Exciting, Entertaining, Empowering Events!

Vol 3 No 18

Hello, Honors Friends!

This week’s (or, rather, last week’s) entry is just a little exciting housekeeping.  I’m very happy to report that we have added some information to the Honors website that might come in handy for those looking to plan ahead for points or just for Honors involvement.  This information will soon be moved to the front page, but for now you can find it here:

https://www.flcc.edu/honors/events.cfm

If you look under Upcoming events, you will see that there are now events listed there!  These are official Honors or Honors sponsored events that you can receive Honors Points for if you are so inclined.  If you are not seeking points at this time or through events, you are still welcome to attend any of them.  I can guarantee you will have an enjoyable time in addition to any learning aspects that are inherent as well.  Just a few added comments…

The Honors dinner this semester will be on April 2.  We are having a taco bar and a very fun giveaway for everyone who attends.  You can also get a T-shirt if you missed the dinner last semester.  Dr. Nye, President of the College, has already told me he is planning to attend, as this the Associate Vice President of Instruction.  I’m sure we will have some other staff and administrators join us as well – not to mention the Honors faculty that always comes to eat with us and talk about courses they have taught and will teach.  It’s a great way to meet Honors faculty and hear about next semester – as well as just making sure that you have a good meal that day!

For the Convocation, I want to encourage all Honors Students to make a poster that visually depicts some element of the learning they are doing this semester – whether it’s an overarching concept or a smallish project, show us what you are working on.  We will fill Stage 14 with posters and then listen to four students who will be selected to share their work with attendees.  This is one of my favorite events and each semester I hold high hopes that we will see many, MANY posters.   To this end, we will host a poster-making session at Study-a-Thon 2019 on April 29^th in the library.  More details on this to come!

Last, but certainly not least, is the Human Library on Laker Day (4/25).   This Honors Sponsored event is hosted by the library and will feature a number of Human Books that you can sit down with to talk about the concept or label they represent.  It’s an amazingly powerful way to explore aspects of the human condition that you may not otherwise have the option to explore in such a personal way.  You can get more information on that onehere.

I cannot stress enough how amazing this event is.  In a world that constantly seems to try to pull us apart, this is a way to bring us back together again.  Through open and honest conversation, we can come to better understand people that are different than us and that are often misunderstood, judged, marginalized, or silenced.  The casual space and the welcoming environment makes this an amazing experience for all involved.

There will be other events added soon and I hope that you find things of interest for you there.  You are welcome to attend all of them and you are always welcome to bring a friend or two with you.  The more the merrier….after all, this is Honors, so all you have to be is curious.

Did you know?

Vol 2 No 18

Did you know?

This week's blog is just a few informational pieces that you might not know or might need to be reminded about.  Hope there is something here of interest!

• It is possible for you to claim that an event should be eligible for Honors Points based on what is going on during that event and how it ties to the values and mission of Honors. There’s a form – just ask!
• Not only is the Human Library an Honors Event for visitors, but you can also earn Honors Points by BEING a book. Is there something about you that is often misunderstood, little known, or misrepresented? Consider joining the Human Library as an actual book! Earn Honors points and spread the word about whatever you best represent! Follow this link to learn more: http://libguides.flcc.edu/human_library
• We have a dedicated Honors Librarian! April Broughton has blogged for us before, but if you’re new to Honors you might have missed it. It’s also a good reminder now that the semester is in full swing and those projects are being assigned and brainstormed. You can read her blog here – and her email is April.Broughton@flcc.edu.
• We have an Honors Convocation at the end of the semester (May 2nd) where we display the work of Honors Students through posters and an invitation for four students to present their research and writing. Keep this in mind as you move through your Honors course this semester. You can read about last semester’s Convocation here. 
• We also have a DINNER! This semester, the dinner will be held on April 4th at 5:00pm in Stage 14. This time around it’s a taco bar (with vegan options!) and new giveaways. We have T-shirts left from last semester’s dinner that we will be giving away as well as coloring books and a cool new item. Hope to see you there!
• You can declare yourself an Honors Studies major with nothing more than your name, your ID number, your signature, and my signature. This does not ‘lock’ you into getting Honors Studies Scholar status, it just allows the Honors Director to access your program evaluation and help you make choices to reach that status. If, in the end, you don’t earn the 15 points, there is no failure or penalty at all. Just use the Change of Degree or Advisor form available at the OneStop or online here.
• The Honors Studies website is changing! As the days and weeks unfold, you should start to see more information available on the FLCC Honors Studies website, located here. If you have any ideas about what else should be there, please let us know!
• You can send any questions, concerns, feedback, or ideas about Honors Studies to the Director simply by emailing to honorsstudies@flcc.edu or Trista.merrill@flcc.edu. I look forward to hearing from you and hearing how your Honors classes are going!

