California University of Pennsylvania Honors Program Fall 2017
SHAB UPDATE
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GRADUATES
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ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS PAGE 6
University Honors Program News APPETAMUS ADFUTURUM FUTURUM - “Let us strive together for the fuAPPETAMUSCOMMUNITER COMMUNITER AD - “Let us strive together for the future.”
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SHAB Update Changing Things up With the Community Involvement Award By Lindsay Kastroll
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ith the advent of the new Community Involvement Award, your Student Honors Advisory Board is upping the ante on the amount of social events we are offering. We’ve been listening to students’ suggestions over the past few years and know that our students are looking for more casual affairs, like group trips to
sporting events and game nights. So, on top of our monthly service socials and the Honors Movie Nights, we have added more relaxed social gatherings for our students to hang out and get to know each other. This semester, we’ve hosted a group trip to Underground Café, a game night, a visit to the rock wall, among others. We had a wonderful turnout to each of these events and consider them all to be successes. The game night in particular was very fun
and resulted in new friendships between students. Our hope with these new events and the new Community Involvement Award was that the Honors community would become closer-knit and more energetic, and it seems like we’re on our way to those goals. If you have any ideas for new Honors social events, please contact Lindsay Kastroll (kas6112@calu.edu) or Jelist Chawchang (cha8545@calu. edu).
Newsletter Staff Editors
Zoe Scripter Ally Wilson
Contributors
Lindsay Kastroll Thomas Caton Samantha Wolf
Honors Program News
Honors Program Staff
Director- Dr. M. G. Aune Associate Director- Dr. Craig Fox
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HON 270: A Freshman’s Perspective Freshman Gives An Overview of New Class By Thomas Caton
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was asked to write a brief article about the HON 270 course I am currently taking this semester. HON 270 is a course entitled Global Transitions since 1300, for those of you who are not aware. The course covers many topics surrounding the subject and discovery of time. This course is taught to us by Dr. Swarn Gill. He teaches us all about time, how it was discovered, and how time has evolved over the centuries. Dr. Gill is a very interesting and fun professor to learn from.
After only being in the course for a few weeks, we have learned so much new and exciting information we probably would have never imagined of hearing. I like how Dr. Gill knows his information and facts about time. He is very eager to start every class. What I like best about the class is how Dr. Gill ties fun in with learning. To some, this course would seem extremely boring or extremely fascinating. I find it fascinating due to the fact that time has evolved so thoroughly over the centuries. There are many versions of clocks. There is the water clock, pendulum clock, sand clocks, sundials, wrist watches, pocket watches, etc.
With so many versions of clocks, it is no wonder why time has evolved and changed so much! We went on a field excursion to the National Clock and Watch Museum this November. The museum is located 3.5 hours away from Cal. We learned all about clocks and even got the opportunity to fix a clock and keep it as a souvenir as well! This course was very interesting and I enjoyed it.
HON 320: Elements of Fascism Fascism in a Rhetorical Perspective By Laura Purkey
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opics in Self and Society started for me as a sort of fumbling in the dark, but as reassured, there would come a turning point. In the first half of the semester, we have examined elements of fascism to determine prevailing characteristics. We looked at the success of Mussolini’s fascist regime in Italy, and inspected not only why it was such, but how certain fascist ideologies were “put into discourse”. We then delved into the heart of the class, studying fascism from a rhetorical
perspective. Currently, we are moving to develop our own rhetorical criticism of a feature of American culture that exhibits one or more fascist characteristics. It is beneficial to note that this does not only examine fascism as a political system or policy, but also as a configuration of ideologies which can be seen in virtually any aspects of culture—from clothing to cartoons. ed heavily by discussions and an always enthusiastic Dr. Spicer, the course interestingly builds upon students’ own ideas and we are persuaded to learn from one another. In the second half of the semester, I look
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Honors Program News
forward to further developing a rhetorical eye. As we learned early on, “Linguistic habits are frequently important symptoms of underlying feelings” (Umberto Eco). In Topics in Self and Society, it is our exciting task to observe and explain such habits and what they signify.
