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Southern Appalachian, Sean Collier

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

I am a Southern Appalachian, first-generation college student from a small town—a place where folks are sometimes considered backwards, ignorant, and or even a bit “simple minded.” Coming to Emory & Henry College, I was certainly among the lesserprepared students in my honors cohort. I did not attend a Governor’s School, I did not have lessons with local college professors, and I did not meet the …

Me, Snoop, And Rich Old People, Or Intersectionality And Its Impending Effect On Paradigm Shaping And Life Trajectory, Llewellyn Cooper

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

T he UAB HP transformed me. It really started with an article—two articles—in a Vibe Magazine I was given by the HP Director. The September 1993 issue included two people— one of whom I did not previously know existed—who would change my paradigm. As a 21-year-old from North Birmingham, I was all about Snoop Dogg, 2Pac, and hard-core hip hop, and that article about the old …

Finding Community, Support, And The Importance Of Detours, Grace Anne Cunningham

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

In the early weeks of my undergraduate experience, I sat down with the Director of the Honors Program and told him I wanted to go to Oxford for graduate school, or an Ivy at the very least; then asked what I’d need on my résumé to get there. I was an ambitious but naïve 18-year-old. Fortunately, I found my way to the Honors Program at Texas …

Honor In Failure, Mark Donovan

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

I checked the spreadsheet in front of me again, frantically hoping by some grace or magic that the fifth entry I reviewed would somehow erase my mistake. I couldn’t have possibly scrambled more than 1,000 application records, could I have? I poured through the files I had meticulously, even reverently saved over the last weeks. I searched, each click more desperate than its sister before it. …

There And Back Again, Jennifer N. Dulin

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

I am fortunate to have experienced the Texas A&M University Honors Program in two unique capacities: first as an undergraduate (2001–2005) and now as a faculty member (2017–present). Both experiences have been tremendously enriching in different ways. As an undergraduate, my experience in the Texas A&M Honors Programs nurtured my growth as a scholar, encouraged independent thought, and allowed me to gain experience in scientific research, …

Interdisciplinary Survival, Paul Ewing

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

In 1966, the University of Toledo Honors Program encouraged students to create their college curriculum. As a result, I created an interdisciplinary major in Russian studies. When confronted with different disciplinary approaches, goals, and values, students must think outside the boxes. Interdisciplinary studies generate critical thinking, flexibility, and creativity. Russian language, history, and political science raised questions about the relationships between culture, political theory, and historical …

Perfectionism And Honors Students: Cautious Good News, Jennifer S. Feenstra

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Psychoeducational research differentiates adaptive and maladaptive forms of perfectionism. This study considers personal-strivings and evaluativeconcerns perfectionism in relation to procrastination, stress, anxiety, well-being, and academic achievement among students (n = 147) of all undergraduate levels and across disciplines, with honors representing a little over a quarter. While results show evaluative-concerns perfectionism to positively correlate to stress and anxiety and negatively correlate with well-being, no correlation is found relative to procrastination and GPA. Conversely, personal-strivings perfectionism negatively correlates with procrastination and stress and positively with well-being and GPA. Honors students show a higher degree of the more adaptive personal-strivings perfectionism than …

From Jersey Shore To Ap Lit Teacher, Ashley Gerstle

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

My undergraduate experience was mundane, average, and boring. I excelled academically, a little too easily. I could skip the readings and ace my classes half asleep. It was a normal experience for me to write entire papers an hour before the due date and receive As. In one instance a professor publicly recognized me as having written the best paper in the entire class. I beamed …

Non Magis Sed Melior, “Not More, But Better”, Teri Grieb

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

The year was 1989. I had moved from a rural community in Michigan to South Carolina to attend Columbia College, a private, liberal-arts women’s college. The culture shock and adjustment were equal parts exhilarating and unnerving. I was welcomed by the warm, Southern charm of campus and was nurtured, personally and academically, by the close-knit community of the honors program. I had a rich college experience …

Expensive Mistakes: How Hitting Career Rock Bottom Showed Me What I Really Learned In Honors, Pepper Hayes

