NU Honors Newsletter Spring 2010

The Honors Program is continually looking for new ways to bring innovative programming to the Honors community. As Honors has grown and evolved so have our programs and events. This year our efforts have focused on enhancing upper-class opportunities through a series of leadership initiatives. The Honors Program has coined this initiative as Honors on the Rise. Our office has worked collaboratively with outside leadership experts, other offices on campus, and current students to create a year of multifaceted leadership events. It has been an exciting first year for Honors on the Rise.

Honors on the Rise grew out of the success of Honors Welcome Week. First year students enjoyed themselves so much during Honors Welcome Week, we didn’t want to stop the momentum. We also were hoping to offer additional programming for students as they progress through their time on campus. continued on page 14

A Fulbright Journey to Hong KongEmem Adjah ‘09

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Honors p e r s p e c t i v e

Volume 5 – Spring 2010

Research on Carpenter AntsBrian Lejeune

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Living and Learning

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Honors on

Director’s WelcomeGreetings: Spring is a great time to be on campus – the first sighting of cargo shorts, flip flops and Frisbees invading Centennial Commons, makes us hurry to jam winter away although we always have a few cold nibbles that make us scurry back to our winter weight sweaters.

Spring is also the semester when, if we blink twice, it seems to be over. We are well on our way to our celebratory senior Honors Evening, which is coming up soon. Honors Evening will be our chance to wish seniors congratulations and Bon Voyage as they undertake the challenges of their new goals. Many of them will be going on to postgraduate education – in medical or law school, MBA programs or more traditional graduate program degrees ranging from Ph.D.s in history to economics. Others will build on their coop credentials and enter the workforce a bit wiser than they would have been otherwise. Finally we have a contingent following their own path, starting their own businesses or taking a gap year before deciding what is next. We are especially pleased to note that we have a number of students choosing to engage in service – we are pleased that 5 of our students will be serving with Teach for America, in Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Boston! Way to go seniors!!!!

We have a record number of students applying for our new Honors Ambassadors program. We are also fielding applications for Mentors and Teaching Assistants in Honors – we are truly gratified by your willingness to give us a SIGNIFICANT hand in welcoming new students to campus and keeping some of our first year course offerings innovative and supportive in unique and important ways. To say we couldn’t accomplish what we do without your help is an understatement. Your ideas, energy and enthusiasm keep us heading in the right direction and for that we are grateful to you all.

Once again we are hot on the trail of an author for the university-wide First Pages initiative. Over 60 students scurried off with extra reading between first and second semester and helped narrow down the selections for the First Pages Committee. We are in TOP SECRET negotiations as I write this and will soon be announcing our book choice – thanks to all who helped as Honors Readers or who served on the First Pages Committee.

The Honors Seminars are hopping again this semester…I managed to shudder along with my class as we were suitably scared watching Shutter Island together a couple of weeks ago. The goal was to better look at pop culture imagery of mental illness but I think that the person beside me rarely lowered her scarf (which she held across her eyes) during a major part of the movie. So much for field trips!

Advising in full swing and we think we have a great line-up of classes for the fall. Many departments are framing new oppor-tunities for honors classes and we are especially pleased with recent collaborations with Music and International Affairs. We must admit the best part of advising is the opportunity of checking in with you at least a couple of times a year to find out how things are going. And we’re pleased to be able to point to exciting opportunities for next term.

As always, our regular programming such as Pizza and Profs, concert tickets, and fellowships advising are continuing to move along. We are also fielding candidates for the National Collegiate Honors Council Partners in the Park Program – we will be sending 10 students this year off into the world of the National Park Service. The Honors Book club also continues to be a success as it nears the end of its second year in existence. The Honors Student Council is also offering a series of events as the end of the term nears.

Associate Director Sheryl Mayuski led a second wildly successful leadership-training event this semester – and our two graduate assistants Colleen Cronin and Vicky Schroeder helped enliven the day’s events by leading workshops. All of us are waiting with bated breath for our first international program to get up and going. Twenty-five students will be joining Professors Danny Faber (Sociology) and Susan Setta (Religion) In Rome this May with our intrepid field guide, Associate Director Lauren Pouchak. As always, our administrative assistant Carol DiCecca keeps us headed in the right direction.

