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