It's NOT Just a Comic Book!

Vol 3 No 6

Today!  Go to ComicCon and earn a point of Honors!  All you have to do is go and experience as much of ComicCon as you can, then write a 500 word reflective journal, then write a reflective essay at the end of the semester that draws from all the Honors events (or other learning experiences you have). 

For the journal, you just need to reflect on the experience you had.  You can look into and explore questions like these...

• · I am/was most excited to learn… I am/was most anxious about… 
• · The thing I am most curious or confused about is… 
• · My ideas about this event come from/are informed by… 
• · I hope to connect this to my academic/professional/personal life through… 
• · I’m interested in this topic because I want to find out… 
• · Probably the most compelling/disturbing/lingering question raised by this topic is…. 
• · Overall, the most meaningful/surprising thing I learned from this was… 
• · Identify and reflect on specific moments in which something significant occurred (a realization, an obstacle overcome, a setback encountered, etc.). 
• · What prior skills and experiences did you bring to the course/event which either helped or hindered your learning process or your participation? 
• · How did your initial preconceptions and expectations of the course or topic compare with what actually happened or what you learned? 
• · Describe your feelings and emotions about aspects of the course or event. When/about what did you feel most comfortable? Most uncomfortable? Why?

As you can see, these questions are designed to get you thinking about the event as a learning experience and as something that is worth exploring on a deeper level.  It also firmly places YOU in the event.  It challenges you to think a little bit about who you are and how you interact with the world around you.  These are the kinds of things that go through the minds of those who are passionate and curious about their learning, the world, and their place in it.

There is so much folded into the world of comics, superheros, and graphic novels that I think you just MIGHT be surprised by the depth and complexity they contain.  Go, explore, and then reflect...

If you want to earn that point of Honors, just contact me at trista.merrill@flcc.edu and I'll let you know what the prompt is for the reflective essay.  In the meantime, go forth and save the world!

For more information about ComicCon specifically - head over here.

Who are you, who are we?

Vol 2 No 30

Have you ever wondered who takes Honors classes?  I mean, you may have taken some and met some people - but what sort of person is attracted to these classes?  There's the topic, of course...that's definitely a draw.  But then, there's something else, too.  The Honors Studies student does not have a specific GPA or academic program or inclination.  The students who gravitate towards Honors Studies come from a variety of different walks of life, but they all share one thing in common:  curiosity.  The following is a scenario that many of our students find themselves as they enter into their Honor Studies experience.

It's the first day of class. You walk in to the familiar nervous silence that always accompanies the first day, but there's something different this time. First, everyone is sitting in a circle. You find a seat and sit, taking out a notebook and trying to casually appraise your classmates as you're sure they are doing the same with you. You expect the nervousness and awkwardness, but something feels different. There's an excitement in the room that you don't remember in your other classes. There's that same sense of waiting, but it feels eager and deeply curious. Everyone is impatient. You think about it for a minute and realize that you're feeling the same thing. But, why? The answer dawns on you in a moment of suppressed enthusiasm for the semester ahead.

Just like you, they all want to be here.

Thus begins your exploration into the world of Honors Studies. In these classes, you will experience all the joys and challenges of academics, but they will be driven by your own enthusiasm for learning, your own curiosity, and your own interest in the pathways of learning. Your classmates will share that same drive and excitement for the topic at hand, and your instructor's passion for it will match your own. This will be a shared journey of learning and self-reflection where you can celebrate who you are and who you might become. Along the way, you will be encouraged and expected to push yourself and your classmates through active participation and discussion. And it is our fondest wish that you will thrive here. This is a place where you can find the support you need to achieve your academic dreams, a place where you will be accepted and understood, and a place where we will help you reach your full potential as a learner.

Honors Studies: All you have to be is curious.

So, the Honors Studies student is one who is willing to take their education into their own hands, explore themselves and their learning as well as the content of their courses, and really delve into the academic and educational experience.  Honors Studies is a place where students will find community, camaraderie, challenge, and contemplation.  From math to psychology and English to music, the topics are wide and varied, and so are the faculty who teach the classes.

