Horse of a Different Color

Vol 3 No 4

On Friday, I spent the day in Syracuse meeting with other SUNY Honors Directors and Administrators.  Our conversation covered many issues that Honors and Honors students are facing across SUNY.  Attendees came from all over the state - New Paltz, Brockport. Binghamton, Oswego, Albany, Delhi, Ulster, and MCC.  We shared struggles and concerns relating to enrollment, persistence, budgets, faculty and staff support, transfer, and completion.  I learned, or rather had reinforced, that many Honors students at numerous schools of differing degrees and demographics face many of the same issues.

One thing that came out of the meeting that may be of specific interest to some of you is that I have a meeting coming up in a few weeks with MCC and Brockport so we can talk about how us two-years and that specific four year can work together to help our students.  Not just with transfer, but also with developing intellectual scholarship and networking opportunities for Honors students regardless of what college they are attending or will attend.

Also in the realm of tangible items accomplished, I also developed a survey that will be going out to all current Honors-declared students as well as all students enrolled in an Honors course this semester.  You’ll see a variety of questions about your perceptions of Honors and the time you spend in the classes and your plans for the future.  I will use this information to help ensure that Honors at FLCC is serving its specific group of students.  And that leads me to the things I gathered that are less tangible, per se.

Similarities.  Shared experiences.

One thing that comes home to roost every time I talk with other Honors directors is that Honors must always work to serve the population of the college in which it is housed.  Every institution is so different from every other one that part of what I love about gatherings like this is that it forces me to rethink what we are doing and why.   We are so different from other Honors “programs” (first and foremost – we are not a program), and while that once made me feel self-conscious or that we were “doing it wrong”, that has since changed.  Now, I feel more and more strongly that Honors here is the way it is because of who are students are.

I also wrote an email to learn how I might hold workshops for our faculty so that we can have more Honors offerings taught by new Honors faculty.  New seminars and new discipline courses is an important part of the future of Honors at FLCC.  I think there’s at least a handful of faculty out there who want to teach Honors, but aren’t really sure how or even if they can within their disciplines.  (Yes, they can – we just need to work out HOW).

I don’t want to suggest that all the SUNY colleges have Honors that have nothing in common with one another, they absolutely do.  Especially in philosophy.  All Honors are built on developing interdisciplinary, reflective, lifelong learners.  It’s just the paths to get there can change.  Some welcome transfer students, some don’t.  Some require community service, and some do not.  Some are Honors Colleges within a larger university, some are programs that you need to apply for.  Some classes have Honors students sharing seats with non-Honors students.  Some require Honors theses, some have capstone projects.   They require anywhere from 9 to 26 credits of Honors and all have GPA requirements – though they range, too.

All struggle with funding and having the money they need to do things.  All feel understaffed and overworked.  All have some level of flexibility to work with students in different situations, particularly the community colleges.  All want to have stronger ties with their alumni and want to find more and more ways to fund initiatives that will help their students do more and achieve more.

But one thing was abundantly clear.

Every single one of the people there wants to find better ways to help their Honors students become everything they are capable of becoming and I am no different.

Like horses of different colors, we are the same in so many different ways.  Or different in so many of the same ways.

S18 Honors Convocation (Student Words)

Vol 2 No 27

It is rapidly becoming a tradition to have a member of the audience writer their perspective of the Honors Convocation.  Last semester, it was Emily White.  This semester, the reflection on the convocation comes to us from Jill Bond, dual major in Writing and Graphic Design, class of 2019.

The end of the spring semester is often equated with stress, finals, and upcoming graduation, but it is also the time for sharing the amazing work that is completed by Honors Studies students at Finger Lakes Community College. The First Annual Spring Honors Studies Convocation was held on Friday, May 4th, with the goal of sharing the work of Honors students with rest of the student body, staff, and faculty. Fact of the matter is Honors classes prompt the creation of fabulous work, whether it be psychological, artistic, or literary, but often times only the students and faculty that are involved in the class get to see what is researched, written, and created – but the convocation is here to help show off what happens in that cozy house across the street.


