The
ENDEAVOR
Newsletter of the Oklahoma City University Honors Program
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Director’s Corner
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Student Professional Introduction
4 Honors Student Council Update 5
Class of 2021
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Student Spotlight
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NCHC Atlanta
Pictured: Gold Star Building, home of the OCU Honors Program
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Fall 2017
Director’s Corner elcome to our semi-annual newsletter, The Endeavor, where we share recent news and events from the Oklahoma City University Honors Program. What a great fall we’ve had! In August, we welcomed in a brand new cohort of honors freshmen, who participated in our two-day orientation program at the beginning of Stars Week 2017. This fall’s cohort includes freshmen from 13 different states representing 15 different majors from across campus. You can see more about their orientation activities on page 5. We’re also very excited to welcome Sammi Bronow, a business major from Ellicott City, Maryland, as our new Student Honors Assistant Director. Sammi will play a central role in managing the Honors Office and assisting with communications. Learn more about Sammi on page 3. In our September meeting, the University Honors Committee approved a new mission statement for the Honors Program, one that is updated to align more carefully with the university’s new strategic plan and to capture our current ideals and aspirations for the program. We are happy to share it with you here: The Oklahoma City University Honors Program advances the university’s mission to create a culture of excellence through a rigorous, interdisciplinary program for intellectually motivated students. Successful completion of the program marks a significant academic achievement that will help students develop their full potential. The program’s collaborative learning environment aims to strengthen both the breadth and depth of student learning through enhanced educational experiences in the general education curriculum and the major field that encourage: • A spirit of critical inquiry, exploration, and discovery • An awareness of and appreciation for cross-disciplinary exchange and problem-solving • A tolerance for ambiguity, development of emotional intelligence, and respect for diversity of opinions • A commitment to the highest standards of undergraduate research and scholarship • A life-long pursuit of knowledge and wisdom in service to local and global communities
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Student Professional Introduction
New Honors Student Professional: Sammi Bronow Hi everyone, my name is Sammi Bronow and I am the new Student Assistant Honors Director. I am a junior economics major and I am involved in several organizations on campus, from Students of Arts Management to Gamma Phi Beta to, of course, the honors program. As Student Professional, I serve as a liaison between students and faculty, sit on Honors Student Council and the Honors Committee, write The Endeavor, and cover miscellaneous day-today operations. I have loved my first semester as StuPro, and I am excited to continue to work to make the honors program the best it can be! If you ever have questions about anything honors-related, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Go Honors!
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HSC Update
ello, Honors students! I hope everyone has been having a wonderful year so far! Honors Student Council will continue to work on creating interesting Friday Forums and will be planning a fun Spring Enrollment party and End-of-the-year party as well. We will also be working to create a survey in order to find out what times events work best for you, that way we can plan forums, events, and parties during times that are tailored to fit the busy schedules we all have. In addition to the survey, we will be working to create some school-based Friday Forums that are designed to present topics that are tailored to different disciplines and majors. As always, be on the look-out for our advertisements for all of the different events that will arise in the future. Hope to see you around! Thank you, Joshua Hertz Honors Student Council President 4
Class of 2021 Honors Class of 2021 The Honors Program is proud to welcome its new freshman cohort. This year’s class boasts 37 students from all over the country who are pursuing a variety of majors. These students are quickly becoming immersed in OKCU culture and are already involved in many organizations across campus. The class of 2021 moved in to school a week early to get settled in and attend several honors-sponsored events. For the second year in a row, honors orientation was planned and led by a group of upperclassmen who serve as peer mentors for groups of 7-9 freshman honors students. This year, students participated in a scavenger hunt and went to Escape OKC. The peer mentor program has continued to be a huge success, and the mentors will continue to support and advise their mentees throughout their first year at school. Everyone in the Honors Program is excited to build relationships with the freshman class and wishes them a great first year.