If you want a more specific demographic - well, that's a bit tougher.  What I can tell you though, is that you will often find students who ARE academically inclined.  You are also likely to find a fair number of students who have been home schooled.  And, for better or worse, you'll find students who have been called geeks and nerds, you may find the socially awkward or even those who are on the margins.  All of that, however, just feeds into the scenario above - these are students who WANT to be students, who are passionate about learning and will encourage YOU to be passionate, too.  They will accept and encourage your passion and enthusiasm and will support you in the exploration of it.  Because what you absolutely will find is a community and acceptance for who you are as a learner and as a person.

Seminars Matter

Vol 2 No 25

Lots of folks have begun to look at their classes for next semester and we are really excited about the Honors offerings. You heard a bit more about them at the Honors Studies dinner and can read the course descriptions on WebAdvisor, but that doesn't necessarily explain why you might want to take a seminar - or even what a seminar is or looks like.

So, why would you take a class that doesn't "do" anything other than fill a general elective? Part of that has to do with the other question. What IS a seminar?

Google's proprietary dictionary defines seminar as "a class at a college or university in which a topic is discussed by a teacher and a small group of students." Well, is that what a lot of classes at a college are? Perhaps just in between needed lectures, but still...that seems the heart of what college classes in general should be. The Online Etymology Dictionary has this to say:

"1887, "special group-study class for advanced students," from German Seminar "group of students working with a professor," from Latin seminarium "breeding ground, plant nursery" (see seminary). Sense of "meeting for discussion of a subject" first recorded 1944.

'Plant nursery' is a fascinating idea, but I'm not sure Honors Studies students are necessarily inclined to appreciate being compared to budding plants. But, it's getting a bit closer to the concept I'm aiming for when I think about what we mean by seminar. The first word there that stands out is 'special'. This is not to say that other classes for other students aren't special, but I firmly believe (and I admit I have a bias) that the special nature of Honors Studies seminars is more common than not. Far from being contradictory, this is really what I have observed and heard about the seminar experience. I often joke that if someone stuck their head into one of my Honors classes, they wouldn't necessarily be able to pick out the instructor compared to the students. That's more than just a joke - it's true. In the seminars more than in any other type of class, I'm sitting WITH students. There is now nothing in between them and I. We sit together as learners.

Now, I know that I can never fully erase my role as instructor with a suitcase full of grading and other responsibilities.  And I humbly lay claim to a little more expertise in general, given the number of years I've been in academia and studying whatever topic I've chosen, but to the extent that it is possible, I can learn from my students even as they learn from me.

Many of those who teach seminars do so because they want to research and dig more deeply into a topic about which they have an interest.  The thing about Honors Studies faculty (and many faculty in general) is that they have dedicated their lives to learning.  This is one of the ways they do so.  And this coming fall?  We have two amazing seminars coming that are the products of the passion, curiosity, and the enthusiasm of the instructors who are teaching them.

So, no...seminars might not fulfill a requirement in your degree (other than a general elective or a liberal arts elective), and perhaps there's nothing in them the connects to your program of study at all...but think larger than that.  There are few classes in any college anywhere where you will find a room full of people who truly chose to be there.  No one needs it, which means everyone wants it.  They don't necessarily come because they need the credit or the class or anything about it.  They come because they love the content of the course itself.  And that, my friends, is the best learning environment you will ever find.

This fall?

HON 200-90 : Games and Storytelling taught by Honors Studies Librarian, April Broughton.

HON 200-91 : Eat Me:  Food and Identity in American Culture, taught by Lori Vail of the Humanities department.

Come.  Learn.  Celebrate your own curiosity.  And, dare I say my little plants, grow.

Grab Your Things....

Vol 2 No 7

The following is a transcript of the words I used to open the Honors Studies Fall 2017 Dinner.  I hope you will enjoy these words....and perhaps next semester, you will join us.

Robert Frost once said that “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” Perhaps related to this is a song that has been stuck in my head for over a week now. The title or the rest of the song isn’t terribly important because it’s one line and one line only: “grab your things I’ve come to take you home…”

With those two quotes, I welcome you to the fall 2017 Honors Studies dinner.

Frost’s quote is a particularly valid one when we look at the admissions policies of a community college. We are an open admission institution, which means if students come here (and fill out the necessary paperwork), then we let them come. As a result, we get a wide range of students here from all walks of life with experiences that run the gamut from relatively uneventful to full of chaos and change. My colleagues will nod their heads when I say that as a faculty member, I’ve heard some stories that have broken my heart over the years. For every story of success, there seems to be a companion story of tremendous struggle and overcoming the odds. Paired with that, however, is the realization that what students find at FLCC, in general, is a place to belong and that belongingness is something they grow to appreciate more and more the longer they are here. The same is true for the faculty experience. I have found my 13 plus years here to be full of support and encouragement from my peers for myself and for our students. From senior faculty (of which I am now counted) when I first began here to the newer faculty who are keen to get involved in any initiative that centers on students, this truly is a community.