All and all, a great year – hope to see you at Honors Evening. Let us know if there is anything else we can do – stop by, the door is open – Maureen

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3 www.honors.neu.edu

student profiles

My internship at Dana Farber showed me that devotion to your passion is fundamental to both professional and per-sonal success. Dr. Mark Kieran is a world-renowned pediatric neuro-oncologist and it takes sacrifice and selfless love for your patients to achieve such greatness. Being able to shadow Dr. Kieran for the summer showed me what it takes to be a great doctor and succeed. I was able to analyze MRI scans of children from around the world and learn not only about the pathology and histology of brain cancer but about the greater picture that doctors also look at. I will never forget sitting in the Brain Tumor Clinic and listening to the doctors and surgeons decide what type of brain surgery to do on a patient and how it would effect whether or not the 5 year old patient would be able to have accurate visual fields at the age of 16 so that they will be able to drive.

That one instance really defined what the Pediatric Neuro – Oncology Program at Dana Farber is about, the patient as a whole. The team of doctors and nurses that I worked with were about the entire patient, including their family. Although they were treating a specific type of brain cancer they were also treating a family plagued with distraught feelings of helplessness and fear. The doctors looked at the entire picture as well as the picture of what the patient’s future could be. It was times like this that I knew the

experience was invaluable. There are very few people, never mind undergraduate students, who are able to observe these interactions. It was in these moments that I knew I was learning how to be a great doctor. It was learning how to tell a patients family that their child’s cancer has recurred or that there is no treatment that can foreseeable cure their child. Dr. Kieran showed me that although these situations can be tough and difficult to communicate with families, the ability to work through these situations makes a physician successful.

Steamboat invested in my future and in my potential and by doing so they allowed me to realize and actualize my own potential. Now, I know that I can achieve what seems impossible. I am ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead in my life both personally and professionally. I know that I have a foundation that supports me in all my scholastic and professional endeavors. I also have twelve other scholars who also understand the actualization and realization of both my own and their own potential and whom I know will constantly push me to continually succeed and challenge myself. I cannot express how thankful I am to the entire Steamboat Foundation not for this summer but for a life-time of success that I now know I will have.

-Chelsey Mitchell — behavioral neuroscience ‘10

Steamboat invested in my future

and in my potential and by doing

so they allowed me to realize and

actualize my own potential.

There are few words that can express what the Steamboat Foundation gave to me last summer. From meeting twelve of the most amazing peers that will ever cross my path in life, to learning the treatments for brain cancer, this scholarship was a fundamental building block of my future success in life. The day that the executive director called me, I knew that I would be in for the summer of a lifetime. But there was no way to predict what a profound impact the experience would have on my personal and professional development. The Steamboat Foundation provided an experience that has raised my own expectations of my surroundings and myself.

STEAMBoAT SuMMER SCHolAR 2009

Alumni spotlight

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Fulbright’s mission to promote mutual understanding between nations through the exchange of people, knowledge, and skills aligned perfectly with what I wished to achieve in Hong Kong post-graduation. Being awarded this prestigious grant has been a great experience thus far.

The Hong Kong Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) program is affiliated with the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIED) located in the beautiful town of Tai Po. HKIED is an institution dedicated to training future teachers offering a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Most of the classes that I work with deal with inclusive education and diversity in Hong Kong schools. My role in the classroom is to collaborate with professors by providing in-class assistance through discussion groups and offering lectures based on a U.S. perspective. While outside of the classroom, I hold tutorials based on their lessons for that day and meet with students one-on-one for any assistance they may need in terms of their English proficiency. Teaching in a college setting has definitely been challenging. Not only do I occasionally take on the role of professor but I also am a student too, learning and understanding about the Hong Kong education system so I can assist the professor and students to the best of my ability. Also by working in their education system, I also witness how globalization has shaped the current curriculum as the school is making it an initiative to include diversity training in their curriculum as well as ensuring that students cannot only speak English but the two major dialects of Chinese – Cantonese and Mandarin.

Prior to embarking on my Fulbright journey, I had spent a year overseas studying in Hong Kong and working in Singapore, which had opened my eyes for the dire need to be multi-lingual and culturally adept in today’s global society. This experience had contributed significantly to my decision to pursue the Fulbright scholarship because I knew that I wanted to return to the region in order to not only gain language and cultural knowledge to enhance my professional and personal objectives, but to also develop English skills to foster cross-cultural exchange.