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Graduating Seniors
Andrea I. Ceja Dr. Emily Sweitzer Honors Thesis: Vilifying the Marginalized: An Interdisciplinary Study of Drug Use and Drug Criminalization in the United States Laken S. Ganoe Dr. Carol Bocetti Honors Thesis: An Evaluation of Capture Methods and Habitat Preference of Fisher (Pekania pennant) in Clarion County, PA Anne M. Groover Dr. Louise Nicholson Honors Thesis: Examining the Effects of Natural Dietary Supplements on Fat Metabolism in the Fruit Fly, Drosophilia melanogaster
Honors Program News
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Congratulations to all those who attended NCHC this semester! Students: Amanda Andrews Natalie Reichard Samantha Zimmerman Brynna Sherony Adam Andresen Lindsay Kastroll Bryan Moore Hannah Kovscek Laken Ganoe Amanda Sloan Ivy Savidge Jelist Chawchang
Faculty: Dr. Craig Fox Dr. M.G. Aune
Honors Program News
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Alumni Interview Interview With 2013 Graduate By Samantha Wolf
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mma Geiger graduated from Cal U’s Honors Program in May 2013, with degrees in Special Education K-8 and PreK to Grade 4 Education. When attending Cal U, Emma spent a lot of time participating in Honors Conferences her freshman year. After graduating from the university, Emma was accepted into joining the Teach for America program. After joining Teach for America, Emma moved to Atlanta, Georgia to start teaching in DeKalb County Schools. She was hired at Dresden Elementary, teaching special education classes with third and fifth graders. Once Emma’s two-year commitment with Teach for America was up, she continued to stay at Dresden Elementary. She enjoyed working with the students at the elementary school and decided to stay with them because she cared about the school and community there. During Emma Geiger’s third year teaching (2015-2016 academic year) at Dresden Elementary, she spoke out about the overcrowding at the school and asked for rezoning and desegregation. The schools in the cluster, including hers, were majority Hispanic and overcrowded. Due to the efforts of many faculty and community members speaking out, plans were put in place to ease the overcrowding until new elementary schools could be
built. Rezoning would also then be discussed, once new schools were built. Currently, Emma Geiger was recently hired by the West York Area School District, as a fifth-grade learning support teacher for reading and writing. Emma is so excited to be moving closer to home and family, in Pennsylvania. Emma plans to stay with teaching in elementary education. She plans to get her Master’s degree, but still looking into the best program and specialty that is right for her. However, she does not see herself going into the administration department, but would be interested in training and teaching other adults. Emma says that the best part about her job is being about to work and help students. As a past Honors Program student, Emma Geiger, states that the
Honors Program News
University Honors Program helped her challenge herself. She completed most of her courses through addendums, helping her be able to learn more about areas of her interest. She chose classes she would be interested in and worked out completing a project where she was able to apply the concepts from the courses to the project. Even though most of her classes were completed through addendums, Emma thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Aune’s Composition II class that focused on Shakespeare. Dr. Aune helped Emma gain a better understanding and appreciation on Shakespeare.
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Honors Movie Night Join in our Movie Fun Weekly By Bryan Moore
Honors Movie Night began
as the Honors Film Society and was established last year by nowalumni Jared Sofranko (2017), with a vision of creating a space in which Honors students could continue to watch and discuss films together outside of a classroom setting. The Film Society would meet once a week and watch a variety of movies, from docudramas like The Social Network to auteur classics like Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. Once Jared graduated, he left care of the Film Society in the hands of myself and UHP Senior Brad Britvich, with the hope that we would continue to show and discuss films that were worth discussing. While Brad and I valued the core group of students who regularly attended meetings, we felt the club could use a rebranding; the title of “Film Society,” to us, felt a little pompous and stuffy, and was counter-productive to the fun
and casual atmosphere we tried to create. This semester, the Honors Film Society was renamed Honors Movie Night, and with the new name came a new attitude toward the films we would show. This semester, we’ve played more mainstream films like Beetlejuice and The Breakfast Club, as well as a block of horror movies for Halloween, including films like The Babadook and The Witch. We hope to appeal to a larger audience with our film selections while still maintaining the integrity of playing “discussion-worthy” movies. Thus far, however, attendance has been rather low; movie nights average about ten students per night and are almost entirely UHP freshmen. For the rest of this year, Brad and I hope to reach out to older UHP students and widen our weekly audience, and we hope to attract any Honors Program cinephile that could potentially run the club
once the two of us graduate. If you’re interested in attending Honors Movie Night, we meet most Wednesday evenings in the Smith Honors classroom at 8:00 PM. Keep and eye out for our posters and emails announcing our movie pick for the week. We hope to see you Wednesday!
