Welcome Back!

Vol 3 No 1

Welcome back, returning students and welcome to FLCC to all you new folks!

Honors has so many exciting things to talk about and we hope you are all rested from a summer that was satisfying in whatever it provided for you.  We also hope you’re looking forward to a fulfilling and productive semester at FLCC and that Honors will be an active part of those plans!  Speaking of which, we have a number of dates for you to put on your calendar…

Before we do that, though, we want to remind you that it is NOT too late to add an Honors class to your schedule!  There are plenty of seats in our two seminars and from what we’ve heard, they’ve already started strong and enjoyable!  One – Games and Storytelling – meets on Tuesday nights and has some great speakers and activities lined up.  The other – on Wednesday evenings – is about food.  How can you go wrong?  There are also seats in Perspectives on Tolkien (ENG 230), MAT 101 and Psychology of Killing (SSC 215).  Remember…just change the prefix to HON on WebAdvisor and you can see what’s out there.  Check with the instructor ASAP and good luck!

Now for those dates…

SEPTEMBER 13 from 10:00 – 2:00 – Table Day in the hallway outside Stage 14 – and guess who is going to be there?  That’s right – the new HONORS CLUB.  Head on over to see what SWAG is there and find out how you can participate.

OCTOBER 30 from 5:00 – 7:00 – Fall 2018 Honors Studies Dinner in Stage 14 – open to ALL students who are part of Honors or just curious about it, this dinner has giveaways and a few guest speakers from the college who will voice how much Honors is valued at the college.  Then we hand over the microphone to students to talk about their experiences and answer questions.  You may also hear about next semester’s classes as well.

DECEMBER 5 from 10:00 – 5:00 – Fall 2018 Honors Studies Convocation Poster Session outside Stage 14 – All Honors Students are invited to create a poster born from the work being done in Honors courses.  More information on this later in the semester, but be brainstorming how you could illustrate the work you are doing and show off the kinds of things we are doing in the world of Honors.

DECEMBER 5 from 5:00 – 6:00 –Fall 2018 Honors Studies Convocation Presentations in Stage 14 – Four students will take 15 minutes to orally present their Honors work to anyone in attendance.  As with the poster session, more to come on this as we get into the semester.

There will be many more things that we do this semester and the blogs will go back to their weekly schedule, so you have those to look forward to as well.  We will talk about Honors matters, invite guest bloggers, celebrate accomplishments, invite you to various opportunities and events, and generally celebrate Honors.  In the meantime, don’t forget these important things:

• THIS BLOG!  Perhaps bookmark it:  http://flcchonors.blogspot.com/
• Follow us on Twitter:  @FLCC_Honors
• Check us out on Facebook:  FLCC Honors Studies
• Check out Honors Club on Facebook:  FLCC Honors Club
• Email us!  honorsstudies@flcc.edu
• And last but not least, check out our visuals on Flickr:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/flcc-honors/

Have a GREAT semester and remember….stay curious!

All in a Day's Work - Guest Blogger

Vol 2. No. 29

All in a Day’s Work

Our Guest Blogger this week is FLCC’s Assistant Director of Marketing and Creative Services. She’s introducing the new Honors Studies online presence and giving insight into the “how and why” behind flcc.edu/honors

If you’re a current or future FLCC student, you probably don’t know me, but you’ve likely read A LOT of my words and seen A LOT of my work. I’m generally pretty anonymous around here, and yet, you and I have had something of a conversation going as you’ve read the different things I’ve written for the College. I have a long title, but it won’t really describe what I do or why it matters to you, so here’s a quick overview of my work instead:

• I created the printed publications that were mailed to your home to introduce you to FLCC when you first started making your college plans. From blank sheets of paper to what you held in your hand, I created those pieces. Same goes for a lot of the posters and handouts around campus, not to mention those fancy driveway banners you passed on your way onto campus.
• I played a major role in the FLCC commercials that you’ve seen on TV or on YouTube. (Shameless plugs: Find Your Fit , Find Your Path , and Find Your Future. Can you believe that we did all that with just a handful of FLCC employees, and we featured our actual faculty and students!? And I’m sure you noticed that Honors was highlighted, of course!).  
• I’ve played a pretty big role in the photos and written words on many of FLCC’s webpages, which you have certainly visited many times as you’ve navigated your college experience. From homepage banners to the nitty gritty about academic programs, I’ve crafted many of the words you’ve read on the FLCC website.

That last bullet is the one that matters the most to Honors fans today as we announce the launch of a completely revamped web presence for FLCC’s Honors Studies. In addition to unveiling the new webpages (and, honestly, bragging just a little bit), I’d like to give you a glimpse behind the curtain. It’s not everyday that I get to share our behind-the-scenes process with our web visitors!

Everything you see at flcc.edu/honors was the result of collaborative work between Trista Merrill (Director of Honors Studies), Chuck Woods (Web Services Coordinator), and me. As a trio, our individual workload ebbed and flowed as the project shifted from one phase to another, giving each of us the chance to really hone in on our unique contributions from our separate areas of expertise.

We kicked off the project with a fact-finding mission to collect as much information as possible about Honors. As we culled through the information, we organized data and created a roadmap for the webpages. Once we had a skeleton in place, we got to work fleshing it out with written content and photography. For me, this is really the fun part, especially with an area like Honors Studies. We know that intellectual exploration and self-reflection are at the heart of Honors Studies, so every word and every photo were intentionally selected; together, they illustrate the uniqueness of Honors Studies. Once the pages were created, our team of three reviewed and approved, made minor modifications, and launched the live pages.

Typically, that’s where web projects resolve. However, Honors Studies has always maintained a great social media presence, so we decided to incorporate the Honors Twitter, Facebook, Blogspot, and Flickr pages into our project, giving each of them the same look and feel as the new webpages for a cohesive web experience from the FLCC site to the various social media platforms. These makeovers were important in this project because we know that the Honors community is tightknit, and engagement isn’t limited to seminars; we know that Honors students and faculty continue their conversations online after the class adjourns, and social media is an important part of that connection.

The overarching goal of our project was to showcase the Honors experience, both through words and visuals. This meant not only describing the experience, but describing it in a specific way: it’s a conversation that we’ve started with the reader, tapping into their curiosity and desire to do more, learn more, and explore more. I hope that as you interact with these new webpages, you’ll agree that we’re reflecting the Honors values and paying homage to the Honors experience that we’ve heard about from so many different perspectives.

You already know that Honors Studies provides an unbelievable opportunity to engage with other learners, expand your learning, and explore both new and familiar topics in unexpected ways. Believe me, this isn’t an experience that you’ll find everywhere, so I hope that you’ll take full advantage of Honors during your time at FLCC, and I hope our new online presence will encourage other learners to delve into Honors Studies, too!

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