In addition to classroom involvement, I organize events in my hall with three other ETA’s that are centered on the same theme of cross-cultural promotion. Our events have been a huge success averaging about 70 students in attendance. Example events have included American cinema night, Midnight breakfast, and Thanksgiving dinner just to name a few. I also cook with the residents on my floor and have learned to cook more Chinese dishes than I know American meals! I have found that I am able to build personal relationships with my students in the informal settings that have more of a noticeable and profound impact on their English skills. I volunteer for the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong by touring schools in the region and providing presentations on topics ranging from American pop culture to President Obama and the civil rights movement.

In my personal time, I have also continued doing photography and learning Chinese while enjoying outdoor activities such as biking and hiking in the area. Hong Kong is where many say, ‘East meets West’; it has done a great job of modernizing while still maintaining the traditional Confucian beauty of Chinese culture. I wake up every day to beautiful mountains that surround the HKIED campus and live 10 minutes from mainland China. Being a 30 minute bus ridefrom the city, I have been capitalizing on living in the area by exploring with the other 15 Fulbrighters and local students.

After I leave in July, I hope to leverage this experience in the area of global consulting


The most rewarding part of my experience was when I was dispatched to Yangzhou, China to do cultural programming at the Yangzhou Polytechnic College. Many of the students at the school have never had contact with any foreigners so they were very eager to ask us questions and get to know all about America. The 10 days consisted of discussing certain segments of American pop culture from music to sports. I also learned and spoke more Mandarin in these specific 10 days then I have in studying on my own since English is barely spoken, which is quite the opposite of the proficiency in Hong Kong. During the evenings we had our English corner where about 200 students attended and asked us questions, but most of the evening was spent dancing and singing. We bonded over American and Chinese music and dances, and towards end of the evening, made sure to take pictures with each of the students who attended.

Outside of our teaching duties at the attachment, our hosts also wanted us to understand Yangzhou by taking us to various sites such as a local primary school, museum, and orphanage. Our departure was filled with tears from students and staff of Yangzhou Polytechnic College, of not only sadness over our departure but appreciation for an opportunity that many in this city never get to receive in their life. I left the school knowing that although the trip was brief, the memories and impact of that week in Yangzhou would last a lifetime.

As my time here comes to a close within the next few months, I hope to travel back to Yangzhou, China and visit my former colleagues in Singapore as well during my free time. My years at Northeastern definitely prepared me to be well equipped to be an asset while I am here. After I leave in July, I hope to leverage this experience in the area of global consulting.

-Emem Adjah ‘09— Fulbright Fellow - Hong Kong, China

in the classroom

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REAl TIME HEAlTH CARE

Students enrolled in Contemporary Issues in Health Care were able to experience the energy and debate in congress during Obama’s historic signing into law on March 23rd, 2010 the $940 billion dollar H.R. 3590-Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Passage of the bill, designed to increase access to health insurance for 32 million uninsured Americans, polarized congress along party lines, and resulted in a flurry of newsworthy topics. This historic event fanned lively classroom dialogue and extended the students’ thinking to consider who would be impacted by this new legislation.

Cultivating a diversity of perspectives is a valuable strategy for exploring current events in health care. Health care is a complex topic impacted by many forces

This academic year—2009-2010—has been a challenging time for keeping a finger

firmly on the pulse on Contemporary Issues in Health Care! During the Spring semester

we were fortunate to have a plethora of news events to examine detailing the health

care reform efforts of President Obama.

extending beyond the patient and provider. Each honors seminar is comprised of students who bring a wealth of knowledge and unique perspectives to the classroom. A single class may contain students from political science, pharmacy, civil engineer-ing, architecture, business, and biomedical sciences whose voices are shaped by their co-op experiences and fields of study. While some faculty might find this jumble of majors daunting, the diversity can provide for a stimulating hour and a half discussion!

Contemporary Issues in Health Care begins with an introduction to the Cost, Quality and Access triad. A tension exists between this triad with respect to the interrelated forces that shape the U.S health care system. The triad provides an overlay with


Contemporary Issues in

Health Care begins with

an introduction to the Cost,

Quality and Access triad

which to then study decades within the history of the US health care system from1850 to present day. An example of the impact of the triad follows. One of the major improvements in the quality of medicine has occurred due to the advent of technology. However, technology, which is not available to those without insurance, has contributed to the astronomical cost of care which annually exceeds $2.3 trillion dollars and accounts for 15% of our country’s gross domestic product.

