Author: Karen

What’s an Honors Course Substitution?!

Do you have a vague memory of hearing about an Honors course thingie from some speaker who came into your HNR 100 class? What was that about again…..

Just ask Annemarie Menna (AS 15). Annemarie studied in Spain in spring 2014 and elected to complete the Honors Course Substitution. Annemarie’s work, featured in her blog, has earned her the equivalent of an HNR class. Although the course substitution doesn’t earn university credit or count for any requirement outside of Honors, it does complete one of the four Honors classes students must complete. Better still, Annemarie now has a wonderful, dynamic, digital keepsake from her semester abroad which she is now sharing with the world. Go check  out Atlas Akimbo and get inspired!

Friends in London

 

Lizzie McGuire moment at the fountain

Tribute to Harry H. Wise

Harry H. WiseWe have received the sad news that one of our benefactors, Harry H. Wise, has recently died. We extend our condolences to his family and loved ones and offer our deep appreciation for the generosity which Mr. Wise has extended to the Program over the past ten years.
Mr. Wise led the establishment of the Wise-Marcus Scholarship Fund from which many students have benefited. The winners of these scholarships are able to expand their Capstone projects in exciting and challenging ways.
One award winner traveled to Costa Rica to conduct research on empowering indigenous communities’ involvement in ecotourism. Another student who was a dual major in biology and Television, Radio and Film created a documentary of a fellow Honors student’s Capstone on invasive plants. A recent award winner traveled to Australia and Thailand to study health care among the Karen refugee population. Yet another award winner completed a Capstone which helped spring board her into a fully funded M.D./Ph.D. program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Many Capstone award winners benefit from Wise-Marcus funding, adding further testament to the fact that Mr. Wise’s contributions to our Program deepen the excellence of all of our work. His legacy will live on in the lives of excellent students and the body of knowledge generated in the Renée Crown University Honors Program.

Civic Engagement: A Year in Numbers

Students serving at CNY Food BankSome of you undoubtedly have civic engagement hours from the 2013-2014 academic year that you still plan to log, but I want to share with everyone what you have done for communities around the world.

Honors students logged a total of 14,450 volunteer hours between August 26, 2013 and May 11, 2014. If you divide that into 8 hour work days, that’s a total of 1,801 days or  360 work weeks or 7.2 years.

Seniors, logged 3,550 hours this year and 12,200 hours over three years at SU (we don’t have stats for 2010). Juniors logged 4,715 hours, Sophomores 4,640 hours, and first year students jumped into community action logging 1,510 hours.

 

Color Me Rad volunteerBrewster Boland civic engagement project

Students volunteered on the Syracuse Westside, on campus, in their home towns, during spring break and while studying abroad. Projects included staffing tables for a variety of organizations at dozens of different events, passing out water bottles at races, giving blood, reading with pre-schoolers, walking dogs, grooming horses, making music, making art, making puppets…….making the world a better place!Ben Snyder at North Park Village Nature Center

 

 

It’s not too late to log your hours from the past year. It’s not too early to begin to plan your next volunteer event.

Happy Summer Readers

Otto hugs a volunteer

Honors Students Hit the Radio Waves on Sound Beat

Words and Music class photoIn May and June, millions of public radio listeners around the country will hear the stories behind historic recordings, as told by students in the Honors course Inside the Words and Music.

These student scripts were produced for the Sound Beat radio program, which spotlights recordings in the SU Library’s Belfer Audio Archive—one of the largest sound archives in the country. Sound Beat produces daily 90-second episodes that are distributed to public radio stations nationwide.

Last fall, students in the course Inside the Words and Music, taught by writer/musician Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, worked with the Sound Beat staff to research a song of their choice—including seminal recordings by such artists as Bessie Smith, Blind Willie Johnson, Hank Williams, and the Weavers. The students then wrote scripts about the life and times of these recordings and the musicians who wrote/performed the songs.

Sound Beat producer Jim O’Connor selected scripts written by 12 students for the show: Jill Comoletti, Emily Procopio, Maggie Cregan, Hasmik Djoulakian, Meg Lane, Kelsey Francella, Jacqueline Attia, Dan Stack, Andrew Frasier, Alexis Lisser, Megala Sankrith, and Courtney Malloy. Starting May 12, the students’ episodes will air on public radio stations, and they will also be available on the Sound Beat website: www.soundbeat.org.

In the fall of 2014, students in Inside the Words and Music will once again explore the vast Belfer Audio Archive in search of the great stories behind great recordings.

Belfer Archive Logo

I Might Study Abroad if I Knew More

If this is what you are thinking, then this information session is for you!

SU Abroad is hosting the 2014 Study Abroad Day on Thursday, February 27 in Schine 304ABC from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m.

This is an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to explore the 100-plus program options on offer at SU Abroad.

SU Abroad staff and alumni will be present, as will our colleagues from Financial Aid, who will answer questions about funding a trip abroad.

Representatives from approved partner programs in Africa, Asia/South Asia, Eastern Europe/Russia, Latin America, and the Middle East will be on hand to advise and inform attendees.

Event poster, details in text

Live from the Lounge: A Dose of Dog

In our second installment of the “Live from the Lounge” series, we bring you the most adorable new member of the Honors community — Pepper Scherrer whose dog mom is our very own data analyst and web mavin, Blythe Scherrer. Pepper spent the day in the Honors suite where she was a very well-behaved citizen, neither barking nor chewing on random objects despite being only six months old. Pepper is an adoptee from Helping Hounds, an organization to which Honors *loves* to send volunteers.

It totally pays to hang out in the Honors lounge because you never know who you are going to get to meet!

Live from the Lounge – Dose of Dog from Syracuse U Honors Program on Vimeo.