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Twenty years ago, I was an honors student with a very well-rounded course schedule and a résumé full of interesting extracurricular activities and leadership experiences. Unfortunately, for me, “well-rounded” translated to “directionless,” and I had no idea what to do after graduation. That’s when I made my first mistake: I crowdsourced the decision. I asked nearly everyone I knew for their opinion and the feedback was …

Why Honors Matters, James A. Keller

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

In 2022, I turned half-a-century old. I have a loving family, good friends, and a really interesting career at a large law firm. By any measure, I am a lucky man. So how, over these fifty years, did I get here? Supportive parents, who were also public-school educators, are unquestionably the foundation. A good law school education? No doubt, that also helped. But time and again, …

Refusing Erasure: Nugent, Fire!!, And The Legacies Of Queer Harlem, Samantha King-Shaw

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This study examines the work of two queer Black artists, Richard Bruce Nugent and Marlon Riggs, within the historical and sociopolitical contexts of the Harlem Renaissance and cultural backlash of the late 1980s. Through comparative textual analyses, the author explores fluctuations of Black queer cultural production during the twentieth century and considers how each artist subverts dominant racist and heteronormative ideologies in mainstream society and Black communities. Engaging tools from the fields of critical race theory, queer theory, critical legal studies, and cultural representations of race and sexuality, the author analyzes “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” and Tongues Untied structurally and …

Dutch Honors Alumni Looking Back On The Impact Of Honors On Their Personal And Professional Development, Arie Kool, Elanor Kamans, Marca V.C. Wolfensberger

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This study considers the value of honors programs by investigating alumni perspectives of learning goals relative to personal and professional development. Using a longitudinal cross-sectional survey instrument, authors track participants (n = 79) for four consecutive years (2017–2021). Qualitative measures indicate the importance of freedom to develop within the curricula, stimulus to experiment and shape one’s own path, and insights and inspirations resultant of rigorous study. Respondents identify certain learning goals (i.e., ability to look beyond boundaries and show initiative and guts) to be critical in their personal and professional development but question the role of the honors certificate in …

Skill And Community Development Through An Honors Education, Samantha Koprowski

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

My enrollment at William Paterson University was mainly informed by financial considerations; however, the value of the honors education I received in terms of skill development and educational outcomes has proven to be just as beneficial. Within the academic setting, I learned how to successfully collaborate with peers in the first-year honors cluster of general education courses, to cultivate a desire and curiosity to learn both …

The Value Of Honors: Defined By Quality And Cost, Christopher Kotschevar, Nicholas Arens

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the authors reflect on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Value, simply defined, is quality divided by cost. Cost, whether it be in terms of money, time, energy, or another expense, is relatively easy to measure. Conversely, quality proves challenging to measure, regardless of the context. Typically, measuring quality is pursued with the purpose of quality improvement, such as in manufacturing or healthcare, and/or for the purpose of comparison, as demonstrated by the ever-growing industry of …

Rooted In Relations: Honors And A Relation-Based Approach To Learning, Emma Labovitz

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

After graduating with my bachelors, I took a 6-month temporary job in Nepal working with a non-profit doing development research. While there I worked with a cohort of international and Nepali interns, and my fellow international expatriates continuously remarked on the ways life in Nepal bleeds into the streets. They pointed out that in much of the Western world, life is confined to our living rooms …

From Honors Student To Honors Coordinator, Kathryn M. Macdonald

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Every time I begin a new semester, I often think about how my honors professors began their classes. There was a palpable excitement in their voices as they discussed how we would explore the given subject through a variety of lenses, uncovering nontraditional perspectives and allowing the conversation to flow freely. I remember the conversations continuing among my fellow honors students long after the class ended. …

Honor-Ing Parenthood, John Major

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

As I write this essay, I am a few weeks from turning sixty. The sudden appearance of this moment on my horizon has taken me by surprise, to say the least. I ask myself where all that time went, oscillating between disbelief that I’m neither that younger version of myself that lives on in my imagination nor the version of myself that I’d dreamed I might …

Honors Lessons Learned Outside The Classroom, Chloe Salome Margulis

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

As an immature high schooler, I thought Honors would be a stamp of excellence on my résumé. However, I graduated Honors with a far more valuable gift—an education outside the classroom full of social and intellectual reflection and growth. At my high school, self-worth and popularity hinged on which Ivy League you got into, so my eyes were never set on LIU Post Honors. However, I …