To supplement major themes within the course, guest speakers from industry including law, big pharma, alternative therapy, nutrition, art history, and health care finance, are invited speak in depth about these topics. While an immediate connection between art and medicine may not be obvious, since time immemorial, people have sought to understand the mechanisms of the human body on the basis of their discoveries in medicine and science. Attempts to create artistic depictions of the beauty of the human body have been repeated in history and people never tire of its depiction.

This year, the most serious segment of the course involved a discussion of the book “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracey Kidder. In the book, Kidder describes Dr.

Paul Farmer’s battle with and treatment of HIV/AIDs and multi-drug resistant tubercu-loses experienced by people living in Haiti, Russia and Peru. Unfortunately, our reading of the book coincided with the disastrous earthquake that demolished the city of Port-a-Prince in January. One benefit of the discussion was that students realized that while health care in the US is not perfect some people in the world have virtually no access to the basic care that we daily take for granted.

Lorna Hayward is Associate Professor of Physical Therapy, Bouve College of Health Sciences

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This past fall was the third year for the Enhancing Honors 1101 class; a one credit course taken by all incoming first-year Honors students. The course is led by Professor Maureen Kelleher, Director of the Honors Program, and co-taught by a select group of upper class honors mentors. This year a record number of fifty-two upper class honors mentors helped in shaping a great transition for all of the first-year students. The Honors Program was thrilled to allow such a vast number of upper class students the opportunity to co-teach the Enhancing Honors 1101 course. The success of this dynamic course is largely due to the efforts put forth by the mentors.

This year’s course focused on a book by James Sullivan The Hardest Working Man: How James Brown Saved the Soul of America. The book enabled the students to discover how James Brown in part saved the city of Boston in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. It was a different look at the history and cul-ture of Boston so that the students could further their knowledge of the city in which they live. Additionally, this year’s book was complimented by an experiential learning piece known as the “City as Text” experience that all students participated in. The “City as Text” experience enabled the students to explore different neigh-borhoods of Boston and reflect on these explorations with their upper class mentors. These unique experiences helped the students to better understand the historical, cultural, sociological aspects of the different neighborhoods.

The Enhancing Honors 1101 course continues to develop and change each year. This evolution has been in part to accommodate the ever-changing class of students in the Honors Program. Each year brings new challenges and successes, we look forward to what the Enhancing Honors 1101 course and upper class mentors bring in the fall of 2010!

-Colleen Cronin Honors Program Graduate Assistant

in the classroomThis past fall was the third year for the Enhancing

Honors 1101 class; a one credit course taken by all

incoming first-year Honors students. The course is

led by Professor Maureen Kelleher, Director of the

Honors Program, and co-taught by a select group of

upper class honors mentors. 11

01ENHANCING H o N o R S


Outside the classroomIn December 2009, 15 undergraduate students and a graduate student assistant accompanied Professor Denise Garcia Lapon of the International Affairs/Political Science Department to Copenhagen, Denmark for the United Nation’s Global Climate Change Summit. This small Northeastern delegation was awarded observation status from the UN to attend a major international nego-tiation on the largest environmental issue that the global community is facing today. As a group, we were able to see, meet and hear lectures from well renowned world leaders in both seminar and plenary settings. Although we were not given the authorization to attend high-profile meetings with any of the 193 heads of states present at the conference, we were all exposed--many for the first time--to an international network of thousands of people coming together for a common cause.

The UN Global Climate Change Summit served as an unprecedented opportunity for undergraduate students in the field of International Affairs/Political Science to gain first-hand exposure to what many of our future careers may entail. Additionally, we were able to hear inspirational and insightful speakers that ranged from the famous, such as Bishop Desmond Tutu, ex-Vice President Al Gore, UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Mary Robinson, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-Moon, and NY Times writer Thomas Friedman, to the indigenous people who were feeling the most direct and devastating impacts of global warming.

The group also had the opportunity to explore the city of Copenhagen, which had plenty of side events on sustainability for those unable to attend the confer-ence. The city itself was an interesting

blend of traditional, quaint culture and the most revolutionary, up-and-coming green technologies. Indeed, Copenhagen is a model of the perfect eco-friendly city and left us with an inspiration to implement some of the same efficient measures in Boston in the future.

