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MTSU Hosts Honors Council Conference
More than 100 Honors students from 17 institutions across the state gathered at MTSU for the 2025 Tennessee Collegiate Honors Council (TCHC) annual conference in the spring.
This year’s conference theme, “Pillars of Excellence,” reflected the values of strength, reliability, and exceptional performance. This theme underscored the idea of foundational support systems that foster success and high standards.
“The theme resonated with me because of the activities I engage with in and out of the classroom,” said Hannah Antrican, a Psychology and Sociology major and president of MTSU’s Student Organization for the Advancement of Research (SOAR). “At the conference, I was inspired to reflect on how my engagement with the Honors College has contributed to my personal development in all these areas.”
Honors Dean John R. Vile and MTSU Provost Mark Byrnes, an MTSU Honors alumnus and former Honors faculty member, welcomed participants to the two-day conference.
“Honors faculty and students continue their pursuit of scholarly excellence in community settings that prepare them for continuing service to their respective institutions and the community,” Vile said.
Honors students spent months developing scholarly papers and posters to present, giving them the opportunity to share their research findings, receive valuable feedback, and practice professional communication skills. These activities contribute to their academic growth and future career development.
“The TCHC conference was a wonderful experience for me, especially as a freshman primarily surrounded by seniors presenting their Honors theses,” MTSU Aerospace major Sam Haley said. “It perfectly demonstrated the jump in academia from senior year in high school and my AP Research project to an elaborate Honors thesis.
“It’s definitely changed my perspective on being a part of the Honors community—I look forward to hopefully being able to present my senior year as well and can’t wait to see where my journey in this community takes me.”
The conference also featured an essay contest, and attendees gathered for a social event on Friday evening at the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors College Building.
Saturday featured a Fellowship Roundtable led by Laura Clippard, MTSU’s undergraduate fellowships specialist and Honors advisor, and Trey Straussberger, director of the Office of National Scholarships at the University of Tennessee–Chattanooga.
Featured panelists for the discussion were Honors Buchanan Fellows Samuel Apigian (’25), a May graduate in Mechatronics Engineering, and Victoria Grigsby, a dual Political Science and Foreign Languages (German) major, along with MTSU Honors graduate Tandra Martin (’15), now senior associate consultant of higher education strategy and operations at Huron Consulting Group.
