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Editor's Introduction, Emily Allen

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Editor's introduction to Honors in Practice, volume 21 (2025).

"As we head into an uncertain future, let us care for each other and remember that together we are strong."

2024 Presidential Address, Eddie Weller

Honors in Practice Online Archive

The NCHC President recounts his history with the organization and challenges members to act with the values of justice, mercy, and humility. Organizational compassion, mutuality, and collaborative service are acknowledged and encouraged.

Includes a revised version of the 2024 National Collegiate Honors Council presidential address delivered on November 1, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Honors In Practice, Volume 21, 2025, Emily Allen

Honors in Practice Online Archive

CONTENTS

Editorial Policy, Deadline, and Submission Guidelines

Editor’s Introduction, Emily Allen

2024 NCHC CONFERENCE REMARKS 2024

Presidential Address, Eddie Weller

2024 Founders Award Remarks Elizabeth Cole Beck, John Zubizarreta

RESEARCH ESSAYS

Read Yourself In: Enhancing First-Year Student Belonging through Place as Text Pedagogy, John Andrews

Campus Legends and Mysteries: Building Institutional Identity through Campus Lore, Viktoria Basham

Building Place-based Experiential Learning into the Honors Curriculum at Ohio University, Geoffrey L. Buckley, Nicole Finnicum, Michelle O’Malley, Jennifer Bowie, and Yolonda Youngs

Why the Museum Matters to Honors, Mimi Killinger How to Create a Self-Sustaining Meditation Garden, Heather Salazar, Lydia Barrett-Miller, and …

2024 Founders Award Remarks, Elizabeth Cole Beck

Honors in Practice Online Archive

NCHC Founders Award recipient describes a three-decade career in honors education, highlights the immeasurable potential of honors programs for shaping student lives, and argues for the importance of conference attendance to honors educators.

Incudes

a revised version of remarks delivered at the 2024 National Collegiate Honors Council awards ceremony on November 1, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.

2024 Founders Award Remarks, John Zubizarreta

Honors in Practice Online Archive

The NCHC Founders Award recipient emphasizes the transformative power of honors education and the importance of community.

Includes a revised version of remarks delivered at the 2024 National Collegiate Honors Council awards ceremony on November 1, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.

How To Create A Self-Sustaining Meditation Garden, Heather Salazar, Lydia Barrett-Miller, Kaitlyn Parisan

Honors in Practice Online Archive

This essay presents the creation and maintenance of a campus meditation garden as an outgrowth of four successive philosophy classes in honors. The authors describe the garden’s inception, execution, curricular advantages, and administration, with specific examples of the impact on student health and well-being. The authors observe the ways in which honors students attained skills in transformational leadership by collaborating to develop projects and lead events, suggesting that a meditation garden may be appropriate for any learning environment emphasizing cooperation, creativity, mindfulness, and well-being.

Honoring The Wellness Journey: An Evidence-Based Retreat To Build Stress Resilience In Honors Students, Sydney Tutuska, Alexandra Caldwell, Jennifer Willford

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Honors students are goal-oriented, motivated, and engaged achievers. As such, they often experience heavy course loads, manage multiple responsibilities, have limited free time, and sacrifice their health (relationships, sleep, nutrition) in pursuit of their goals. This essay presents an evidence-based wellness retreat designed for honors students at a medium-sized university. The authors describe the retreat’s inception, development, curricular advantages, and administration, with specific examples of targeted evidence-based programming. Eight workshops, designed to build resilience and coping skills, address mental agility and mindset, emotion regulation, social connection, and wellness habits. The authors observe student efficacy in the development of skills and …

Honoring Careers: Developing Professional Aspirations In Honors Programs, L. Benjamin Boyar

Honors in Practice Online Archive

This essay builds on previous arguments in honors for greater representation of preprofessional disciplines. Drawing from a focused honors accounting initiative, author explores how video interviews with alumni—created through an iterative process of outreach and collaboration—can effectively bridge intellectual inquiry and career preparation. Alumni narratives help students critically examine professional trajectories, connect current coursework with broader academic and societal contexts, and produce tangible outcomes, such as conference presentations and journal publications. By showcasing these diverse career trajectories, this approach reassures students in both preprofessional and traditional disciplines, demonstrating the relevance of their academic pursuits while ensuring honors education remains intellectually …

Microcredentials For Honors Healthcare Students: Translating Academic Achievement To The Resume, Tina C. Melamed, Belinda Deal, Steve Myers