The UN Global Climate Change Summit has been criticized for failing to bring a decisive plan of action on climate change and many are disappointed with the outcome. However, the energy and passion that the group witnessed from everyone there made us realize that climate change is an issue we can certainly combat.

-Kristen Paonessa, international affairs

Honors Travel Grant recipients attend the uN Climate Change Summit

Outside the classroom continued

I applied for research funds from the Honors Program in fall of 2008. I planned to study abroad in Egypt during the spring 2009 semester, and I knew that I wanted to find a way to combine living in Egypt with my Senior Honors Project. I ended up doing just that while somehow managing not to evaporate in the heat of Cairo’s summer; after my study abroad semester was over I stayed in Egypt to intern at a secular refugee aid organization.

My daily responsibilities and experiences in Egypt completely reshaped my research topic. As I observed the stress of living as a refugee, and as I interviewed refugees to prepare their cases for submission the UN or other national immigration agencies, I quickly realized that I was working with a broken system. I came to see that refugees —people who flee their country because they are not safe—are seldom given a warm welcome. Their host country often mistreats them, and they are as clueless as you and I about the strange process that is applying for a visa to another country. I knew that I had to write about this broken system that forces so many refugees and asylum seekers to endure grueling hardship and pain.

The grant I received from the Honors Program, combined with the flexibility of Northeastern’s Coop program, meant that I was able to simultaneously conduct research, live in another country, and serve others in a meaningful way. Without the funding and freedom, I might still be sitting in Snell sniffing through superannuated volumes in search of my own passion. Instead, I flew to Egypt and found my passion for legal aid work. I used my re-search grant to fund living and researching in Cairo and working first-hand with inter-national refugee law. I collected mounds of data and experience with a subject that I might never have discovered were it not for the Honors Program.

-Brendan Rigby, political science & international affairs

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Outside the classroom continued

Ants are social organisms that live in densely packed living quarters in both wood and soil. These microbial rich environments expose the ants to a variety of pathogens including fungus and bacteria. Due to the frequent interaction between nest mates, it would be expected that these pathogens would quickly pass through a colony. In practice the opposite effect is seen and colonies survive better if they have larger populations in general.

My research explored one possible explanation for this. Carpenter ants regularly perform a behavior referred to as trophallaxis where individuals from a colony will pass nutrient droplets from themselves to a hungry nest mate. Previous research was done, as part of an Honors Junior/Senior project by Casey Hamilton to show that when ants were immunized for a common bacterial pathogen Serratia Marcescens, they had higher levels

Thanks to the generosity of the Honors Program I was able to use an Honors Travel Grant to attend this years annual Entomo-logical Society of America (ESA) Eastern Branch Conference. The conference was held in Annapolis, Maryland from March 7th through the 9th. I attended this event in order to present research that was done last semester as an honors independent research project. Working under Professor Rebeca Rosengaus of the Biology department my research focused on Camponotus Pennsylvanicus more commonly known as the Carpenter Ant.

of antimicrobial peptides (AMP) relative to naive nest mates. My research expanded on these findings by performing a survival analysis to see if ants that were immunized could pass this immunity to a nest mate. Seven ant colonies and approximately five hundred ants were used as the sample for this experiment over the course of the previous semester. Findings suggest that trophallaxis is in fact a mechanism for increasing colony wide disease resistance. Research also indicated that each colony has variable susceptibility to pathogens prior to any immunization. This data was presented as part of the ESA conference student competition along with two other Northeastern Students from the Rosengaus Laboratory presenting their own research. In addition to presenting I had the op-portunity to see many other presentations by undergraduates, graduate students and professors relating to termites, bees, wasps, and ants. There were also a number of butterflies and other insect exhibits.

We also had some free time to walk around downtown Annapolis which was wonderful especially considering the weather, was in the mid sixties and cloudless everyday. Before flying home when the conference ended I went to Baltimore for the day to see the city and also went to an art museum. Overall it was a wonderful experience and a great way to finish off spring break.

