SUNY Gathering

Vol 1. No. 3

Hello!

I'm a little bit late with episode three of Honors Matters, but I am here!

I have an Honors event this week about which I'm quite excited and I wanted to share it with you and invite you to pass along any thoughts you might have.

On Friday, I will be travelling to Syracuse to join a group of SUNY Honors Directors and Deans to network and share ideas.  We will get together for a social dinner on Friday evening and will continue our conversations at an all day meeting on Saturday.  Agenda items so far include:

Best practices - I'm really looking forward to this part.  This where I will get to share some of what we've been doing at FLCC as well as hear what other campuses are doing.  I hope to bring home lots of ideas that we can implement.

Honors contracts - I'm curious about what other campuses do.  We don't have a lot of contracts here, but I imagine that this number might increase as more and more students hear about Honors as a whole.  This is especially important for students in tight programs or for students who arrived late to Honors and are hoping to complete a certificate or diploma in an abridged amount of time.

Enhance connections - this is an important one.  I get asked a lot of questions about what Honors can do for a student in terms of transfer and I think these are really important conversations to have.  I am curious as to what four-year institutions are looking for and how we can work together to make Honors part of a transfer student's experiences in a positive way.

Honors visibility - Honors Deans and Directors across SUNY are interested in great links to the chancellor's office - especially in light of the change in leadership at that level.  These are important conversations to have as a whole and may even result in some kind of liaison between Honors at the campus level and SUNY central.

Assessment rubrics - this might not sound very interesting for students, but it should!  We are working very hard behind the scenes to align Honors with the learning framework of the whole college and shaping our learning outcomes to match work being done at the college on a larger level.  With that, comes the need to assess and create evidence that shows we are doing all the things we want to do.  The timing of this agenda item is perfect for us - as several classes are piloting the new learning outcomes and other documents this very semester!

The fun of all of this is that it really shows that we are trying to practice some of the core tenants of Honors in our very own practice.  It's all about making connections, reflecting on what we are doing, and expanding learning outside the classroom.  I look forward to sharing what I learn with you in a future blog.

STAY CURIOUS!
-T

"Honors administrators and faculty consider students to be the leaders of the future in their disciplines of choice and strive to give them the tools to be responsible, ethical citizens”

AnnMarie Guzy in “Honors Composition:  Humanity Beyond the Humanities”

Flying the Honors Flag

Vol 1. No 2.

Hello again from the Director of Honors!

This week I'm going to talk about how you can have yourself flagged as an Honors Student and why you might want to do that.  You'll also find some important information about where to find me and when you are most likely to find me in my office if you have questions.

It is true that our classes are open to all students and that a single Honors course on your transcript can be enough to set you apart from another applicant to a job or a seat in a four-year classroom.  But what if you have the time and the room to dedicate yourself to going all the way, so to speak?  What if you have set your sights on a certificate or diploma and what to make it official?  Well, you can and it's very easy to do.

All you have to do is fill out a change of major form (which you can find here) with your name, ID and signature.  Then you get it to me and I sign it for you.  From there, it goes down to the OneStop where they will raise a little flag in your student record that tags you as an Honors student.  It's that easy!

What this does for you is put my name down as your secondary adviser to help you make decisions about how to best proceed along an Honors path.   I will never replace the adviser in your degree program because they have invaluable knowledge and expertise when it comes to your educational and career goals in your field.  I will simply be a resource for you to talk about all things Honors.  I can help you compare your required classes with the next semester's offerings and help pave the way for you to complete one or two contracts depending on which route you go.  In short, if it's possible for you to earn an Honors certificate or diploma as part of your degree, the two of us will figure it out and then make sure that we've made good choices with your main adviser as well.

If you are flagged as Honors or not, if you've taken an Honors class or haven't, and no matter where you are on your educational journey, you are always welcome to come find me to chat about Honors related issues.  You can find my office on the fourth floor just down the hall to the right of the drinking fountain.  I'm the last door on the left before you go around the corner into the business and art wing.  My office number is 4285.  This semester, Fall 2016, my office hours are as follows:

Monday / Wednesday:  10:00-10:45 and 1:00-2:00
Tuesday / Thursday:  9:00 - 9:30 and 11:00-12:00
Friday:  10:00-11:00

I'm often around at other times, as well, so you can always email me to set up an appointment at trista.merrill@flcc.edu or honorsstudies@flcc.edu

You may wonder why my office is not in the Honors House, since that seems to make the most sense given that is HONORS Studies and HONORS House.  They are actually two separate things, though the two of them often cross paths in both philosophy and practical matters such as where we schedule Honors classes.  I had the chance to move my office over there, but I decided that it would be much easier to reach out to a wider range of students, faculty, and other important folks at FLCC if I was in the main building.  So, like you who are taking Honors classes, I walk over there every day and so far - the walk has been lovely!  We shall see how we feel when the snow starts falling, eh?

Well, that's all I have for this week.  Next week is a big week - I'm hoping to bring you news of our upcoming Honors gathering.  Stay tuned!

-T

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit - e.e.cummings

Honors Matters!

Vol 1. No. 1
6 September 2016


Hello and welcome to the first FLCC Honors Studies blog!

Finger Lakes Community College is now in its second week of classes for the Fall 2016 semester and there are so many exciting things happening in Honors.  We have eleven Honors in the Disciplines courses running, with a total of 160 students enrolled in these classes. There's another handful of students engaged in Honors contracts and we are already making plans for the spring.

We are working on a number of things this semester sort of 'behind the scenes' as well, to help ensure that the Honors experience is as fulfilling as possible for all students who partake of Honors classes. It will also help us to show those outside Honors just what kind of work we are doing and the impact that work is having.  In a future blog, I'll tell you more about this.

As Director, I'm also making sure I stay up to date on what Honors means both regionally and nationally.  This October, I'll be heading to the National Collegiate Honors Council conference in Seattle to meet with Honors Administrators, Directors, Deans, Faculty, and even students to see what other colleges do in terms of Honors.  I expect to learn a lot again this time; in fact, this blog is actually one idea that was born out of the same conference last year.  Dr. Linda Ross, psychology faculty and a member of the Honors Advisory Board will be going with me so we have two sets of eyes and ears to take in everything we can.  A couple of weeks before that conference, I will be attending a SUNY Honors Directors and Deans meeting at SUNY Oswego to find out what our brother and sister campuses are doing and to talk with them about what we can be doing on our own campus to make the most of Honors for those who transfer to a SUNY Four Year.  Keep an eye out for blogs about both of these events!

In the next few weeks, we will be planning a party for Honors students and faculty to get together, share stories and experiences, have a meal, and generally get to know each other and Honors even more than we already do.  And who knows, perhaps there will be some sneak peaks at our Spring 2017 offerings, as well!

That, in a nutshell, is what Honors has been up to of late.  There are some other things I will be telling you about as soon as we have some more information, but in the meantime, please remember that my door is open and my inbox has lots of room in it.  I welcome any ideas you have for Honors, blog topics, guest blogs or bloggers, requests for information, questions about Honors, and any sort of general comment about anything related to Honors.

I will leave you with some helpful links and contact information for important things related to Honors Studies.

FLCC Honors Studies Facebook:  Head over and give us a Like!
FLCC Honors House Facebook:  The House and Honors Studies are not the same thing!

Honors email:  trista.merrill@flcc.edu or honorsstudies@flcc.edu

Thank you for reading and remember........stay curious.

-T

"I have no special talents.  I am only passionately curious." - Albert Einstein