Honors in Practice Online Archive

In healthcare disciplines, honors students need opportunities to develop research skills in line with current trends and advanced degree requirements. The authors present a pilot program offering a series of online, self-paced microcredentials to enhance scholarly and clinical research competencies. Instructional modules in three areas (introduction, research tools, applied scholarly communication) include activities and assessments for demonstrating competency. Each student works with a faculty member to develop a specific topic and apply elements of scholarly communication and documentation such as research methodology, APA style, data analysis, implications for clinical practice, and directions for future research. Successful completion of microcredentialing culminates …

Assessment As An Act Of Service: Connecting Data And Experiential Learning, Hannah Sairam, Amber Fallucca

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Utilizing the experience of teaching and learning in a graduate-level assessment course, authors present a service learning course for undergraduate honors students. Using campus and community as touchstones, students are tasked with developing, implementing, and analyzing an assessment measure based on specific needs to engage in the entire life cycle of assessment. The authors identify non-profits as a unifying client population because they emphasize the community element of service learning and accommodate a variety of student backgrounds and interests. Classroom work is oriented around discussion and collaboration. Identification of outcomes, data collection and analysis, and dissemination of results are presented …

Thinking Beyond Ourselves: Using Interdisciplinary Exploration And Speculative Scenarios To Understand The Human Experience, Shannon Kundey

Honors in Practice Online Archive

This essay presents an interdisciplinary seminar in honors that challenges students to move beyond the limitations of human experience and examine cognition and behavior across species, environments, and hypothetical extraterrestrial minds. A Choose Your Own Adventure structure encourages reflection on cognitive biases, thereby fostering a nuanced understanding of intelligence, perspective, and sociality. Author observes that students benefit from frameworks that disrupt human-centered biases and suggests that engaging students in speculative scenarios prompts confronting and questioning assumptions about intelligence, ethics, and social dynamics.

Honors In Practice, Volume 21, 2025: About The Authors, National Collegiate Honors Council

Honors in Practice Online Archive

About the authors, Honors in Practice, volume 21 (2025).

Where Honors Education And Faculty Development Meet, John Zubizarreta, Victoria M. Bryan

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs

Development is a contradictory terrain, as seen in the persistence of multiple and conflicting goals, uneven and unequal outcomes, and varied definitions and approaches to teaching and learning in higher education. How might universities support faculty development as a process rather than as isolated educational events? This collection highlights inherent complexities and challenges in sustained professional development and presents new ways of supporting faculty and designing curricula to encourage learning-centered teaching, experiential learning, collaborative undergraduate research, progressive forms of assessment, and other dynamic, inspiring forms of instruction. Engaging in interdisciplinary thinking ranging from Education and Education Policy, Biochemistry, Philosophy, Environmental …

Honoring The First-Year Seminar: Exploring High-Impact Learning Experiences For The First Year In Honors, Anton Vander Zee, Trisha H. Folds-Bennett

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Strategies and Structures for the Honors First-Year Seminar, Anton Vander Zee

Westminster University: Program Profile, Richard Badenhausen

Keeping Company: Genuine Conversation as a First-Year Honors Seminar Pedagogy, Richard Badenhausen

Oregon Institute of Technology: Program Profile, Christopher J. Syrnyk Bringing the Idea of Ideas to Life, Christopher J. Syrnyk

College of Charleston: Program Profile, Trisha H. Folds-Bennett, Jesslyn Collins-Frohlich, and Robert Maynor

Disrupting Privilege: Community Engagement in the First Year, Trisha H. Folds-Bennett, Jesslyn Collins-Frohlich, and Robert Maynor

Virginia Commonwealth University: Program Profile, Christy Tyndall and Jacqueline Smith-Mason

Flourishing in the First Year and Beyond: Promoting Personal Wellbeing and …

Developing Problem-Solvers: Cultivating A Scientific Way Of Thinking In Early Learners, Sarah Oeltjenbruns, Matthew J. Weyers, Maya Fogarty, Bryan Matera

Essays in Education

Adopting a science mindset in the early education years is critical for supporting critical thinking, curiosity, and systematic inquiry in students, setting a foundation for lifelong learning and problem-solving. This mindset, which values continuous learning and persistence, enables students to approach challenges across disciplines with a scientist’s curiosity. Through approaches like the Socratic method, problem-based learning, and hands-on activities, educators can enhance students' critical thinking and collaborative skills. By creating opportunities for inquiry-based learning, such as entry events, the See Feel Think Wonder protocol, and the Question Formulation Technique, teachers cultivate curiosity and guide students toward self-directed exploration. For example, …

