An Honors Community Writer Emma Bittner Designer Emma Bittner Fostering a sense of community on campus can be difficult. You’re in a new place, with thousands of new people. You’re trying to figure out what you want to do with your life and now you have to find where you belong --- it's overwhelming. For many people, this sense of community is found in Greek life, sports, or clubs on campus, however, for some, it’s within their academic groups. The Moody Honors Program, the new and improved honors program, stemming from the previous Senior Fellows program, is one of the most prominent communities in the college of communication. Each cohort, built of 30 freshmen and ten sophomores, are given the opportunity to get closer than the usual class over the span of the two foundational courses of the program. Only two years old, the Moody Honors Program is making incredible strides to the college experience by combining experiential learning and finding a home on campus into one. “Community,” said Brad Love, Moody Honors Professor. “The notion of community is clearly important to honors students and I really see it as an outsider among you all. You support each other and the way you help each other grow is impressive.” The design of small cohorts of students was intentional and has proved to be one of the biggest assets of the program. “One of the benefits of our honors program, compared to many others, is that it is relatively small,” said Dave Junker, Director of the Moody College Honors Program. “This makes it easy for students to get to know each other and take a sense of ownership for themselves and each other.” The Moody Honors Program presents itself differently than the typical honors program at UT. It flies under the radar, while it is prestigious and difficult to get into, it doesn’t project a sense of elitism. “The honors program aims to be a good citizen of the college,” Junker said. “We want top students and we have top students, but we don't want to be elitist. The mission isn’t to be elitist.” While the program’s goal isn’t to appear as superior to the rest of the college, the honors program still has a lot of prestige and aims to include the rest of the college. “It offers all the benefits of attending an elite public research university with a worldclass communication school, without losing the intimacy and community you might get from a small liberal arts college,” Junker said. “Getting in is hard. Despite this, the honors
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