Wednesday, October 21: Dean Brian Railsback addresses a group of area high school students and WCU alumni at the Asheville Hilton on the subject of “The Honors Path: Developing Intellectual Talent for U.S. Success in a Flat World.”
Honors College Wins the Catamount Cup!
October 17, 2009: Board President Shannon Owen (in white, center) and members of The Honors College Board of Directors meet with the Cat before pulling out on the Honors float for the Homecoming parade in Sylva. The Catamount Cup is awarded each year to the campus organization that shows the most school spirit; the cup requires significant service, creativity, and community to win. The award was announced at halftime during the Homecoming game and will be presented to the Honors Board at their meeting on November 2.
Honors Freshmen Learn About Study Abroad
Thursday, October 1: John Schweikert, from the Office of International Programs, gives Honors first-year students tips about studying overseas; more than 50% of the undergraduates who go abroad from WCU are in The Honors College.
Honors Students Unite with CURVE
Saturday, September 19: Chris Blake, Co-chair of the Cullowhee Revitalization Endeavor (CURVE), organizes 90 Honors College volunteers to help landscape and clean up sections of Old Cullowhee. Honors students also helped at the CURVE/Cullowhee concert which raised over $2,400 for the organization.
Honors Tailgate at First Home Game
September 12, 2009: Honors students hit the chicken and fixins' at The Honors College tailgate for WCU's first home game.
Welcome to 2009 Fall Term!
Monday, August 24, 2009: A welcome back Pizza Party in the lobby of Reynolds Hall on the first day of classes.
Mentoring Program Commences
Sunday, August 23, 2009: Mentors and First-Year Mentees get together at the Ice Cream Social sponsored by The Honors College Board of Directors.
Mentor Justin Kleberg on the Ultimate Frisbee at the Ice Cream Social.
Moving into Balsam Hall
Friday, August 21, 2009: The first of many Honors students move into the new residence, with help from volunteers.
Shannon Owen, President of The Honors College Board of Directors, moves into her new room in Balsam Hall.
Honors College Students at Graduation
Saturday, May 9, 2009: Dean Railsback joins five of the 67 Honors graduates in the line-up just before WCU’s May Commencement begins.
Honors College Board of Directors
May 5, 2009: Members of The Honors College Board of Directors get together with Dean Railsback for dinner at his home to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and the end of the academic year.
Honors College Graduates show their medals
April 30, 2009: Honors graduates received their medals at a ceremony in Reynolds Hall. About half are pictured here.
Honors College Graduation Cookout
April 30, 2009: Honors students gather for burgers and dogs at the end-of-year cook-out and Medaling Ceremony at Reynolds Hall—the last one at the old home of The Honors College.
Honors College Sponsors Trip to NCUR
April 18, 2009: With 48 projects accepted, The Honors College sent its biggest team of researchers out of state to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse (some of the group is pictured here by the charter bus). For the third year in a row, WCU was #1 in the UNC system at NCUR. This year, WCU was tied for #5 in the nation at the conference.
Undergraduate EXPO 2009
March 23, 2009: The Expo, running from March 23 through 26, featured 191 student presentations (sponsored by 71 faculty members) from across all disciplines at WCU. Pictured above is Dr. Wayne Billon, Nutrition and Dietetics professor, who with Dr. Laura Cruz (History) and Lorrie Willey (Business) received The Honors College RODIN (Recognition of Distinction in Instruction and Nurturing) Award for superb work as a mentor of undergraduate research projects.
Honors Student Publishes Book Chapter
A course assignment for Honors student John Barbacci, begun in a class at Johnston Community College, resulted in a chapter in a book published in 2008. Barbacci published “Tobacco Tales, Told from the Ground Up” in North Carolina Tobacco, A History, edited by William Yeargin and published by The History Press.
“After submitting a semester’s worth of historical research papers for Dr. Yeargin,” said Barbacci, “I was given an opportunity to be a part of the historian’s current enterprise.” Barbacci conducted primary research for his subject “via grassroots interviews with key individuals in the tobacco growing, curing and selling professions, both past and present. I was able to interview persons who had spent their entire lives in the tobacco fields . . . Others interviewed were well-to-do owners of large tobacco clearing houses who are some of the wealthiest people in the state.”
Barbacci majors in International Business and has traveled extensively, as noted in the photo above.
Honors Study Abroad Night
January 21, 2009: South Korean exchange students from Hannam University, Je-Hyun Lee and Eunji Kim (right), share a quick dinner of Reynolds Hall spaghetti and garlic bread with Amanda Shirk (left) at The Honors College Study Abroad meeting. Study Abroad Advisors, Financial Aid personnel, and international students met with about 100 Honors students at Reynolds to discuss how easy it is to go overseas for a semester or year. Honors students make up more than 50% of the students who go abroad from WCU each year.