Let me know what you need or what's happening with you in Honors!  We hope that you can get as excited about Honors Studies as we do!  STAY TUNED FOR EXCITING NEWS NEXT WEEK!

Welcome Back, Friends!

Vol 2. No. 16

Welcome to the Spring 2018 semester!

We're now two days in (a Thursday start was a little odd, yes?) and I wanted to take this moment to say hello and give you a little update and sneak peek into what we have planned for this semester so far.

Honors Courses and Contracts...
We have 10 sections of Honors courses running this semester, with 117 students enrolled.  We have several contracts that are likely to begin and one that has already bee submitted and approved.  Our courses range from a special topics one called Women Who Kill to two social science electives - one on Gender and one on Love and Romance.  We have psychology and English, literature and music.  It's a good range of classes and I hope that you are all enjoying the classes (Honors and otherwise) that you have been in so far.  I plan to visit all the Honors courses soon to tell you a little more about some things to look forward to.

Events...
We have several events planned already and more on the way.  You can read a bit more about events in general here.  I will also be talking more about them when I visit your Honors classes.  Anyway, we have two scheduled and one more on the way that I know about at this point.  This is in addition to the Honors Dinner and the Honors Convocation as well.  Lots going on!

On April 19th (Activities Day), the Library is hosting a Human Library event from 12-4.  During this event, you can 'check out' Human books and chat with them about the topic they represent.  This is an amazing event and you can expect to hear more about it as we get closer.

One May 3rd, we have an event during college hour that is called Presidential Greatness:  The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  As you might imagine, this promises to be a fascinating talk with lots of opportunities to ask questions.

Also coming this semester is an event about Chaos and the self-organizing universe.  Wholly interactive, this should be an amazing experience.  More on this when we have it scheduled!

As you can see, we are getting more and more Honors things in the works and we hope to see more and more of you become part of these events.  Bring your friends - we don't have anything that is limited only to Honors Studies Students.  Remember....all you have to be is curious!

That's it for this blog - as I'm sure all are tired from these first couple of days.  I look forward to introducing myself to you in your classes and I hope to see you at Honors events this semester.

Good luck in all your endeavors this semester!
-T-

Dr. Trista Merrill
Director of Honors Studies and Professor of English
Rm 4285
Email:  honorsstudies@flcc.edu -or- trista.merrill@flcc.edu
Facebook:  FLCC Honors Studies

"self-confidence-2121159_960_720" by Alexas_Fotos is licensed under CC0.

Honors Point Today!

Vol 2 No 8

Are you in Human Services, Criminal Justice, Chemical Dependency Counseling, Sociology, Psychology program or are you just interested to learn more about individuals involved in the legal system?

This event is a panel consisting of a prosecutor, defense attorney, a mitigator/investigator who contracts with the Ontario County Alternatives to Incarceration, and an investigator from the Ontario County Sheriff’s Dept.  The panel will speak around client centeredness in relation to their work.

Date:  Thursday, October 26, 2017

Place:  Canandaigua Main Campus, Room 4290

Time:  12:30pm – 1:45pm

Nasim Sarvaiya, who organized the event, said her “aim is to center it around the importance of softer interviewing skills and a holistic attitude in working with clients whether the client is a perpetrator or a victim” and “the importance of not judging, stereotyping, and/or racially profiling.”

This event is appropriate for any student in the criminal justice, sociology, psychology, human service, and chemical dependency program.  It’s also relevant to anyone who’s personally (or has had a family member) been on either side of the law.