A Qualitative Study Of Iranian Efl Teachers’ Perceptions Of A Digital Diversified Education, Seyed Mohammad Reza Marvasti Zadeh, Azizollah Dabaghi Varnosfadrani Advarnosfadrani, Mohammad Amiryousefi

The Qualitative Report

Because Iran is a country of learners of diverse languages, socio-economic classes, genders, and ages, digital diversified education seems appropriate to address needs in English language education. However, there is a notable gap in research on teachers’ perceptions about this type of education. To fill this gap, this study aimed to investigate the perspectives of Iranian teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) regarding a diverse digital education. Data were collected via an open-ended survey with 30 EFL teachers, both male and female, who were selected through convenience sampling. Analysis revealed several key themes, including the utilization of diverse …

Cultural Advocacy And Teachers Of Color, Torine Champion, Linda Wilson-Jones

Journal of Research Initiatives

Teachers of color face marginalization and microaggressions that their White counterparts do not have to face. African American teachers experience microaggressions pathologizing their cultural values and communication styles, cultural/ethnic insensitivity, an ascription of their intelligence, and being treated as second-class citizens) that are hurtful, undermining, and disparaging (Brown, 2019). Asian American teachers face gendered, racial, and sexualized expectations on their campuses (Endo, 2015). A study of Latina bilingual teachers revealed that they felt alienated from their colleagues, had larger workloads, and did not have access to support (Amos, 2016). Teachers of color experience inequalities, microaggressions, and marginalization that impact their …

Assessing Leadership Efficacy Of Department Heads: A Study Of Faculty Perceptions At Two Historically Black Colleges And Universities In The Southeastern United States, Demissie L. Karorsa, Monica E. Allen

Journal of Research Initiatives

Transformational leadership (TL) is a leadership approach that inspires followers and encourages their effective engagement to contribute adequately to organizational goal achievement. By inspiring followers to pursue and attain exceptional performance levels, TL accrues high follower satisfaction in their jobs and with their organizations (Asencio, 2016; Banks et al., 2016; Barnett, 2017; Bass & Riggio, 2006). This study examined faculty perceptions/ratings of transformational leadership behaviors of their department chairs at two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the southeastern United States.

A thorough examination of the data collected revealed that the faculty rated idealized attributes (IA) the highest (x̄=2.80, …

Critical Literacy And Hip Hop, Sunni Ali

Journal of Research Initiatives

Integrating critical literacy and conscious Hip-Hop in the classroom setting offers numerous benefits. It allows students to engage more effectively in conversations about contemporary topics, enhances their ability to integrate cultural perspectives, and provides a fresh perspective on the challenges they face in school and within their communities.

Integrating critical literacy and conscious Hip-Hop in the classroom setting offers numerous benefits. It allows students to engage more effectively in conversations about contemporary topics, enhances their ability to integrate cultural perspectives, and provides a fresh perspective on the challenges they face in school and within their communities.

When teachers apply a …

Raising Their Voices: Lived Experiences Of Gifted Women With Adhd, Jessica Leigh Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Given the imbalance in the ratio of male to female ADHD diagnosis, there is a dearth of information on the profile for women with ADHD, especially in adulthood and with those of higher intelligence levels (Rommelse et al., 2016). Each, if not all, diagnoses of ADHD or giftedness come from a parent, teacher, or outside observer’s scale of symptoms and behaviors (Hay et al., 2007; Klesfjo et al., 2020; Polderman et al., 2007). In this study, ten gifted women with ADHD aged 29-77 completed semi structured interviews to examine their lived experiences of education, career, and relationships. Using a dual …

The Lived Experiences Of High-Performing Black Male Students With Advanced Placement Courses, Griselda Almonte-Delgado

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Black male students are underrepresented in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Studies on the perspective and experiences of high performing Black male students with Advanced Placement (AP) is limited. Available research indicates that high performing Black students are enrolled at half the rate of White students both nationally and locally in Advanced Placement (AP) courses (Dept. Of Civil Rights, 2021). Research uncovers multifaceted factors influencing enrollment, ranging from personal motivation to systemic barriers. To qualitatively address this dissonance, this research used Attribution Theory as its framework to examine the lived experiences and perceptions of eight high performing Black male students from …

Exploring School Leaders' Perceptions Of Gifted Education Educator And Gifted Program Evaluation, Rachel Louise Geesa, Krista M. Stith

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

In an effort to better support the needs of PK-12 students identified as gifted or high-ability, school leaders need to be familiar and comfortable with supporting gifted education educators and developing and evaluating gifted education programs. Gifted education educators should have defined roles and responsibilities, and school leaders need to be prepared to effectively evaluate gifted education educators. In this mixed-methods study, we explored pre-service and in-service school leaders’ perceptions of evaluation of gifted education programs or gifted education educators through responses from one anonymous survey with 36 respondents and one optional, confidential interview with seven participants. The findings from …