Honors Studies is no different and, like so many aspects of the Honors experience, it seems that we are an intensified version of what is found in the community of this college as a whole. My anecdotal experience is that those in Honors feel a little deeper, experience a little more profoundly, and are impacted a little more keenly as a whole than the entirety of the college around them. As a result, some of them come to us with the most heart-wrenching stories.

I recently asked two sets of Honors students to name one thing that scares them and the list was not what I expected. In those quick notes written in a manila folder, I learned that not only did they have powerful backgrounds and stories, but they were trusting enough to tell me what they feared. I expected to read things like spiders, or the dark, or confined spaces, or horror movies, or public speaking, and there were some of those, of course. What I did not expect to read was how many students were afraid of losing someone they loved or feared loneliness and solitude. I read about students being afraid of life, of oblivion, of death, of failure, of people, and of emotional turmoil. And the most popular answer among them all was that students were simply afraid of the future. This is a statement of our times, I think, and something many of us are feeling.

In other contexts, I’ve heard so many students in Honors tell stories of domestic violence, abuse, drug addiction, bullying, anxiety, depression, and unstable families. My heart breaks every time. There’s more that I could say, but I do not intend this talk to be a negative or troubling one…because all of the things I just recounted I tell you for only one reason, and that is to talk about the flip side of that. Because by whatever path those students took to arrive at this place where they tell me their dark stories, the point is that they have found a place to tell them. They have found belonging.

The way students talk about their Honors classes is as heart-warming as those other stories are heart-wrenching. Last year, a student took courage from class discussions to email Dr. Nye about her thoughts regarding the national climate following the election. Why? Because she “left these classes feeling closer to my professors and to my peers.” I had a black student stop after class just a couple weeks ago to thank me for talking about race issues in class because when she’d tried to do so elsewhere, she’d been silenced. When I asked a transgender student to tell me which pronoun he preferred, he told me that he has found more acceptance and tolerance here than he has in his own family. I’ve seen students in tears for the sole reason that we had reached the end of the semester and that chapter of their academic journey was ending. I once had a group of current Honors students pool their resources and send a box of clothing, gift cards, toys, and art supplies to a former Honors student they didn’t even know because she was a single mom who had fallen on hard times. I could go on and on from the little gestures of students supporting students and even when they reach out to me when they know I’m struggling with something myself. As much as curiosity is the brain of Honors; this is its heart.

My colleagues will attest that while we may see this in other classes as well, we almost always see it in our Honors classes. Honors students support each other and form friendships; they challenge each other and respect each other; they debate and discuss and celebrate intellectual curiosity even as they share a laugh and tease one another. They are eager to share their excitement about the work they are doing and they are quick to ask one another for input and guidance if they are stuck or at a loss. I’ve seen hugs and outreach on a level that I haven’t seen anywhere else. I can think of no other more powerful word to use than family; and anyone who has ever heard me talk about my own family will know that this is not a word I use lightly. And so, my friends, as we share a meal together in celebration of Honors, let us remember everything that it stands for. Honors is reflection, analytical inquiry, and intellectual curiosity, but it is also so many things that we do not assess as a college and cannot measure. It is where you belong. And so, my friends, grab your things….and welcome home.

New Old Words

Vol. 2 No 2.

So, what does the foundation of Honors look like?  In many ways, it's the same as it always has been:  reflection, inquiry, and collaboration in the pursuit of learning that lasts beyond the classroom and the institution.  But we feel that we've infused it with a few more words that capture the essence of what Honors at FLCC is and where it came from.

Curiosity.  Passion.  Engagement.  Challenge.  

So many who teach and learning in Honors Studies will tell you that it's not MORE work, it's different work.  But it's not just about 'work' - there are so many other words and things that you should know if the core of Honors Studies is something you seek to really understand.  From our mission, talked about last week, comes our learning outcomes.  These are the things we want students to have gained by the time they leave us and FLCC.  

