WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY HONORS COLLEGE FACULTY AND STUDENTS PRESENT AT NATIONAL CONFERENCE
The Honors College of West Virginia University was Crossing Frontiers last week at the 43rd Annual National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) Conference held in San Antonio, Texas, October 22 28, 2008. Student and faculty representatives from the Honors College of WVU delivered eight presentations at NCHC for approximately 1,900 college and university administrators, faculty members, and students from throughout the United States.
The conference is a great opportunity for honors colleges to learn from one another, share ideas and strategies, network, and improve their honors colleges, said Dr. Keith Garbutt, Dean of the Honors College of WVU. We can all discover our strengths and we can identify our weaknesses, this is how we grow, said Garbutt.
Crossing Frontiers was selected as the 2008 NCHC Conference theme because while there are many barriers to understanding and achievement, Honors education addresses these barriers by empowering students to challenge expectations and explore new worlds.
NCHC offers exposure to a wide range of ideas through a variety of speakers, presentations, workshops, panels, and poster sessions. The conference is unique in that rather than bringing together experts from only a specific field of interest English, or History, or Science this conference brings together experts in all fields from many disciplines so there is a great cross fertilization of ideas that occurs, said Garbutt.
Representatives from the Honors College of WVU played major roles in both the planning and execution of the NCHC Conference. Dr. Keith Garbutt, Dean of the Honors College, served as the chairperson for two committees (the science and mathematics committee and the large university honors program committee), delivered a presentation, was a co-presenter for two additional presentations, and introduced and moderated the plenary session for MacArthur Fellowship Award winning Dr. Angela Belcher a renowned genius in the world of material chemistry.
Dr. Lisa DeFrank-Cole, Director of the ASPIRE Program at West Virginia University, also contributed to the conference as the co-presenter of two programs. DeFrank-Cole and Garbutt introduced research findings from a study conducted on the PROMISE Scholarship in their presentation titled Does Merit-Based Financial Aid Affect Diversity in Honors? Then, DeFrank-Cole co-delivered a program with graduate student Rose Simis-Cole about teaching leadership in honors.
"Having the opportunity to share in a research project with Dean Garbutt and our graduate assistant, Rose Simis-Cole, was truly a rewarding experience that culminated in presenting our findings at the NCHC national conference," said DeFrank-Cole. "It was exciting to see that roughly 25 students--from places other than West Virginia--were interested in learning about the impact of the PROMISE Scholarship on our Honors College," said DeFrank-Cole.
Shane Miller, a graduate student who works in the Honors College Office, served on the 2008 Conference Planning Committee and on the Board of Directors. As a member of the Board of Directors, Miller also participated on two student panels during the conference.
In addition to her other work, Simis-Cole worked closely with senior biochemistry and French double-major Zachary Gouzd to prepare two presentations about how they have revived the Honors Student Association and how they engage honors students through the honors blog and the annual Honors College Ball.
"The NCHC conference provided us the opportunity to share our successes as Honors student leaders with a wider audience. In addition, we were able to gather new information, to plan for future activities, and to network with other students from across the country. An experience like that is invaluable," said Gouzd.
Gouzd returned to the Honors College Office with video footage and photographs to create vodcasts and images to share with the WVU community. These can be found at http://honorsspeak.blogs.wvu.edu.
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