Attendees will be invited and encouraged to ask questions of one or more of the panelists after the moderated discussion takes place.

This event is worth one Honors Point!

Remember Honors Events!

You need 15 points before you are done here (and a GPA of 3.25) to earn Honors Studies Scholar status.  All you need to do to earn an Honors point is the following:

1. Attend n Honors or Honors Approved event and sign the attendance sheet
2. Complete a short evaluation of the event (available there)
3. Write a reflective journal entry that contextualizes your experience there with other learning experiences, both in classes and outside (email me for the rubric we use to evaluate your journal!)
4. Write a reflective essay at the end of the semester that ties all Honors events you attended together using the following prompt as a starting point:

The Honors Studies Reflective Essay invites you to reflect on your role as learner and draw broader insights about your learning experiences. In order to do this, you are asked to explore three questions: First, where have I come from? By reflecting on your learning path before entering this specific Honors Studies experience, you are better situated to explore how far you have come. Second, where am I now? You can then reflect on this specific experience with its relevant concepts and how that relates to other experiences you have had as a learner in various courses and environments. Third, where am I going? This allows you to look forward to how you might apply what you’ve discovered about yourself to your future as a learner and a practitioner of a field. This essay will be evaluated according to the categories in the rubric provided.

The Honors Studies events you attended this semester covered, most likely, a wide variety of topics. As you revisit your reflective journals and explore the prompts above, think about connections you see in the topics offered and those you chose to explore further. Explore the activities you choose to attend and the ones about which you reflected on in a journal. Why? How do activities like these serve as learning experiences? Discuss the impact of the setting (such as location, time of day, attendees, and seating) on your interaction with the content. Explore the extent of your engagement in these activities, particularly the ones in which you actively participated. How did these activities influence your work in your classes or vice versa? In other words, use this reflective essay to fit the activities you attended and the reflective journal you kept into the intricate pathways you are taking on your journey as a learner.

These guidelines, as well as other supporting documents, can be obtained by emailing me at Trista.merrill@flcc.edu or honorsstudies@flcc.edu

Happy eventing!

FLCC Comic-Con - Honors Approved!

Vol 2 No 4

An Event to Remember!

"Highlighting literary graphic resources through speakers, presentations, and other unique learning experiences"

We are excited to announce the FIRST Honors Approved Event being held this Activities Day – October 17, 2017. This event is sponsored by the Charles J. Meder and funded in part by Student Corporation and the Humanities Department.

This event, hosted and held in the Library, has so many amazing parts to it – from costume contests and crafts to food and a movie. It seems like there is a little something for everyone. What really gets Honors Studies excited, however, are the presentations. Held by students, faculty, staff, and community members, these presentations touch on so many deeper aspects of comics and super-heroes. These sorts of things show us that popular culture is rife with things to study, explore, and reflect upon. For instance, take a look at what you can expect if you go:

Lights, Sounds, Buttons, Sensors (Bill Pealer)
This presentation shows the ins and outs of creating props with Arduino and various materials. The discussion and workshop will include how to program props to light up, buzz and more using simple cost-effective tools.

Kick-Butt Costuming 101 (Dave Ghidiu)
Making award-winning costumes isn't hard - but it does take a tiny bit of money and tons of time. Come learn how to make stellar costumes out of easy-to-obtain materials. Participants will learn techniques and experienced tips for making costumes that stand out and will walk away with information on where to go for the next step. Some participants will even get to participate in a rapid build!

Force, Mass, and Acceleration: The Dangers of Being Super (Trevor Johnson-Steigelman)
Superman and Supergirl are able to leap tall buildings in a single leap, but do they get charged for replacing sidewalks? The Flash and Quicksilver are quick, but do they have liability insurance for causing whiplash? Why should Spider-Man consider taking a physics class or two? Let’s investigate how Newton’s Second Law is mangled in the comics and the movies.

The Culture of Japan (Anime Club Presentation)
The student-led discussion will include Japanese history, diet, and cultural standards. The presentation will start at 12:30 to give our comic fans a chance to grab their lunch.

My Life in Comics Q & A (Sal Otero)
Sal Otero is an artist living in Upstate New York. Currently, Sal is working on the TMnT comics. In his presentation, Sal will discuss his experiences in the comics business and his journey to becoming an artist within the industry. There will be a brief Q & A session following his presentation. 