• Students will be able to reflect on and evaluate their internal learning process
• Students will be able to analyze external connections among their own learning experiences
• Students will be able to articulate the value of intellectual pursuit in a scholarly tradition

Can you see them?  Those same ideas of reflection, new modes of learning, inquiry, and intellect.  There are some parts that might look or sound new, though they are really not.  We've just found new ways to say them.  And we made sure that the things that we hold as the heart of Honors Studies link to the FLCC Values.   It wasn't hard to do - they overlap and inform each other in so many exciting ways.

Vitality is reflected with all three of our learning outcomes in Honors Studies, most readily with the third one.  Exploring scholarly tradition really encourages us see how the concepts and content of a course exist outside the classroom in complex ways.  Within the classroom, the second learning outcomes leads Honors Studies students to explore their learning in a collective context, while self-evaluation (in the first learning outcome) is directly linked to well-being.  We have to look to ourselves to engage in self-care at all levels - emotionally, physically, intellectually, and even spiritually.

We find interconnection most obviously in the second learning outcome where you will be directly challenged to find connections among learning experiences.  The first learning outcome hopefully leads to us realizing that our internal selves is what connects all the arenas of our lives and the one thing over which we have the most control.  Internal reflection also encourages you to connect with other students as well as faculty and staff. Meanwhile, the third learning outcome highlights that a discipline is a community of scholars and the conversations of the classroom are just one facet of conversations going on all around us.

All of the Honors Studies learning outcomes require perseverance.  Our emphasis on analysis, reflection and scholarship requires the continual push against intellectual, emotional, and circumstantial barriers.

Similarly, reflection, evaluation, analysis, and scholarship are based squarely in inquiry.  When students meet the three Honors Studies learning outcomes, they demonstrate the ability to pose questions and utilize endurance to pursue the answers.

So, there you have it.  The events, courses, and experiences you have in Honors Studies is so much more than just 'fun classes' that are taught in a different way.  We've put so much work in behind the scenes so you could have these experiences and we hope that you find just as much value in them as we do.  We also couldn't do ANY of this without you.

“It is only once in a blue moon that you are able to honestly say the experience of a classroom has changed your outlook on life. This course was one of my blue moons.”

-Amber

The Path of Honors

Vol. 1 No. 21

The following is the speech given by Denise Button at the Honors Graduation and Awards Ceremony held on May 10, 2017.  Denise has graduated (with 21 credits of Honors) and will be attending the University of Buffalo in the fall to study Business Administration with a focus on International Business.  Her words, as you will see, are powerful.

To all our graduates, congratulations.

First, I would like to start off by congratulating each of the honors students for all of the hard work that we have done to get to this point. 

I think that especially at a community college, it is a struggle sometimes to get through the semester between work, school, and figuring out our new place in this world.  College is a place where you get to decide who you want to be and how you want to get there.  And we all made the choice to be here, not just in college, but in honors.  When you started school and the honors program, you made a promise to yourself to work hard and earn not just an associate’s degree, but either an honors diploma or certificate. 

Once that promise was made, that meant that we had to commit to that promise and everything that it entailed – which meant going into the unknown.

Trying something new, whether it be in college, honors, or life in general means taking a risk.  And it takes courage to take risks, to be brave enough to embrace who each one of us are, and to share that with the world.  I know that when I first started attending FLCC that I was scared.  I was scared of the normal things that most people are, such as: how to afford school, how to juggle all of my many responsibilities while making new friends, and figuring out how to fit in all the other thing that I’m passionate about.  But I was also scared that I wouldn’t do as well in college as I had in high school and that maybe, just maybe, I would discover that college just wasn’t for me.   

But when I applied to FLCC, one of the first people I talked to was Trista Merrill.  I had messaged her because I needed to take an ENG 101 class, but was confused because I had noticed that one of the classes was designated as “honors”.  I didn’t know what being in “honors” meant so, after emailing back and forth with Trista, she encouraged me to try honors.  So I did.  I didn’t just learn about English from Trista, but she got me excited to go to class, and to be in school.  We all think that school can be dull, boring, or monotonous, but this wasn’t my experience in the honors program.  The learning was involved and even fun.  Yes, I learned the material, but I also learned more about myself as a person.  Honestly, some of the best classes that I have taken here at FLCC, were honors.  Honors isn’t just about hard work, but connecting with others and investing in one’s self.

