Honors Wednesday Memo
Opportunities and Information for Honors Students
edited by Lakin Stevens
Volume 4, Issue 22
February 24, 2021
Message from Dean Jeff Vahlbusch
Dear Honors College students,
Honors College International Education Requirement! We in the Honors College take pride in giving you unconditional support. During this global pandemic, this means: we will not let COVID-19 take away your opportunities to complete an Honors College education! If you have questions about fulfilling requirements—especially your Honors international education requirement—please email me here right away with a copy to your Honors College academic mentor: we’ll quickly schedule a meeting to work out a plan for moving forward.
And heads up: We'll be offering 6 HON and international education credits online this summer (see "Rhythm and Revolution" below) and 2 HON seminars (2515 and 3515) in Fall 2021 that will enable you to meet our international education requirement! Look for our HON Course Catalogue, coming soon to an inbox near you!
Writing with pleasure,
Jeff
Appalachian State University’s campus on a Sunday evening. Photo submitted by Jordan Kelley who described, “I think it is so beautiful and shows the amazing vibe that we have here at App!”
Remember to share any of your photos with honors@appstate.edu!
Upcoming Opportunities:
Dean Jeff is happy to help you apply; send him an email at vahlbuschjb@appstate.edu.
App Unidos Book Club
Join the next segment of App Unidos’ Spring 2021 Book Club Series as they discuss Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo. This memoir offers a creative exploration into immigration in the United States. The meeting will be February 26th at 2:00 pm. Click here for the zoom link, access to the book, and registration for the March and April readings.
Application Open for Mental Health Ambassadors
Are you passionate about mental health? Consider applying to be a Mental Health Ambassador (MHA). MHAs are a group of student peer educators who promote awareness of mental health through educational presentations and student interaction. Applications are now open and all application materials are due by March 12th. Visit here for more details.
Application Prescription for Success Series
The Health Professions Application Prescription for Success series this spring will focus on specific aspects of the application process for PA, PT, OT, and AT fields. Each workshop will be held on Wednesdays with the next on March 3rd from 9:30 – 10:30 am titled “Application Timeline.” Register here.
Division of Student Affairs: Call for Nominations
The Division of Student Affairs seeks to recognize outstanding students, faculty, and staff. The W.H. Plemmons Leadership Medallion, recognizes the time, energy, skills, and commitment of students, faculty, student affairs educators and staff who exceed their peers in leadership. Nominations are made in four categories of student leader, student affairs educator, faculty member, and employee. The nomination deadline for this award is February 25th. Nomination form can be found here.
Proposals for the DLLC Second Annual Symposium
The Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (DLLC) announces its second annual symposium which invites faculty, students, and members of the community to present in one of two areas: diverse topics of humanities and pedagogy (with an international component) or topics of migration, movement and border-crossing. A variety of presentation formats are welcome. The submission deadline is March 7th and the symposium will be held March 25th -26th. View details here.
Stay in the Know:
YouTube Livestream with Author Elizabeth Rush
This year’s Common Reading author Elizabeth Rush, who wrote Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, will be featured in a YouTube livestream titled “First-Year Students in Conversations with Author Elizabeth Rush.” The event will include a panel of first-year students and Common Reading Program Director Dr. Don Presnell as they discuss Rush’s work on stories of climate change. Attend virtually on February 24th at 4:00 pm and find the link here.
General Education Listening Sessions
The General Education Program at Appalachian will be hosting listening sessions to hear perspectives from the community on a range of topics related to the General Education program. The upcoming session will focus on logistics, structure, and hours. These two one-hour sessions will be February 25th at 12:00 pm and 6:00 pm. More information here.
Career.Connect and Career Fairs
The Career Development Center continues to provide opportunities for networking and recruitment. In partnership with the Department of Recreation Management, the Outdoor Jobs fair will be held February 24th from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm. Upcoming on February 25th are “Bridging the Gap Between Social Services and Healthcare/Public Health” from 1:00 - 2:00 pm and “Disney Guest Services Response to COVID-19” from 3:00 - 4:00 pm. On February 26th from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm is the Health and Social Services Career Fair. Find details here.
Summer HON Seminar: Rhythm & Revolution
This summer the Honors seminar Rhythm & Revolution: Cuba is being offered in the first summer session. In this program, Honors students will earn 6sh of credit for both HON 2515 and HON 3515 seminars. Learn how to dance and eat like a Cuban. Learn about Cuba’s history from a Spanish colony to a Marxist-Leninist state. This program will be fully online—a virtual immersion in Cuba and its culture. No knowledge of dance or Spanish necessary. Read more here and contact faculty instructors Emily Daughtridge or Joseph Gonzalez with any questions.
Cultural Technologies in Māori Contexts
The Humanities Institute of Scripps College presents Lisa Reihana and Matua Rereata Makiha as they discuss cultural technologies in Māori contexts. Māori refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Reihana is a multi-disciplinary artist practicing film, sculpture, costume and body adornment, text, and photography. Makiha is a renowned Māori astrologer and leading authority on Maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar. Attend virtually on March 2nd at 7:00 pm EST with details here.
In the Honors Spotlight
Honors Student and Recent Alumnus Presented at the American Geophysical Union Conference
Photos above feature Lily Vowels (left) and Anton Hengst (right). Photos submitted.
Recent Honors alumnus Anton Hengst ’20 and current Honors sophomore Lily Vowels, who are both Chancellor’s Scholars, presented their research at the Fall 2020 American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference held virtually December 1-17, 2020. This is a premier international earth science conference. Hengst and Vowels, with majors in geology and a concentration in quantitative geoscience, separately worked with Dr. William Armstrong, assistant professor in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, as their mentor for their research projects. Hengst presented his research titled “Sub-Annual to Annual Dynamics of Alaskan Ice-Marginal Lakes from Automated Image Classification Using Google Earth Engine.” Vowels’ research was titled, “Decadal Changes in Fluvial Suspended Sediment Concentrations in Glacierized Systems from Large Scale Remote Sensing.”
To read more on Hengst and Vowels’ research projects, click here.
Have news to share? Submissions 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.
To stay in the know, learn about opportunities, and take part in the Honors community, find us below!