The Honors Convocation has two parts, both of which are student driven. The first is the creation of posters based upon the work that students are doing in their classes, whether it be a final research project, creative endeavor, or reflection. Six posters were created this year, five of which revolved around the Women Who Kill class and one that was crafted out of work completed in Introduction to Literature. These posters were then displayed outside Stage 14 between 10:00am and 5:30pm, where anyone and everyone had the ability to see them. At 3:00pm, several of the poster creators returned to the hallway in order to answer questions regarding their posters and the work that inspired their creation.

The second part of the convocation started at 4:00pm in Stage 14, where four students presented work from their respective Honors class. The first to present was Eli Lorah, who spoke of his experience in Women Who Kill, a class co-taught by Dr. Trista Merrill and Dr. Linda Ross. During his strong and beautifully constructed presentation, he explained that while he has really enjoyed the group dynamics and psychological aspect of the course, he has also learned so much about how to handle the complexities of our everyday lives – showing how Honors can teach students so much more than just course content, which resonated with everyone in the room.

The next student to present was Brianna Smith, who read her raw and well-written literacy narrative from her Introduction to Literature class. Working her way through a lifelong relationship with books and the worlds she escapes into, from when she couldn’t get enough of Harry Potter at the age of five, despite the fact she didn’t understand it, up through her college days where the worn spines of books feel like home, Brianna communicated a passion for writing and reading that struck the audience.

Blinne Kreiger followed suit, who also presented her work for Women Who Kill, but took it in a completely different direction. Starting with a short presentation on the Night Witches, who were the 588th Night Bomber Regiment in World War II, she discussed the history of these women and their influence on a variety of different artists. Next, she read and discussed two striking poems that she wrote based upon her research, the first written from the perspective of the Germans and the second from the perspective of the Night Witches themselves – both of which left the audience inspired and fascinated by her writing and topic at hand.

The final presenter was Vicki Ilyssa, who read a beautifully written memoir crafted for her Composition I course. With an emphasis on atmosphere, naturalistic descriptions, and metaphor, she highlighted different struggles and events in her life, all while revolving the literary piece around her relationship with a shrine near her childhood home, which is now a symbol of peace – ultimately leaving everyone in awe, and some in tears, at the eloquence and exquisiteness of the writing.

Looking back upon this event it is easy to say that it was a success because it allowed students to share what they were curious and passionate about with other students and faculty who are also passionate and curious. And what I found to be incredibly fascinating about the presentations and posters this year, was the sheer amount of breadth in ideology and content that was covered, despite the fact only three classes were represented. From poems, short stories, memories, narratives, and comic book covers, to reflections and research that mixes mythology, psychology, and literature, this years’ convocation truly shows how open Honors is when it comes to exploring what you are curious about.

So, thank you so much to the students who presented and created posters for The First Annual Spring Honors Studies Convocation, you have inspired us all! And thank you to everyone who came to support these students and their amazing work. Make sure to stop by next semester for the fall convocation, so you can be inspired too.

Mirror, Mirror....

Vol 1. No 16

One of the cornerstones of the Honors experiences is the reflection that happens along the way.  We talk about reflection all the time, but for those who are perhaps not familiar with the idea in connection with learning - what does reflection mean?    I mean, we know what a reflection is because we look in mirrors everyday and we comment on things like how beautiful it is when the sun reflects on the surface of a rippling lake.  But what does it really mean?

If we look back in time, we can learn that the word reflection comes from the Latin reflectere, which means "to bend backwards, turn away."  We can see this in our sun on the lake, for the light is bent back upwards from the water; however, that doesn't much help when we think about learning.  It becomes interesting to note that in the 1640's, reflection was understood to mean "remark made after turning back one's thought on some subject" (Read more at the Online Etymology Dictionary).  Now we are getting somewhere!