Some Advice From Former UHP Student: Ali Where I am now... you can do it! By Ali Dodson Ali Dodson graduated from the Cal U’s Honors Program in Fall 2013. She received a dualdegree in elementary and special education. Ali is currently working as an art and special education teacher at Bedford
Area Middle School in Bedford, PA. She primarily teaches art to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. Ali also teaches a reading life skills support class, to students with moderate to severe disabilities, several times a week. Ali says that her favorite memory from the Honors Program was
the trip to Paris that she attended, along with other Honors students, to the ABCDE World Bank Conference. She never imagined having the opportunity to see such an amazing European city. Ali Dodson also enjoyed being a member of SHAB and planning several social events, like ugly sweater parties and sundae Continued on page 9..
Honors Program News
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NCHC 2017 Fun at the Honors Conference in Atlanta, Georgia By Brynna Sherony From November 8th to the 12th I had the opportunity to travel with 11 other University Honors students as well as Dr. Aune and Dr. Fox to the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia and present a poster entitled “The Future of the E.U.”. I always forget how exhausting conferences are because all I remember is the fun. Traveling with fellow classmates, presenting on research that you have worked hard on, experiencing and eating your way through a new city, and meeting other students who are having a similar experience are just a few of the highlights. This was the third major conference that I have attended while at Cal, but my first time presenting a poster. I had the fear that few
people would stop by my poster, and those that did would be overly critical and I would not be able to provide sufficient answers to their questions. Of course, my poster session was not until the second to last day of the conference, so I could have been worrying about it the entire time. Thankfully I filled my days by going to other presentations and learning about research that other students have done as well as how other honors programs function. In our free time we had the opportunity to explore the city, which is famous for hosting the Centennial Olympics, and being an avid player in the fight for civil rights. When the day finally came the first person to approach my poster was from Europe and asked, “why do
Honors Program News
you think that?” after just about everything I said. I received lots of positive feedback from her as well as everyone else who wanted to hear about my research. I talked with roughly a dozen people over two hours and was able to have an intelligent conversation with each of them. Although my poster did not win any prizes, another senior from Cal U, Laken Ganoe, won first prize in the Environmental Sciences category for her poster “Feasibility of Remote Mark-Recapture Methods on Fisher (Pekania pennati) in Clarion County”. All in all, it was a successful trip, and I highly encourage my fellow students to submit their hard work to conferences.
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Continued from page 7 nights. Ali enjoyed reading and discussing Shakespeare, as part of Dr. Aune’s Honors Comp II class, as well as attending a play at the University of Pittsburgh. Lastly, what she remembers, most of all, was the friendships she formed with other Honors students. The Honors Program has helped Ali, a lot, with her first career. Ali states that her thesis about using technology with students with autism helped her get her first special education job. During her interview for her job, she was able to draw her experiences from her thesis. In
addition to the Honors Program being helpful with her career, the research emphasis in the Honors Program has been very helpful when completing her master’s classes. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in education. Her advice to current students in the Honors Program would be to “FINISH IT!” She stated that many of her friends have “dropped out” of the program right before graduation, by not completing their thesis, and now are regretting it. The thesis project was something that she can look back on, and be proud of. Another piece of advice that
Ali has is to get involved with events and get to know other students in the program. Ali has met one of her best friends through the Honors Program. Ali enjoys keeping up with alumni and the Honors Program, as she looks forward to reading the newsletter. She enjoys seeing what amazing things students are up to and the opportunities the UHP provides. She also loves following Cal U Honors Program on Instagram, seeing the fun socials, movie nights, and get-togethers that the students organize.
Contact Us Phone: 724-938-4535 or 724-938-1544 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/calu.honors Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caluhonors E-mail: honors@calu.edu
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