuss “Near-Term and Long-Term Prospects for Grid-Scale Energy Storage.” This discussion will be held in the Student Union, room 137C from 4 to 5 p.m. For more information, click here.
Career Development Center Upcoming Events
Three fantastic events coming up from the Career Development Center. On October 21, there will be a Pop-up Shop in the Macrae Peak room of the Student Union from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. On October 24, the Talent Jam will be held at Ransom (747 W King Street) from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Then, on November 1 in the Convocation Center, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. there will be an Education and Human Service Career Fair. For more information about these upcoming events, visit our website.
Turchin Center’s ARTalks Fall 2019
The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts is hosting ARTalks this fall. On October 23 there will be a panel discussion on “Artist Surrogacy: The politics and practice of collaborative work using artistic surrogacy.” For more information, click here.
GWS Lecture Series: Janey Jakobsen
Appalachian’s Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies program is hosting a lecture series on campus this fall. Next week, Janey Jakobsen will present “Sex and Suffrage: A Politics of Possibility” on Thursday, October 24, 2019. All lectures in this series are in 114 Belk Library from 6 to 7 p.m. For more information, visit our website.
ACT: Pop-up Coffee
Join the ACT Office, every Monday, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Student Union room 138 for FREE COFFEE. During these Pop-up events, you can join the ACT Office in a meaningful conversation, on October 21, the topic will be “What is cultural appropriation?” For more information, visit our website.
In the Honors Spotlight
Honors behind Able-achian
Image above is a flyer detailing next week’s event
Honors Rebecca Long '16 has teamed up with Dr. Albert Stabler, assistant professor of art education, to develop Able-achian—a creative project raising awareness around disabilities and disability resources on campus. All interested are welcomed and encouraged to attend the information meeting on Monday, October 21st at 7pm in Wey Hall Room 202.
To read more about Able-achian, click here.
Artist Mel Chin wins a MacArthur Genius Grant
Photo above is a representation of Mel Chin Augmented Reality art, “Unmoored”, Times Square, 2018. Photo from the Mel Chin Studio.
Artist Mel Chin, whose visit to Appalachian State University this past spring was partially supported by the Honors College, has been awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. Popularly known as the ‘Genius Grant,’ the fellowship, which comes with a $625,000.00 stipend, is intended “to enable recipients to exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society.” Chin’s visit to our campus on April 2, 2019, was part of the Climate Stories Collaborative.
For more on Chin’s work, award, and art, visit our website.
To Stay in the Know and Learn About All Opportunities in Honors, please visit https://honors.appstate.edu/announcements
Appalachian State Honors College on Social Media!
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/
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.