Jenny Burnett, Automated Systems Librarian and the mastermind behind Comic-Com, has the following to say about this Honors Studies Experience:

In the past I have found many students think that ComiCon is just about comics; this event gives the Library a chance to truly change the minds of students when it comes to comic events and comics themselves. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, the Library events have the opportunity to pique the scholarly interests of various students, faculty, staff and the community. This event contributes, not only to the culture here at FLCC, but also to the culture of the community, giving everyone a unique opportunity to explore this medium in a safe and welcoming space…ComiCon gives students and members of the community an opportunity to reflect on their views and will show them that the stereotypical Comic-con comic reader, can be quite different than they had originally thought. The FLCC Library ComiCon has a strong tradition of breaking the mold in this respect. Our first years have shown hundreds of students comics can be scholarly, non-fiction, physics lessons, instructional, and they can be for everyone. Students might also find that they are the ones who have been closed off to these experiences, and do some additional self-reflection and evaluation on why they feel this way. Each speaking guest gives students the opportunity to analyze new ideas, and old themes both inside the comics’ medium and beyond.

Look for posters and other advertising around campus for more information and we hope to see you at the FLCC Comic-con – an Honors Approved Event!

If you need more information on how to earn Honors Studies Points for this and other Honors Studies Events, please email the Director of Honors Studies, Dr. Trista Merrill at trista.merrill@flcc.edu or honorsstudies@flcc.edu.

Coming Soon!

Vol 2. No 3

Starting this semester, albeit in a somewhat limited way, you can earn Honors Studies Points by attending Honors Approved Events! You should start seeing the sticker shown below pop up here and there to designate an event as one you can attend and then reflect on to get Honors Studies Points. That prompts two questions, I'm sure. First..."what are Honors Studies Points?" and second, "What do you mean, reflect on it?" Well, read on, my curious friends!

The straight up definition of Honors Studies Points that they are the formal tracking of a student’s success in Honors Studies and are earned by taking Honors Studies Courses (including contracts) and attending Honors approved events. Earn enough of them and you become an Honors Studies Scholar, which is someone who has earned at least 15 points of Honors Studies Experience at the end of their time at FLCC and has an overall GPA of at least 3.25.

9 of your points needs to come from taking courses, but the other 6 or more can come from Honors Approved Events. Once you attend an event, you will be expected to complete a 500 or more word journal about the experience wherein you reflect on what you experienced and connecting it to other expectations and other experiences. We can give you prompts to help with this part of it. At the end of the semester, you will write a reflective essay that connects that event to any others you took and explores the same three questions you explore in all Honors reflective essays: where have I been, where am I now, and where am I going. From there, you can explore the event or events specifically through this addition to those questions:

The Honors Studies events you attended this semester covered, most likely, a wide variety of topics. As you revisit your reflective journals and explore the prompts above, think about connections you see in the topics offered and those you chose to explore further. Explore the activities you choose to attend and the ones about which you reflected on in a journal. Why? How do activities like these serve as learning experiences? Discuss the impact of the setting (such as location, time of day, attendees, and seating) on your interaction with the content. Explore the extent of your engagement in these activities, particularly the ones in which you actively participated. How did these activities influence your work in your classes or vice versa? In other words, use this reflective essay to fit the activities you attended and the reflective journal you kept into the intricate pathways you are taking on your journey as a learner.

One of the events we are most excited about is the Honors Convocation.  This event will be a chance to share your Honors Studies work with others and see what other Honors Studies students have done as well.  More on this in a future blog!

Remember to save the date - October 18th at 5:00 - the Honors Studies Dinner.  And guess what?  That is an Honors Approved Event!  :)

Honors Dinner Remarks

Vol. 1 No. 19

The following is a transcript of the opening remarks I gave at the Spring 2017 Honors Dinner last night.  Give it a read - there are some important things to be learned about changes coming to Honors!