Making Ai Work: Tools For Schools And Classrooms, Scott Matz, Tracy Driehaus

Education Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

“We Advocate A Semi-Revolution”: An Honors Conference Undergoes Transformation, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison, Bruce Thompson

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Since the 1980s, the Maryland Collegiate Honors Council has offered an annual conference on a host campus in late February. In 2020, MCHC slipped in the conference just before the apocalyptic arrival of COVID-19 in March. Because this conference is hugely popular statewide, we decided to organize it virtually in 2021. Our topic—In Honors…Black Lives Matter—was too important for us to wait out the pandemic. We charged nothing, partly to encourage students and member institutions to participate and partly because it cost us nothing. Attendance tripled. Students who could not miss class or work were able to attend. Programs were …

Remembering Ada Long, May 20, 1945–February 4, 2024, Jeffrey A. Portnoy, Larry Andrews, Bernice Braid, James J. Clauss, Lisa L. Coleman, Kevin W. Dean, Joan Digby, Linda Frost, Galit Gertsenzon, Devon Graham, Raymond Green, Annmarie Guzy, Jerry Herron, Mimi Killinger, John A. Knox, George Mariz, Mitch Pruitt, La Tanya L. Reese Rogers, Rae Rosenthal, Rusty Rushton, Chris Simon, Michael E. Sloane, Michaela Ruppert Smith, Christopher J. Syrnyk, Maria V. Tarasova, Norm Weiner

Honors in Practice Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s collection of essays honoring the life and work of Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024), the authors reflect on the personal and professional impact she has made in the honors experience. See https://youtube.com/live/EwdleBW1Rf8?feature=share to view the entire Celebration of Life that was held June 8, 2024.

A Matter Of Definition, Criteria, And Standards In Honors: A History, From The Basic Characteristics To The “Nchc Shared Principles And Practices Of Honors Education”, Richard Badenhausen, James Buss

Honors in Practice Online Archive

For more than half a century, the honors community has debated the role of standards. This comprehensive overview of those discussions—the first ever—traces the evolution of how honors education has defined itself from its early years right up until the 2022 adoption of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s new “NCHC Shared Principles and Practices of Honors Education.” While the latest document may seem to represent a stark change, the genealogy unfolded here demonstrates the “Shared Principles” as a return to the collegial and inclusive spirit of the earliest discussions about standards while reflecting more recent issues in contemporary higher education. …

Aristotle’S Poetics: A Biologist’S Approach To Tragedy, James J. Clauss

Honors in Practice Online Archive

The paper describes a class that introduces Aristotle’s Poetics from the perspective of his scientific, especially biological, treatises: a systematic analysis of what emotions a tragedy is supposed to elicit and how they are resolved by the audience (homoeopathy). Students read 11 ancient and modern plays and view one film, observing whether his theory of the Tragic explains our responses. The final project includes the writing of a tragic story (not a drama) evincing the students’ own understanding of the Tragic based on the readings.

Interdisciplinary Cohort Building: Creating A Feeling Of Belonging And Sense Of Community In Honors Transfer Students, Shannon Pittman, Vanessa Miller

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Athens State University Honors Program implements an honors mentoring model for transfer students that aims to support transfer student completion of an honors project and improve transfer students’ feelings of belonging in honors.

The Honors Research Project: Embracing Intellectual Discovery Through Storytelling, Malachi D. Crawford, Chelsee B. H. Young, Kimberly Michelle Gay, Quincy C. Moore

Honors in Practice Online Archive

The Honors Research Project (HRP) at Prairie View A&M University develops critical thinking and creative intellectual skills to analyze, understand, and comprehend the project’s topics.

Mindfulness In Honors: An Experiment In Collaborative Learning And Team Teaching, Pascale F. Engelmajer, Massimo A. Rondolino

Honors in Practice Online Archive

What do students hear when we talk of mindfulness? To reframe unexamined assumptions among students who conceptualize both mindfulness and honors education as “doing more” (more exercises to gain psychological benefits and more work to gain higher GPAs), the authors of this paper piloted a new course in philosophy and religious studies. In this essay, they discuss their collaborative experience designing, co-teaching, and assessing an honors course on mindfulness: its roots in Buddhist thought and practices, its contemporary secular developments, and its potential impact on students’ learning and lived experience. Integral to this experiment is also an approach to teaching …