Dean's Message
For nearly 180 Honors College first-year students, today marks the end of the first semester. Students have finished their final exams and handed in their term papers. The beginning of the semester, when these students first arrived on campus, to them must seem a distant memory. During the semester, much has changed for the first-year students and some of this change came about as a result of the help of the Honors College peer leaders.
Top News
Rebecca Skloot Lecture
Over the summer of 2011, the 180 students in Honors College Class of '15 (or the Class of Irene as some of us think of them) read, as their assigned summer reading, Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. This year, for the first time (and by design), the HCOL Summer Reading coincided with the UVM First-Year Summer Read; our students were reading the books alongside about 2300 of their first-year peers.
Read More: Rebecca Skloot Lecture
Office of Undergraduate Research Announces New Irene-Related Research Award for Students
This past August Hurricane Irene devastated local Vermont landscapes, economies and communities. Now, the Office of Undergraduate Research is offering students the opportunity to learn more about the storm’s destructive impact on the state, as well as how best to implement the recovery process.
Starting this spring, students may apply for an Irene Undergraduate-Faculty Research Award. These awards are designed to provide funding for students (working with faculty) to conduct research on the impacts of Tropical Storm Irene on the northeast region of the U.S. The intention is to promote helpful and meaningful research that is centered on addressing the social, planning, scientific, engineering or other needs and concerns of specific communities and/or the states.
Read More: OUR Announces Irene Research Award
Anna Post '01 Talks Professional Etiquette with Honors College Students
What do you wear to a networking event? How do you introduce yourself to a potential employer when you are cold-calling for an informational interview? Are there ways to be sure you’re not bugging them? What goes into a thank-you note? Should it be handwritten? Finally, how firm is too firm for a handshake? These were some of the questions that renowned etiquette expert and UVM alumnus Anna Post ’01 addressed when she visited the Honors College Professional Development forum on Saturday, October 15.
Read More: Post Visits Honors College Professional Development Forum
Features
A Thesis to Change the World: Colin Arisman '12 Shares His Thesis Work on Cooperative Farming and the Environment in Ecuador
The completion of a senior thesis is a singular moment for any young academic, a moment of profound satisfaction and a capstone on an undergraduate career. But what happens after the thesis is defended? Physically, its pages are bound and added to the library's holdings. And for some students, the thesis' contents may go on to fuel graduate work or help define a career.
In the case of UVM senior Colin Arisman, a natural resources major and Honors College student, his thesis will likely live on to influence farming practices in a place where the impacts of agriculture are of critical importance: the Intag Cloud Forest in Ecuador.
Read More: Colin Arisman '12 Thesis Work in Ecuador
Pasatono Orquesta Visits University Heights North
Traditional ethnic folk music from Mexico reverberated throughout the halls of the Honors College dorm this past September when Pasatono Orquesta visited University Heights North for a private student concert. The group, which has been integral in preserving Mexican rural folk music from the early 20th century performed several pieces and stopped to give short lectures on the traditions and roots of their music.
The quartet was on campus as part of UVM’s Lane Series, a university live performing arts series that is co-sponsored by the Honors College. For more information on upcoming spring performances on campus, visit the Lane Series website.
Honors College Students Recreate Ancient Inventions
Modern society may sometimes feel like it revolves around recent technological breakthroughs, but this semester Honors College students participating in the sophomore seminar Ancient Inventions learned that society is rooted in much advancement that took place in prehistoric times. The class, taught by engineering professor and Dean Domenico Grasso, examined how ancient technologies made an impact on the ancient world, and how it also offered insight into the thinking capabilities of human kind at the time.
Read More: Sophomore Seminar - Ancient Inventions
See Honors College sophomores Neil Brandt and Basil Roosli's Archimedes Claw in Action