-Brian Lejeune — chemical engineering

Continuing research on Carpenter Ants


Fellowships, scholarships and AwardsFreemanIndonesiaNonprofitInternshipKrupa asher human services & international affairs

TeachforAmericaTeresa LangschuLTz - phiLadeLphia

Leah rondon - BosTon

racheL sherman – new orLeans

micheLLe szynKowicz - miami

Joshua Tappan - aTLanTa

SteamboatSummerScholar2010emiLy BaTT physics

2010PartnersintheParksGrantRecipientscasey Birmingham mechanical engineering Denali

Laura BrisToL criminal justice Fire island / ellis island

andy carLson chemical engineering Denali

eLizaBeTh cherchia civil engineering Black canyon of the Gunnison

Lauren diTuLLio journalism cape Hatteras

caroLine maLouse linguistics Denali

andonis marden international affairs Zion

KeLsey meagher communication studies Grand canyon-parashant

ryan sT. pierre-heTz behavioral neuroscience Denali

maTThew wood chemical engineering cape Hatteras

HonorsTravelGrants2009-2010:Brian LeJeune chemical engineering entomological society of America - eastern Branch conference, Baltimore, Maryland

aLex mooradian English WOOF Organic Farming, portland Oregon

gaBrieLLa paieLLa international affairs & anthropology United Nations climate change conference, copehagen, Denmark

KrisTen paonessa international affairs United Nations climate change conference, copehagen, Denmark

ashLey pira biochemistry society for Neuroscience international conference, chicago, illinois

Jessica gorman business administration english Language camp, slovakia

eLiza rosenBerry cinema studies & English sundance Film Festival, park city, Utah

pameLa rudnicKi health sciences cheeta conservation program, south Africa

JacqueLyn siKora biochemistry American society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, california

sarina specTor international affairs & anthropology the rosetta project - Linguistics research, san Francisco, california

LiLy sussman human services & international affairs American and Arab Youth Workshop: sponsored by the Arab Women’s Organization in Alexandria, egypt

eLizaBeTh yaKaBosKi biology American Medical student Association National conference, Anaheim, california

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2010GoldwaterScholarsarTi deepa Tewari Biochemistry career Goal: ph.D./ M.D. with a focus on Oncology. conduct research in biomedical science, practice medicine, and teach at a medical school.

KrisTa marie wager Chemistry career Goal: ph.D. in Organic chemistry and M.D. conduct research in medicinal chemistry and

radiochemistry for use in nuclear medicine and imaging.

FulbrightHaysCriticalLanguageAwardJay cinq-mars, history


What is Happening?VoluNTEER oF THE MoNTH

George Gomes, a political science major, has been named Volunteer of the Month for February at 826 Boston. 826 Boston is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Congrats George!

SPRING HoNoRS ouTREACH PRojECT

This year the Honors Program raised over $4,000 for Northeastern’s inaugural Relay for Life event, sponsored by Colleges Against Cancer. Special congrats to Alec Loudenback who raised a whopping $575 and will receive a special ice cream cake for his efforts!

PIzzA ANd PRoFESSoRS

This year over 150 honors students participated in our monthly Pizza and Professors events. Special thanks to the following Professors for participating:

Professor Waleed Meleis: Engineering, College of Engineering — Topic: Limits on Scientific Knowledge: Chaos, Complexity and Computability

Professor Mal Hill: Earth & Environmental Science, College of Arts and Sciences — Topic: Iceland

Professor Pam Mabrouk: Chemistry, College of Arts and Sciences — Topic: How to Become a Professor

Professor Bert Spector, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, College of Business Administration — Topic: Studying Leadership Through Film

Professor dennis Shaughnessy, International Business & Strategy, College of Business Administration — Topic: Reflections on Haiti

Prof. Dan Douglass with a group of honors students at Betty’s Wok and Noodle before the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Honors on the risecontinued from cover

The Honors on the Rise premiere event, the fall Honors leadership Retreat was created collaboratively with Roy Charette the founder of Training Path; the group that organizes our Welcome Week team building activities at the Warren Confer-ence Center and our current students. Over thirty honors students attended the fall Honors leadership Retreat. Roy planned high impact, interactive, and competitive events for a fun filled day on the topic of leadership. Some of the events included: Communication Chal-lenge, Meeting Management, and The Giant Puzzle Race. The response was overwhelmingly positive; one participant described their experience:“The event exceeded my expectations by any measure; the activities were not at all dull or repetitive, the emphasis on collaboration was great, and I was overall impressed with the planning of the event and its dynamic structure.”