I've said in a number of Honors Studies talks that we seem to spend a lot of time in academia with disciplines firmly in place - you learn biology over here, and mathematics over there, and then you have English here, and sociology over there.  We are trying, at FLCC, to remove some of these barriers, by showing the interconnectedness of disciplines.  The college challenges students to make connections and Honors is part of that.

Reflection in Honors is about seeing connections in all sorts of ways.  It is the connection between different classes - from those in your program to the electives you chose.  It is the connection between yourself and your classmates and your instructor.  It's the connections between your college experiences and those in other arenas of your life.  It connections between your past, your present, and even your future.  It's thinking about how all of the facets of your life interact at any given moment.  It's turning back your glance to look at yourself and how you learn.  It's about appreciating the powers of your mind and what it can do.  It's about seeing where you fit into your world and where you want to fit.  It's about seeing what your limitations and obstacles are and how you can work on removing those.  In short, it's about better understanding yourself so that you can better understand the world around you.

If this seems like a daunting task, that is because it is.  Honors is not about throwing you into the deep end of the pool and hoping you learn to swim, however.  We want to help you start to make those connections and learn about who you are.  There are so many ways to do this and you'll find the approach to be a little bit different in every Honors class you take.  What you can always expect, however, is writing.  Sometimes at home, sometimes in class, sometimes in a combination activity that spans time spent in the classroom and some time spent elsewhere.  Sometimes you will be asked to go find another place to write and think.  Changing your environment can make a big difference in how you view the class and its content.

To show you what I mean, the following is an activity I use in my Perspectives on Tolkien class.  As you can see, it takes quotes from a shared reading and asks students to think about it - first in connection with the class content and then in relation to their journey as a learner in a larger context.  It makes the suggestion that how readers interact with a text is connected to events in the world around them and the frame of mind with which they approach the text.

What ways have YOU reflected on your learning and your place in the world?

***

First, read these four excerpts from Fuller’s essay:

·         “This is meaning…that the reader translates into appropriate analogies for his own life, if he is so minded:  as in the fact that courage and integrity, seen in any context, are enhancements and encouragements of those qualities wherever we have need of them” (19).

·         “[W]e are confronted basically by a raw struggle between good and evil.  This contest offers a challenge and demands decisions of several kinds.  The power of evil is formidable and ruthless.  The initial decision, in which many of the characters participate, is whether or not to attempt to resist it at all” (19).

·         “The intricacy of Tolkien’s web of cause and effect, of the interactions of motives and wills, natural and supernatural, is extraordinary and – notwithstanding the frame of fantasy – profoundly realistic” (24).

·         “It gives joy, excitement, a lift of spirits, and it contains the kind of wisdom and insight which, if applied to the world we inhabit, might help our sore-beset race to hang on through the present shadows of modern Mordor into yet another age” (30).

Now consider this:

Each of you came to this course with a love of Tolkien’s world, regardless of how you came to encounter it.  Though you have a shared love of the work, it is also true that you are each reading for something different and exploring with your own perspectives, interests, and experiences.  Whether this is your first reading or your hundredth, you are discovering new things and focusing on different aspects right along with celebrating old favorites.  In short, there is something new to be found for each of you.

Finally, write:

Choose a prompt that speaks to your place in the world right now and the frame of mind with which you are reading The Lord of the Rings.   Write a response in which you tie the quote you chose directly to a specific character or event in The Fellowship of the Ring or the first half of The Two Towers.  Then, push it one step further:  find where you fit in.  Why did you pick this quote?  What drew you to that character or scene in Fellowship / Towers?  How does this quote inform your reading of this first half of the trilogy?   How might this quote reflect you, your mindset, and the world in which you find yourself as you read the texts (this time)? 

Article:

Fuller, Edmund.  "The Lord of the Hobbits:  J.R.R. Tolkien."  Understanding the Lord of the Rings:  The Best of Tolkien Criticism.  Ed. Rose A, Zimbardo and Neil D. Isaacs.  Boston:  Houghton Mifflin, 2004.  16-30.  Print.