I’m sure that most of us are moving on from FLCC and either continuing our education or going out into the work force.  I think that each of us will soon be able to see just how much hard work pays off.  Because each of us has earned an honors distinction that will separate us from our peers in a way that says “Hey, I didn’t just go to college, but I was also willing and dedicated to take on extra work along the way.”  This experience in college and in the honors program is something that no one can take away from you.  You have made an investment in yourself and your future.

 

And I’m sure that if you’ve had any similar experiences as I have, sometimes you get stressed and overwhelmed.  I think that we have all gotten to a point in a semester when we realize that – “I’m not doing as well as I want to this semester”.  Once you get to this point and soon realize that if you want to continue on the path that you have set for yourself, the only choice you have is to push through this feeling.  And most importantly, that it’s okay to fail and to be disappointed.  Success is a terrific thing.  But how do you get there?  The moments that define you, your character, your strength, are the moments when all you want to do is cry and give up, but you don’t.  Those defining moments when you choose to not accept failure, but to move on and keep working at your success is why you are here today. 

Not only that, but your professors probably didn’t let you give up either.  I know that without my professors here at FLCC, I wouldn’t have been able to handle going to school and juggling all of my other responsibilities.  But I always went to my professors when I knew I needed help.  My professors were more than my teachers in academics, they were teachers in life.  When I needed help, I knew that I could always turn to my professors, especially to my honors professors because I knew that I would be met with understanding and a true concern for me as a student and an individual.  So I would like to congratulate each of you again for being here.  But I would also like to thank all of the honors professors and Trista for dedicating your time to teaching and helping each one of us and reach our true potential.  Without you, we wouldn’t be here today.     

      

The Heart of Honors

Vol 1., No. 9

We live in a world that seems more and more contentious and intolerant if all the negative stories that cross our paths are to be believed.  I’m not sure about the world as a whole, but I know that there are points of light no matter where you go and FLCC is no different.  November is upon us, and it often brings with it a nod towards things about which we are thankful.  I’m thankful for the moments I observe as a professor; moments that are perhaps far more telling than perhaps the people involved even realize.  So, sit back and meander through an eighty minute class of mine wherein I witnessed four vignettes of student interaction that have stuck with me.  There are more, but I really like these four and I think they say a lot about the students involved and the kind of environment classes can create.  I doubt I need to say that it was an Honors course, but it was. This is not to say that I don’t think these kinds of stories exist all across our campus and beyond, because I believe they do.  In my experience, however, it is in the Honors classrooms where I see these heartwarming stories more often.

“Pardon”

In a moment of waiting for some as others finished up in-class work, one student stood up to draw on the board.  She went to caption her illustration and asked her classmates how to spell a word.  One said, “really?!” in a sort of disbelieving way and she immediately turned around and said, “Hey, I have dyslexia, shut up.”  These last two words were said in a congenial sort of way and without any malice.  The first student asked if she really was and when she told him she was, he said sincerely, “I didn’t know, pardon” and then proceeded to goofily (and obviously) misspell the word for her.  This moment struck me for several reasons. First – a student with documented learning disabilities was enrolled in a 200-level English Honors class.  Second – she was comfortable enough with her classmates to admit this without embarrassment or apology.  Third – her classmate immediately apologized and then carried on as if she were just another classmate.  Because she was.

“I tried”

Another student in the class has near-crippling anxiety when it comes to speaking in class and especially when presenting.  She never refuses to do it, but it is occasionally very painful to watch her suffer, near tears, with whatever is asked of her.  On this day, she had to describe a classmate’s project to the rest of the class, who could clearly tell she was struggling.  Several students offered suggestions – including to put on sunglasses.  She did this, but then had to take them off because they were too dark for her to see what she was reading.  The student who made the suggestion said he tried, and he sounded sincerely disappointed that it didn’t work.  With a few more words of encouragement, they all then listened as she spoke in her shaky voice which kept giving out.  When she was done, there were several nods and smiles of support, and then the class just carried on, leaving her to settle and regain her calm as if that were the most normal thing in the world.  Because it is.