The fall Honors leadership Retreat was so successful; we decided to develop a leadership conference for the spring semester. This Spring leadership Conference focused on larger scale leadership topics in a conference style format including Inclusive Leadership, Molding a Better you, and

Active Citizenship, just to name a few. University staff members and student leaders helped plan the Spring leadership Conference. Students attended sessions held by Sara DeRitter, Associate Director of Service & Community Partnerships; Colleen Cronin, Brandon Huggon, and Vicky Schroeder from the College Student Development and Counseling program; and Aaron Gill and Katie Beaure-gard, undergraduate student leaders who are BLUEPRINT mentors of the LEAD 360 program led by Chris McGill, Director of Leadership. Executive Professor Dennis Shaughnessy from the College of Business was our special keynote speaker. His presentation focused on ways to get involved with microfinance and to give back as student leaders to a larger community.

Over fifty students participated in the Honors leadership Conference in February of 2010 allowing vast opportunities to meet and interact with other honors student leaders. Students were also able to gain a better understanding of how to be an effective leader on campus and beyond. Again the feedback was extremely positive one student stated that:

“The conference was a great place to interact in a fun and interesting setting with other honors students. Even though we are all honors students we don’t always have a wide reaching event where people who are all interested in different things can come together and meet. Further the conference was very well planned and moved efficiently through the events. The events were all insightful and I believe everyone was able to gain something from every activity.”

After such a successful inaugural year, we hope to continue to develop and offer programs like Honors on the Rise for upper-class students to enhance their Honors experience.

-Colleen Cronin, Honors Program Graduate Assistant

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“ The event exceeded my expectations by any measure; the activities were not at all dull or repetitive, the emphasis on collaboration was great, and I was overall impressed with the planning of the event and its dynamic structure.”


16


Honors students travel the globe far and wide. “Where in the World?” is meant to capture students (and staff!) on their adventures around the world.

far left: Sean Hellman — business administration Nice, France

left: Sherry Bapasola — business administration Principality of Monaco, on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea

where in The worLd?

Honors Welcome WeekScavenger Hunt

lIVING lEARNING

CoRNER

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Alia Qatarneh, the Senior Resident Assistant of WVF worked collaboratively WVF Resident Assistants Krupa Asher, Quinn Bott, Erica Garfinkel, Kylie Huang and Justin White; Hall Council President Chet Eckman, Vice President Justin Alves, Treasurer Matt Takao and Secretary Caitlin Bryant; and Resident Director Laura Piechowski in West Village F to provide programming for students both fall and spring semesters. Some of the highlights of the year include:

• A West Village F Valentines day Candy Gram program. We made small candy gram bags of candy and chocolate that each resident could send one to another resident of WVF. Participants filled out a note-sending form and we delivered the bags Valentines Day weekend. About 80 candy grams were filed out and delivered throughout WVF. Members from Hall Council also helped out with delivery.

• Justin,Krupa,Quinn,Dan,EricaandKyliehadaCPR Certification program for the complex. WVE/F hosted a CPR workshop in which 20 residents signed up and took the class in one day. After the class, all participants were certified in CPR.

• QuinntookresidentstotheHarryPotterExhibitattheMuseum of Science. 20 residents attended the Harry Potter Exhibit to see props and more from the original sets, and to also learn about the film, book, and empire that is the Harry Potter craze from start to finish.

• Kylietook17residentstoseetheBlue Man Group right before Spring Break. They were in row three! This show is unique and cannot be compared to anything else, opening the scope of theatre performances.

• Over40studentsfromtheWestVillageF/E,includingRAstaff and Hall Council members took a day trip to NYC on March 20th. Some visited the typical tourist attractions, others caught up with friends and family. Students were given a guide of $10 or less/ things to do for college students list, and Alia also added how to get student rush tickets for specific Broadway shows.

• Food Around the World, a collaborative event with Hall Council, Parts I and II were introduced this semester. For part one, we experienced Mexican food from a local restaurant in February. We hope to be going to Chinatown for another Dim Sum event for the second part.

• Midnight Breakfast was a program introduced last semester during Finals week. Over 30 kinds of cereal were ordered for the event and over 80 residents came to the first program. Midnight Breakfast II was held during midterms this semester. The third midnight breakfast is being planned for finals week. Over 30 kinds of cereal, fruits, milk (including soy) will be served the night before Read-ing Day (4/21/10).

