SPRING 2015 S C H O O L O F E DU CATI O N
Honors Program News
University Honors—A Program on the Rise Kiley Alpaugh ’15 and Alyssa Nastri ’16 Greetings Honors Students! New developments are underway to enhance the Honors Program experience. These changes, summarized below, will result in an enriched and expanded program not only through the Spring 2015 semester, but also for years to come. 2015 Priorities The Honors Committee recently finalized a strategic plan for the upcoming five years. This plan reworks Honors classes to include experiences outside the classroom, boosts Honors Program presence on the UMass Dartmouth campus, offers additional sections of Honors classes, and introduces new incentives to graduate as a Commonwealth Scholar. The Council aims to revamp the peer mentorship program with the goal of creating lasting, supportive relationships between Honors students. The Honors Program continues to become integrated in the local community through fundraising efforts, community
Members of the Honors Student Council
service projects, and off-campus trips to surrounding cultural sites. A main goal for Spring 2015 is to increase student involvement by creating a program that encompasses and supports all aspects of college life, from social activities to academics. The Point System This year the Honors Student Council created the Point System, a new way for students to get great rewards for participating in the Honors Program events. For each event attended during the fall semester, students received participation points that translated into raffle tickets. We raffled off a Texas Roadhouse gift certificate, Mirasol’s gift cards, Chipotle gift cards, and many more prizes at the Fall 2014 Holiday Party. This point system is being continued into Spring 2015, when students with the most points will be invited to the annual Distinguished Members Dinner in early May.
More ways to get involved With the inception of the new Point System, Honors events are now officially categorized into three sections: community service, academic, and social. Community service activities encourage student involvement in the local community; we teamed up with the UMass Dartmouth Rotaract Club for trick-or-treating and an Oxfam Banquet, as well as the YMCA Southcoast Sharing the Harvest Farm for hayrides and harvesting crops. Academic events included a Pizza with Professors event featuring Professor Brian Ayotte of the psychology department, as well as Honorized university events from lectures to observatory sessions. Social events are aimed at strengthening student relationships with stress-free activities such as laser tag, ice-skating, movie nights, and an end-ofthe-semester holiday party. Honors Council Updates For Spring 2015, Alyssa Nastri has taken over as Student Director of the Honors Program. She spent the Fall 2014 semester training to enrich the experience for all Honors students through the Honors Council. This year marks the largest Honors Student Council ever, with 15 active Honors student members. With the increased interest came a new Photographer position that was filled by Council member Nicholas Cyrek. Fiifi Bondzie, Elizabeth Cross, Mollie Madigan, and Tia Martineau also joined Council this year and have been working hard to plan exciting events.