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Dean's Message

Abu Rizvi

The honors thesis, the capstone project for seniors in the Honors College, provides students with many opportunities. Writing an honors thesis helps students satisfy their intellectual curiosity, which has been nurtured in their coursework. Students are able to turn towards a more active style of investigation based on the discovery of knowledge. Many of their skills are enhanced along the way. Students gather information from libraries, databases, archives, laboratory experiments, fieldwork sites, and travel abroad. They learn to be flexible if their first efforts don’t bear fruit. Having organized a complex piece of writing, they conclude their efforts by presenting and defending their work. Students work closely with faculty mentors, who get to know them well enough to write particularly convincing and detailed letters of recommendation. Student thesis work often results in presentations at professional meetings and publications in learned journals. It isn't surprising that students who pursue a thesis have a leg up in getting into choice graduate schools or being launched into successful careers. Dean Rizvi's Message

Top News

October Alumni Weekend

Fall Alumni Weekend On Saturday, October 3, seven UVM Alumni (five were HC alumni) returned to UVM during Homecoming Weekend to share both their undergraduate and post-graduation experiences with current students and their visiting parents in a panel discussion moderated by Associate Dean Lisa Schnell. A wide-ranging discussion took place in a packed lecture hall in Aiken, the panelists answering audience questions about their experiences as UVM and beyond. Much of the conversation focused on the panelists’ experience with Honors education at UVM; particularly inspiring were their stories of the ways their undergraduate theses had shaped both their undergraduate and their post-graduate experiences. Alumni Weekend

Eric Lipton Visits the Honors College

Eric Lipton

New York Times reporter and University of Vermont alum Eric Lipton swung by the Honors College on October 26 to chat with students about preparing for a journalism career, breaking into the newspaper business, and thinking about future opportunities in the journalism field.

Lipton, a philosophy major and 1987 graduate of the University of Vermont, predated the Honors College but he spoke enthusiastically about how the college's rigorous curriculum prepares students who are interested in pursuing a career in journalism. Eric Lipton Article

The HC Celebrates National Day on Writing

My Truth

The Honors College got integrally involved in the University of Vermont's celebration of the National Day on Writing in October. With help from the Residential Life Staff at University Heights North Residence Hall, the Honors College hosted "My Truth," an exhibit of student, faculty, and staff writing that allowed participants to espouse their views on life and belief.

A total of eleven submissions were hung on October 20, 2009, detailing personal philosophies and sharing individual narratives. Numerous people from the campus and Burlington community cycled through the exhibit to look at the work and to leave their comments and their own truths in the guest book. The exhibit was part of a larger initiative on campus, which included workshops, poetry slams, and artistic displays of the written word. Link for campus-wide National Day of Writing article

Spotlight on

Joshua Bongard's Sophomore Seminar

Joshua Bongard

The ability to think outside the box enabled Computer Science Assistant Professor Josh Bongard to excel in the field of robotics. His research, Bongard says, uses many different disciplines (including computer science, biology, philosophy, neuroscience and engineering). The opportunity to extend this interdisciplinarity to his teaching, he says, is what drew him to the Honors College. Recently we caught up with Bongard to talk about human and robotic intelligence, as well as the intelligence that is being developed by Honors College students in his sophomore seminar, "Embodied Cognition." Joshua Bongard's Sophomore Seminar

Medical Examiner Internship

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) offers internship opportunities for the fall spring and summer semesters. These internships are highly competitive, as there are many applicants for only few placements per year. This is a great way to enter into the wonderful and exciting world off forensic toxicology and investigation. The OCME looks to choose students whose background, experience, demeanor and educational goals most closely match the office mission.

We are proud to announce the Interns for Spring 2010:

  • Adam Andrews, Junior Biology Major
  • Hannah Sylvester, Senior Biology Major