Honors College Events:

Saturday, October 5th - Honors College Coffee - U Hgts North - Living Room 8:30 -9:30 am

Saturday, October 5th - Honors College Alumni Panel Discussion - Mansfield Room - Davis Center - 9:45 - 11:00 am

Our 2019 Honors College Scholar panelists:  

Hunter Colvin - '17

Hunter Colvin

Hunter Colvin grew up in North Hero, Vermont. At UVM, she majored in history, specifically early-modern British history, with a minor in English. She was the Copy Chief and a staff writer on the Vermont Cynic. Her thesis was titled A Comparative Study of the Anglo-Scottish Act of Union (1707) and the British-Irish Act of Union (1801) which was inspired in part by her semester studying abroad in Newcastle, England. In the fall of 2016, Hunter enrolled in the Accelerated Master's program in the UVM history department. She graduated with her Bachelor's degree in 2017 before continuing on to finish her Master's degree in History, which she received in 2018. She now works as a Campaign Specialist in the Managed Services department for Dealer.com.

Chris Hale-Sills (he/him) - '15

Chris Hale-Sills

Chris grew up in Philadelphia, and attended UVM from 2011-2015 where he majored in Environmental Engineering. Through the Honors College, Chris had the opportunity to study the structure of Nacre (a substance within Seashells), and found a love of ecological exploration through computer models. After graduating, leaving the position of Captain/Coach of the UVM Quidditch team behind, Chris took a brief hiatus to travel between national parks, and has been working as a civil engineer. Chris currently works on solar and storm water projects at VHB in South Burlington, and is aiming to obtain his PE next year.

Claudia Garber - '18

Claudia Garber began her studies at UVM as a Chemistry major, before deciding to pursue a major in Linguistics and a minor in French during her sophomore year. Integral to this decision was her involvement in Dr. Shelley Velleman's lab in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. There, she worked as a phonetic transcriber and research coordinator for the three remaining years of her college experience. She studied abroad at Cardiff University, where she gained a newfound passion for language acquisition and cross-cultural communication. Upon graduating, her senior thesis, related to the phonological development of children with Williams Syndrome, was selected to be presented at the 2018 American Speech and Hearing Association conference. She now works as a language data specialist on the International Data team for Amazon's Alexa and resides in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Benjamin Kagan - '18

Benjamin Kagan

Benjamin Kagan is from Essex, VT and UVM, he majored in Chemistry with a minor in pharmacology. Ben found a passion for research in his freshman year, spending over three years working alongside graduate students in the synthetic organometallic chemistry lab of Professor Rory Waterman in the Department of Chemistry. He spent two summers as an undergraduate researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. In Los Alamos, under the mentorship of Dr. Jaqueline Kiplinger, Ben worked on the synthesis of thorium and uranium-containing organometallic complexes. Outside of his work in chemistry, Ben was a member of the UVM Premedical Enhancement Program (PEP) where he shadowed physicians and attended grand rounds lectures at UVM Medical Center. Ben completed his Honors thesis and graduated in the Spring of 2018 before enrolling as a medical student at the UVM Larner College of Medicine in the Fall. He is currently in his second year of medical school and is interested in exploring the field of orthopaedics and rehabilitation.

Morgan Mathews - '16

Morgan Mathews

Morgan Mathews lives in South Burlington, VT and works at EQUITAS Life Sciences, based in Essex, VT. In her senior year at UVM, Lisa Schnell and Tamara Williams presented an opportunity at EQUITAS, a life science consulting and e-healthcare solutions organization founded on the values of kindness, empowerment, and fearlessness with the goal of bringing key healthcare decision makers together for the single purpose of improving patient outcomes. Morgan joined the team in June 2016 and has been involved in partnerships with pharmaceutical and medical device companies to improve access to medicines in the US and global healthcare fields of neurology, oncology, immunology, endocrinology, fertility, and rare disease. Previously, Morgan studied neuroscience at UVM where she was an active student leader with Service Trek, Alternative Spring Break, and the Honor’s College Peer Leader Program. Morgan researched the effects of chronic stress on the peripheral nervous system in the Vizzard Laboratory, studied some favorite topics (e.g., Neuroanatomy, Controversies of Modern Genomics, Hormones & Behavior), and completed a public health fellowship which solidified her interest in improving individuals’ lives and access to healthcare globally. For fun, Morgan liked taking group fitness classes at the UVM Gym, movies at the Roxy, and enjoying time outdoors.

Lucy Rogers - '18

Lucy Rogers

Immediately upon graduating from UVM, Lucy began campaigning for the Vermont House of Representatives. She was elected in Nov. 2018 to represent her home district in Lamoille County, becoming the first woman to hold the seat in 92 years. Lucy currently serves on the House Health Care Committee.

Lucy majored in biology at UVM, with minors in math and Chinese.  An elective class in rural geography influenced her to view rural places as part of a larger, global narrative, connected to her childhood in Vermont, to several agricultural jobs throughout North America, and to her travels through rural China. Lucy's goals in politics are to highlight rural needs in a system that often caters to urban areas; bring a scientific approach to policy questions; and be accessible to each one of her constituents.