Best Honors Administrative Practices Friday, November 8, 2013: 10:00 AM-11:50 AM
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Nottoway)
107 The Role of Activities in Honors - To Do or Not to Do
Bernice Braid, Long Island University Brooklyn;
Joan Digby, Long Island University/LIU Post;
Elaine Torda, (SUNY) Orange County Community College;
Jeff Vahlbusch, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Honors students are often identifiable by the range of their interests: music and chemistry, physics and poetry, philosophy and languages, pharmacy and writing – and by their capacity to compact time and space. Some directors are dismayed by these traits, others excited by what it means to work with students so multiply focused and vibrant. This workshop will take up questions about relating “activities” to “curriculum”: cultural exploration, community engagement, travel studies, leadership projects – and where they “fit” with classes. Are these involvements extra-curricular? Co-curricular? Other? Are they debilitating? Liberating? What is the role of an honors director in enabling or orchestrating them? Facilitators will frame the problems, assign questions/issues to working groups, and together consider the options and responsibilities of dealing with multi-talented undergraduates in programs shaped by their creative energy.
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel (Oak Alley)
106 Honors advising
Robin Jones, University of West Florida;
Alison Primoza, San Diego Mesa College;
Jessica Roark, Oklahoma State University
Honors advisors often encounter similar challenges working with the unique population of honors students. Through the advising process, we are able to help students reach their academic goals and realize their full potential. Students from community college honors programs to large university honors colleges alike must overcome a variety of academic and personal challenges. This session will provide opportunities to collaborate and discuss the best practices for addressing some of the common issues (as well as those unique to each type of program or college) that students face acclimating to college life and participating in honors, such as developing independence, selecting a major, completing a thesis, and much more. This session will create a best practices tool bag for the most common challenges an honors advisor will face.