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Student Spotlight Student Spotlight: Laura Jardine Laura Jardine is a senior biology major, honors student, and President of TriBeta. She is also a member of Alpha Chi Honor Society and Pi Kappa Phi Honor Society. This summer, she traveled to Alaska as part of the Polaris Project, where she spent two weeks studying permafrost thaw. What inspired your interest in the field of climate change? I’ve done a lot of research through OCU and then gotten a lot of research jobs from what I’ve done at OCU. I love working outside, and this internship came up and I hadn’t really done anything with climate change specifically, but it was something I was interested in and didn’t know a lot about, so I jumped at the opportunity and got the job [with the Polaris Project]. How did you feel about being featured in a recent New York Times article? What kind of response did you receive from that? We knew that we were going to get an article in the Times because we had a reporter out there with us for a few days in the field. We thought it would be in the science section, and then this big thing shows up in the news one morning and we’re in the Times, and I open it up and my face shows up! That was super surreal because then it was the front of The New York Times the next day. It was awesome exposure about climate change, and it got published in a bunch of other newspapers. It was weird… someone sent me the Times of India that had my face in it and I was like “What is this?!” What is one thing you wish people knew about climate change? Related to what I did, there are so many feedbacks. I think that a lot of times people think that climate change is just that we’re throwing carbon into the atmosphere because of the pollution that we’re putting off, but there are a lot of feedbacks that we’re causing because of that. What I studied was permafrost thaw, which is a result of climate change, but it’s also a huge contributor to climate change because it will release just as much carbon in the next hundred years that we’ll release from pollution. It’s pretty scary that we’re starting these new cycles.
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What are the biggest challenges of studying climate change? For me, the challenge and the most motivating thing is that it’s so scary. I get this data from these samples I collected in Alaska and its scary data about how much carbon dioxide has been respired from it, and it’s terrifying. You have to live with looking at that data on a regular basis and realize that this is terrible and think, what are we doing as a species? At the same time, I look at that data and I want to go find out more. We need to know more because we still don’t know a lot. Why do you think some people are hesitant to accept that climate change is a reality? I think in America, in the continental 48 especially, we’re privileged to live in a place where we can do fine in a changing climate at this point. But, I don’t think we’re faced with the fact that it’s going to get a lot worse very quickly, and it’s already a lot worse. In Alaska, we went to this village called Bethel, which is home to 6,000 people. With their houses, they’re having to adjust the foundations every year now because of the ground thawing. The roads are horrid— they’re super bumpy and you can’t go more than 20 miles per hour on them because of the ground thawing. So, in some places, it’s already a very dark reality. How do you plan to further your research following graduation? I’m taking a few years off from school and I’m going to work in environmental consulting to learn more about the government side of protections. I hope to go back to grad school eventually and study how permafrost thaw affects our ecosystems and how those will affect the globe as a whole.
NCHC Atlanta NCHC 2017: Just Honors On November 8-12, honors students Sammi Bronow, Valerie Gose, Joshua Hertz, Vlad Izda, Tammy Phillips, Mallory Scheidel, Carolann Stout, and Emily Wollenberg traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, along with Dr. Karen Youmans and Dr. Erik Heine to attend the 52nd annual National Collegiate Honors Conference. Honors directors, educators, and students alike attended workshops and master classes, presented research, and participated in roundtable discussions. The theme of this year’s conference, “Just Honors,” focused on social and racial inequalities in society and how honors students can work to combat these issues, foster justice, and increase diversity. Keynote speakers such as Ken Polite and Bryan Stevenson delivered powerful messages about their experiences with these issues, the flaws of the U.S. judicial system, and ideas for improvement. The conference created an environment of idea exchange and inspiration for growth and improvement in the honors community. OCU presentations included:
Valerie Gose- The Effects of Music Education on Students with Disabilities Dr. Karen Youmans, Dr. Erik Heine, Sammi Bronow- Undergraduate Research Days: Opportunities and Challenges of Undergraduate Research across the Disciplines
Mallory Scheidel, Carolann Stout, Emily Wollenberg- Drama master class and performance
Emily Wollenberg, Mallory Scheidel, Carolann Stout, Dr. Erik Heine, Josh Hertz, Sammi Bronow, Vladislav Izda, Valerie Gose, Tammy Phillips
(left to right, back row then front row): Dr. Erik Heine, Emily Wollenberg, Valerie Gose, Joshua Hertz, Sammi Bronow, Vladislav Izda, Dr. Karen Youmans, Mallory Scheidel, Tammy Phillips, Carolann Stout
Carolann Stout, Emily Wollenberg, Mallory Scheidel
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