Honors Club!

Vol 4 No 13

We have a guest blogger this week with an amazing announcement and some important information...

Hello!

Welcome to the Honors Club!

A place to bring and feed your nerd energy.

Have you ever taken and Honors course or are interested in looking at your education differently then this might be the place for you. In this club we will follow the honors motto “all you have to be is curious”. Our club is all about sharing experiences and things that make us want to learn and do more. We want to encourage everyone to study and do what they love.

To me Honors is a way to get in better touch with my learning process and myself. I hope for this club to take that beyond the classroom and into a less formal setting. I want to form a safe tight knit community of lifelong learners, to help each other grow and succeed in our learning here at FLCC.

I would like to introduce myself and the other leaders of the club:

• My Name is Rebecca and I am one of the co-directors of Honors club. I am a Theatre major and I am a huge film nerd.
• Annie is my co-director of the club. She is a nutrition and dietetics major.
• Emma is the club Treasurer. She is a Creative Writing major and is a self-proclaimed bookworm.
• Heidi is the club Secretary. She studies music performance and composition.

You do not have to have taken an honors class to be in the club, we are an all-inclusive club hoping to fuel each other’s love of learning. If you have any questions feel free to contact me by email rrayne@fingerlakes.edu or stop by our information table today 2/24 between 2:00 and 4:00 in front of Student Life.

Honors Cares

Vol 4 No 11

Honors.

The word brings so many things to mind – not the least of which is a connection to intelligence.  ‘It’s for the smart kids’ is something I’ve heard more than once.  There is some truth to it…but it does not come close to encompassing what Honors really means.  I’m in the middle in visiting all the Honors classes being taught at FLCC this semester.  And soon, I will ask both of my own Honors classes to freewrite about what Honors means to them.  I have expectations, but I’m sure that I will once again be surprised, touched, and humbled by the responses.

We are Honors nestled inside a community college and I think that what we end up building, without an initial intention of doing so, a community within a community.  Students that are already bonded through their experiences at a small two-year college are even further bonded by the things that brought them to – and keep them in – Honors classes and events.

My thoughts below are not intended to be a comparison or a contrast to the rest of the FLCC community in the slightest.  It’s just what I’ve experienced and what I want to share with Honors students who are both new to us as well as those who are returning.

People in Honors care and they have established relationships of trust and openness about difficult topics.  This is not universal, of course, but I am continually reminded that it is a common trend among Honors students.

Students that I have only known for three weeks feel comfortable telling me things about their lives and situations so that I can be better prepared to help them succeed.  Another feels comfortable pointing out that they found the conversation of the day too heavy for them to process an end of class question.  Yet another felt safe enough to point out that they were in recovery and thanked our guest speaker for talking about important things that needed talking about. 

And then there was today.

A student messaged me in minor crisis…sharing their overwhelming fear and anxiety in the moment.  They had already spoken to another Honors instructor before reaching out to me.  As soon as I could, I went to where the student was.  We shared a hug and then talked together about a plan for them to succeed.  I made sure that professional help was being sought out and that the student was safe and okay.  Group hugs were had - for at that point we were joined by the other instructor and another student.  Then, exhausted already for some reason (let us hope I’m not getting sick), I decided to cancel my afternoon class and go home to rest.  It had been a long day for no apparent reason.  I went home and slept for two hours.

I woke up to find a message on my phone from yet another student who noted that class was canceled and asked if I was okay.

Honors cares.

Annie Says Hello

Vol 4 No 11

I'm always happy to have guest bloggers and it is even better when it is a student.  I'll let Annie introduce herself to you....I just wanted to invite all of YOU to contribute to the blog if you'd like.  Just drop me an email at trista.merrill@flcc.edu.  Happy writing!

Welcome back Curious Creatures!

Annie (right) and Dr. Merrill (left)

Allow me to introduce myself...

My name is Annie Black and I am a Nutrition and Dietetics major. I am in my final semester at FLCC and will surely miss my Honors family. I couldn’t be more grateful for Honors being a part of my time here, as well as our beloved Director Dr. Merrill.

The Spring 2020 semester has much in store for all of us, especially with Honors! I just want to take this time to say welcome back to all students, faculty and staff. We appreciate you all and your contributions to Honors, in whatever way that may be. With our first full week of classes coming to an end, I wanted to take the time to remind everyone of our marvelous Honors librarian, April Broughton. They are a great resource for any of your Honors researching needs, among many other things. If you’re looking for any other academic help the Write Place, Math Center, and Science Incubator are great places to start.

This semester we have THIRTEEN different Honors classes taught by 11 exceptional Professors. Don’t worry if you weren’t able to register for any Honors classes, because you can turn any 2 classes into an HON credit class by utilizing the Honors Contract. Did you know that classes are not the only way to earn Honors points? There will be several events throughout the semester that you will be able to attend to earn points as well. For those of you that would like to be a part of more Honors outside the class room, I encourage you to look into joining Honors club. I look forward to seeing how Honors brings us together this semester.

“All you have to be is curious”

Honors home page https://www.flcc.edu/honors/index.cfm

Contracts https://www.flcc.edu/honors/contracts.cfm

Honors Club https://www.flcc.edu/honors/honors-club.cfm

April Broughton https://library.flcc.edu/welcome.cfm

The Write Place https://www.flcc.edu/offices/writingcenter/

The Math Center https://www.flcc.edu/offices/mathcenter/

The Science Incubator https://www.flcc.edu/incubator/