Honors Student Gives Speech at Commencement
December 13, 2008: Laura Litchfield, a cancer survivor and an Honors senior and Special Studies/Pre-Med major, was selected to give the WCU commencement speech. Her topic was courage and perseverance in the face of personal or social hard times.
December Reception for Graduates in Reynolds Hall
December 4, 2008: Honors students receive their Honors medallions for the December Commencement at a reception in Reynolds Hall. Students who graduate from The Honors College receive the Honors medallion, a special Honors diploma, and formal recognition during the commencement ceremony.
A Chili Thanksgiving
November 24, 2008: Associate Dean Carlisle digs in with Honors students at the annual Chili Cook-Off/Thanksgiving Dinner in Reynolds. Dean Railsback, Carlisle, and Executive Assistant Bonnie Beam made enough chili to feed over 100 Honors students in 14 minutes (a record wipe-out).
Halloween Gets Weird Again
October 31, 2008: Most of Reynolds Hall packed the lobby for the costume contest, food, and dancing.
Honors Scholars participate in live radio broadcast of War of the Worlds
October 30, 2008: Honors College Scholars preformed on stage and presented undergraduate research posters on a wide range of subjects to enhance the audience experience at the War of the Worlds live radio broadcast at the Fine and Performing Arts Center. The Honors College, the School of Music, the Department of Communications, and the Department of Stage and Screen raised over $3000 for student scholarships.
The Great Pizza – T-shirt give away
October 1, 2008: As part of Dean Railsback’s return from the annual Pledge Ride Scholarship Ride, the Honors students had a picnic on the lawn in front of Reynolds and grabbed up a variety of Honors T-shirts. Begun in 1997, the bicycle rides have raised over $140,000 in scholarship money for Honors students.
Honors students present The Green Band Initiative
September 20, 2008: Members of the Honors College Board present an initiative to the North Carolina Honors Council Conference at Meredith College in Raleigh. The initiative, to create a “band” of Honors students statewide to focus on sustainable practices on campus as well as undergraduate research related to the environment, was well-received at the conference.
Honors Students Tour The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Reservation
September 13, 2008: Honors students enjoyed a day out at the Cherokee Indian Reservation where they visited the museum, the new high school, the commercial center, and an authentic pioneer village farm nearby in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Gallo of Wood’s Hole Visits
September 10, 2008: Dr. Dave Gallo of the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute gave a special lecture to Honors students, revealing mysteries of the ocean at depths of 20,000 feet or more. After the lecture, Dr. Gallo, conferring here with Dean Railsback, invited any interested member of The Honors College to apply for a summer internship at Wood’s Hole.
Tailgating at the First Home Game
August 28, 2008: Honors students chow down on fried chicken, baked beans, cold slaw, biscuits, and plenty of sweet tea at the opening day of Catamount Football.
Honors students travel to Highlands to hear guest speaker
August 25, 2008: Students from the Honors Forum (USI 101) classes prepare for a presentation by Ray Anderson on the carbon footprint of his company, Interface, the largest manufacturer of carpet tiles in the world. Anderson is one of the most highly visible CEOs in the country on matters of sustainable business practices. The students were invited to attend by the Center for Life Enrichment of nearby Highlands, NC.
“Opening of the College” Honors Cook-out
August 18, 2008: Honors students gather on the lawn in front of Reynolds Hall on the first day of classes for the annual cook out, a time to meet and greet new friends and old as the academic year begins.
Browse the links below for recent WCU news of interest to current and prospective Honors students and their families.
A diverse panel of authors whose work includes fiction, memoirs, poems, plays and children’s literature will be featured during the Spring Literary Festival, Monday, March 22, through Thursday, March 25, at Western Carolina University.
Memorializing genocide topic of holocaust scholar
Noted Holocaust scholar Armen T. Marsoobian will speak about the relationship between art and the act of memorializing genocide at 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 16, in Room 130 of the Fine and Performing Arts Center on the campus of Western Carolina University.
WCU No. 2 for national conference
WCU students rank second in the nation in the number of research projects accepted for presentation at the country’s most prestigious undergraduate research conference.
Student helps develop ‘Dirty Jobs’ episode
Western Carolina University senior Erin Wagoner spent her summer internship getting the dirt on dirty jobs for Discovery Channel show “Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe,” and two ideas she researched were filmed.
Eighteen-year-old to receive degree
At an age when most students are thinking about graduating from high school or entering college, 18-year-old Devon Green is getting ready to don cap and gown.