More Than An Academic Challenge—A Sense Of Belonging, Mary Anne Matos

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Johnson County Community College (JCCC) has a mission to inspire learning to transform lives and strengthen communities. And that is exactly what it did for me. My life was transformed not only by attending JCCC but by being part of the Honors Program. I moved to Kansas from Brazil in 2011. I already had a bachelor’s degree, so my intention was not to go back to …

How Honors Hoisted Me To Dc And A Public Health Career, Emily Mcandrew

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

In May of 2021, I moved to Washington, D.C. It was the middle of the pandemic. I had only been to D.C. once for a National Collegiate Honors Council conference. My partner was graduating law school and had just received a highly esteemed post-graduate fellowship in North Carolina. I was doing well in my global health job at Duke University. It would have been easy to …

Supportive And Impactful Honors Education, Sara Mccane-Bowling

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Most honors students arrive at college as academically motivated highachievers. Rigorous honors coursework no doubt serves to sharpen these students’ skills even further. But is it the rigor of coursework that transforms honors students into change agents in society? My experience in honors is that academic rigor alone is hardly the most important determinant of the long-term differences that honors education makes in the lives of …

A Safe Place To Explore: The Value Of Honors In Higher Education, Mary Beth Messner

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Like many students who join Honors programs in college, I was first introduced to honors classes in high school. As someone who was identified as “gifted and talented” in elementary and high school, I was regularly at the top of my class academically as a child and adolescent. This earned me favor with both my parents and teachers, but it often alienated me from my peers. …

An Honors Lifetime Love Of Learning, Eric W. Miller

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

I t was the welcome letter from the Honors program director that drew me in. I was hesitant to attend a large school, and West Virginia University was a big place. Even though being a Mountaineer ran deep in my family, I was drawn to smaller settings, with a desire for a more intimate education and close colleagues to converse and grow with. I wanted to …

Honorary Family, Joshua Mulanax, Brandi Mulanax

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the authors reflect on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

It’s a crisp, cool morning as the campus begins to show signs of life. Above the tittering birds and soft breeze, laughter can be heard echoing across the grounds. The sounds are coming from the self-proclaimed “nerd herd,” an eclectic group of honors students shuffling along the sidewalk to their morning classes. The conversation ranges from serious discussions regarding an upcoming biology test to light teasing …

Question, Discover, Apply, Disseminate: My Journey From Honors Student To Educator, Heather Ness-Maddox

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

My first honors course was Introduction to Psychology. I begrudgingly enrolled to fill an area. In high school, my psychology course was boring, but the honors course environment allowed me to read and critique research studies, analyzing the methods, the findings, the meaning behind the research. In high school I felt confident psychology would not be my major, but after the honors course I felt a …

Staying Connected, Jonna Nunez

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

I’m submitting this assignment on its due date because I was unsure how far my writing has declined since college. I was afraid that preparing technical accounting memos all day had made me forget how to write about a realworld, non-seemingly-made-up topic rather than the five steps of revenue recognition or acquisition accounting. One thing is for certain—I still know how to write an intro and …

Valuing Diversity, Michelle Panuccio

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

In 1998, when I entered Youngstown State, I had never heard of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which is now considered to be one of the most critical investments a company can make in building toward success. Just because the focus had not come yet, though, does not mean that the principles were not impacting people’s lives, including mine. At the core, an honors program exists …

Achieving Excellence Through Experiential Learning, Eli Pemberton

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Coming from the small island of Trinidad, I had never heard of nor participated in experiential learning until I became a member of the honors program. Being given the opportunities to engage in experiential learning helped me further my understanding of many subject areas outside of my hospitality management major. Of course, honors also allowed me to thrive in an academically rigorous environment, but the value …

Reflecting On Community: A Vision For The Future, Tambria Schroeder

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s (2022) collection of essays about the value of honors to its graduates (1967–2019), the author reflects on the personal and professional impacts of the honors experience.

Being asked to reflect on the values I gained from my honors experience has been such a privilege, and I hope that my words can serve as a reminder to all who read them that we should never underestimate the power of reflecting on our practice—whatever that may be, inside of academia or otherwise. Having completed my undergraduate career five years ago and wanting to be …