“Third person”

A third student in that same class is transgendered and just this semester, he came out as such.  It has been an adjustment for those who know him, of course, and a terrifying journey for him as well.  I don’t think everyone in the class knows yet, because it generally isn’t the kind of thing that you announce in a classroom setting.  There are some who know, however, and so a casual comment took on a much more meaningful depth when I put him in a group with another male of the same name.  There were comments about them being ‘Name Squared’ and whatnot, but when the other student was commenting on his classmate’s project, someone in the class piped up and said ‘You sound like you’re talking in the third person’ and that was just such a casual and flippant sort of comment until you realized what it actually entailed.  Students accepted their classmate who was transitioning and treating the flipped pronoun as if it were no big deal.  Because it shouldn’t be.

“Make it brighter”

The last vignette involves me.  I had a rough couple of hours before I headed into class that day and, had I not cancelled the class the week before for a personal reason, I probably would have cancelled it that day.  So, I walked in, settled into the room and someone asked me how I was.  For whatever reason, I decided to tell them I’d have a rough day.  Without missing a beat, one of the students said, “Well, let’s see if we can make it a little brighter for you, doctor.”  As if it were no big deal.

But it was.  Time and time again, students in Honors classes form a bond with one another and with their instructor.  Not that they pry or force intimacy where there is none, but I’m sure my fellow Honors faculty will agree with me when I say there is an Honors community that is unlike any other kind of class I’m used to teaching.  Except when I model them on my Honors courses.  There’s something about the Honors approach – the curiosity, the enthusiasm, the passion – that encourages students to let down some of their guard, to acknowledge and work with and around difference, to support and encourage each other, to raise each other up and to create a real learning environment.   They celebrate one another and value one another and, in turn, are valued themselves.  Not as just another face in just another classroom, but as fellow traveler on an intellectual journey. 

It is one of the most satisfying and amazing observations to make as an instructor, because I am only one small part of a much larger being born of synergy and shared experience, and a genuine love of learning.

That…is Honors.

“We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls” – Anais Nin

Honors Happenings

Vol 1. No. 8

It’s been a crazy week with advising and the spring semester on everyone’s mind along with the ending of the semester looming and Hallowe’en getting everyone excited.  I’ve been working hard on getting ready for next semester – soon you will see posters appearing around campus for ALL the Honors courses in the Spring as well as ones for my own Alice in Wonderland course.  I’ve been talking to various faculty about coming to guest lecture in that class and so far Tim Biehler, Linda Ross, Robert Brown, April Steenburgh, Mary Murphy, Derrick Gentry, and Liz Brownell have all shown interest in doing a repeat performance of their work last time I taught this class.  I have a couple of other folks to come chat as well.

I know that Dr. Brown in the Social Science department is creating a pamphlet to advertise courses in his area, and you should see Brian Bell’s presidential class there.  We should see other posters and things popping up as well.  If you haven’t already guessed, Honors faculty are extremely excited about their own classes as well.  It’s a strange time to get excited about next semester when we are in the throes of this one, but that curiosity and enthusiasm we always talk about is infectious. 

Remember – to find ALL Honors courses for the spring, just select HON from the WebAdvisor pull down menu and that will give you everything from the seminars to Honors in the Disciplines.

Speaking of energy, it was amazingly high and contagious at the Honors dinner as well.  For a first time event, I think it was wonderfully successful and I can’t wait to begin planning for a repeat performance in the spring.  We had 40 or so students there, plus a number of Honors faculty and supporters.  We heard from President Nye, Provost Fragnoli, and the interim AVP of Instruction, Cassy Kent.  We also heard from the faculty teaching some of the more specialized classes and Vera Whisman even got us to think about gender influences things as ‘innocent’ as how we sit.  One of the best parts of the evening was when current Honors students stood up and shared their thoughts with those in attendance.  I had no idea what they would say, and I must say that I was thrilled to hear them talking about all the same things I think of when I think about Honors myself.  Special thanks to Nick Lathrop, Erin Oakley, Megan Scicchitano, and Luke Martin for talking about their experiences from a student perspective.  Speaking of student perspectives, within a blog or two, we will hear from Noel Scouten, who is going to guest blog about her experience with working on an Honors contract this semester in ENG 102 – Introduction to Literature.

We have some big announcements coming soon, but I have to get a couple of meetings taken care of first.  But, keep in mind that big things are coming for Honors and I hope you will be excited as we are about what is to come.

We might even be able to sell T-shirts!  Those were a huge hit!  :D

Stay curious!

“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision” – Dalai Lama