Hello, everyone…I’m happy you’re here. Like last semester, it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to say and how I wanted to open this evening. I love everything about Honors, so it’s not that I have nothing to say, it’s just that I should probably try to focus on something specific. If you ask anyone who knows me, you will quickly learn that my brain can be a little scattered. Then again, this is true for a lot of Honors students (and perhaps other faculty – ‘Hi Linda!’) I know as well, so perhaps you can relate. In any event, welcome. The title of these opening remarks comes to us from a French critic, journalist, and novelist who once said plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose – which literally translates to ‘the more it changes, the more it’s the same thing’. I call it this because this is, as many of you know, the second Honors Studies dinner and, oddly enough, it is also the last one under Honors Studies as we know it. Honors has been an amazing and powerful experience for so many people that it feels strange to say that we are changing nearly everything about it. If it’s so wonderful, then why change it? The answer to that first requires reassurance.

The phrase ‘nearly everything’ implies that all the important things will change, but in this case, the opposite is true. Honors is remaining fundamentally the same. We will remain a place for ALL curious and passionate learners to find themselves….and each other. It will continue to celebrate self-reflection and lifelong learning. We will certainly still offer amazing courses taught by amazing faculty. We will absolutely keep fostering interdisciplinary collaborations and intellectual rigor while remaining true to seminar-style teaching and student-centered learning. In other words, the heart of Honors is remaining exactly what it is. These are the fundamental aspects that make Honors Studies what it is.

Before I go any further, I want to caution you that what I say tonight may change as we move forward. You are the first students to really hear about this and we don’t yet have all the pieces in place. Change can be a slow process, but we are close enough to having things ready that I’m sharing it with you. I’m too excited about it not to. This is the same reason why I’m terrible at giving gifts…I usually can’t wait until the appropriate time. Anyway, what I say tonight may change here and there or be tweaked to fit some larger purpose, but I assure you that we will keep all that makes Honors special and, in doing do, make it even more special.

So, back to changes. If the heart of Honors is staying the same, then what ARE we changing? Well, everything else. Our reasoning is that we want to more visibly showcase what makes Honors Studies special by solidify its goals, strengthening its identity, and making it easier for students to experience Honors and attain Honors status. So, again, what does THAT mean? What are we changing?

Well, I’m not sure if any of you have noticed, but a lot of the words we use to talk about Honors are confusing in the face of everything else in an academic setting. It gets called a program – which it is not. You can earn a certificate or a diploma – but technically, it’s neither one. We call them Honors credits, except it means something a little different than when we talk about your transcript. Even the word Honors gets confused with the word given to students who are recognized solely for high GPAs. All of this is going to change.

Students will now be earning points towards becoming an Honors Studies Scholar – gone will be the certificate and the diploma. There will still be Honors Studies Contracts and Honors Studies Seminars and Honors Studies in the Disciplines. But we are now going to add Honors Studies Events that will allow you to earn points towards Scholar status outside of the classroom where, honestly, some of the best learning sometimes occurs. The self-reflective essay prompts will start to look familiar to you as you move from Honors course to Honors course, or contract, or even event. There will be more opportunities, more visibility, more uniformity, and more celebration of the hard work that all of you do or may do in Honors Studies.

<<I went off script here and talked about how the Honors Studies Events will feature work already being done on campus such as the Women's Leadership Initiative and talks that are already hosted by various departments on campus.  I also talked about how we would like to host our own talks about things like the heroin epidemic in upstate New York, or perhaps talks centered on courses we hope to offer in future semesters.  I then spoke briefly about how we would like to have an event each semester that celebrated the work students were doing IN Honors by hosting an Honors Studies Convocation where students were invited to present posters or perhaps a short talk about their projects in Honors courses to whomever attended from the faculty, staff, and student body of FLCC.>>

I have said it many times before, but I adore Honors Studies. I think it’s a unique and amazing opportunity and the changes we are making will help us show off what Honors Studies is, while still respecting the core values of not only Honors as a whole, but also the values of the college. We are NOT the Honors Program anymore because we never really were. We are now Honors Studies, a name which reflects what we have always valued, what we still value, and what we will continue to value – a curiosity and passion for study, for learning, for personal growth. I hope these hints of what’s coming encourage you to explore or continue to explore Honors Studies and really find out who you are and what you are capable of.