• Thebiggestandmostpopularprogramofthesemester,excluding NYC, is the trip to a Red Sox game against the Texas Rangers on April 21st! The tickets for the game will be given out to the WVF/E complex. This event is our closing program for the semester and we do not believe any other hall is going to a Red Sox Game! I am very proud of this program! We may also get a tour of Fenway before the game as well!

And finally, the program that has been nominated for Program of the Year...


• The WV E/F and A ToMS Shoes program. Hall Council and the ENTIRE WV E/F RA staff teamed up to join West Village A in the greatest program of the academic year! Over 60 spots for WV E/F were filled, making the total around 200 pairs of shoes purchased and thus donated to children in need of shoes. WVE/F is working with WVA on a program that is based on giving back. West Gives Back is a multi part program; TOMS Shoes, trash to treasure, can food drive for tie dying. With every pair of TOMS shoes purchased, TOMS will donate a pair to a child in need. This program also focuses on the education aspect of giving back, complete with a TOMS documentary.

Resident Directors Chong Kim and Noah Baum along with Resident Assistants Kelsey Jordan, Kayla Hamilton, Telsa Cariani, Eti-ini Enyoung, Michael Denham, Ryan Fox, Mallory Brown Francesca Sales, and Christian Mantilla had a great year of programming in the inaugural year at International Village!

• TheHonorsLLCinInternationalVillageparticipatedin a game night with Carey Noland, NU’s first faculty in residence. Over cake and games, the residents had the opportunity to have discussions with as well as better get to know Professor Noland. Many residents stopped by over the course of the evening to eat cake, learn something new/ interesting, and come together as a more cohesive community.

• TheHonorsresidentsweregiventheopportunitytoparticipate in a fun, educational, and most importantly, alcohol free event on a Friday night. “An Affair to Remember” provided residents with a healthy and safe alternative on the weekend by giving them a great setting to have fun. Met by a red carpet, photomural, and fun mocktails, all the residents that came to this event were sure to have a great time.

• SeveralresidentsintheHonorsLLCparticipatedina“Pizza & Prof” event put on by the honors program. These residents met in the INV lobby at 4:15 and attended the event together. Professor Shaugnessy spoke about the current crisis in Haiti and how companies and

I just wanted to say hello and give you all a little update on Texas so far. Co-op has been a challenging but overall rewarding experience so far at Cisco. I am learning a lot of technical stuff but more importantly how organizations function, what to do and what not to do when it comes to managing employees and motivating them, and I am discov-ering what my true passions are. I am finding that what I really like to do is

solve people problems, not computer problems. I like to interact with people, understand a business need, and translate it into an executable idea. So although my position now is more deal-ing with the machines, I am working hard, learning, and having fun. Texas is VERY different than the northeast. Today it was 58 degrees though, so I am not complaining. There is lots of driving, everything is very big and spread out.

-Greg Skloot, business administration

dispaTches from co-op

businesses are contributing and providing aid. Residents were able to take part in a group discussion about the pros and cons of relief efforts by these companies. Residents were able to come together over a serious issue while eating pizza and contributing their thoughts.

• AspartoftheHonorsLLC,sixresidentstookpartina focus group, sponsored by Northeastern’s Agape Christian Fellowship, in one of International Village’s classrooms. Over pizza and soda, residents gathered to discuss and offer opinions on various topics, such as relationships, spirituality, and life in general. The participants, who were of differing spiritual and religious backgrounds, were actively engaged and eager to put forth their viewpoints, while at the same time encouraging those of others.

• TheHonorsLLCalsoparticipatedinatriptotheliveperformance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Harvard Square AMC. Before the show, residents attending engaged in a discussion about the film’s history, it’s standing as a cult phenomenon, and the controversial topics it addresses. After the conversation over pizza, 16 residents headed to the AMC to view the Rocky Horror Picture Show’s interactive midnight live performance.

Honors p e r s p e c t i v e

Volume 5 – Spring 2010

Northeastern University Honors program360 Huntington Avenue150 West village FBoston, Massachusetts 02115

03.23Prof. Dennis Shaughnessy, Pizza & Prof

03.27Honors Spring Outreach Project – Relay for Life!

04.06Prof. Nancy Kindelan, Pizza & Prof

04.127th Annual Honors Evening

05.10Honors Dialogue leaves for Rome, Italy!

09.02First Year Honors Students move in!

Documents

NU Honors Newsletter Spring 2010