Tag: honors program

Blurbs

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  Mathematics and Economics double major, Zane Moran ’19, is exploring the relationship between climate change and salamander length, hoping that any relationship that can be observed through the research may help serve as future indicators of climate change. 

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  Thomas Wolfe ’19 is analyzing bone and hair samples from owl pellets (balls of undigestable material hacked up by owls) as a means of studying the composition of the small mammal population of Northeast Tennessee and to compare results gained through this method to results gained through a more traditional approach based on trapping. 

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  Mathematics and Biology double major, Zane Moran ’19, is using both his majors to explore the relationships between climate change and salamander lengths, hoping that any relationships that can be observed through the research may help serve as future indicators of climate change. 

• Preparing for her trip to the Netherlands and Sweden, Skyla Renner ’18 studied about the two countries sustainability and gender equality in a semester-long class. This was the psychology and sociology double major’s first time abroad.

  “My life changed, because I was able to experience what felt like a whole new world. Until you travel and see other countries for yourself, it is difficult to understand other countries, their culture, their people, etc. I also have a desire to travel a lot more now,” said Renner.

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  Studying for a semester abroad in Barcelona, Spain, a city with 1.6 million people, was quite a difference for Sara Foster ’18, who is use to living in Southwest Virginia. When the mass communications and math double major wasn’t spending her time studying design Elisava, she was visiting 18 cities in 8 different countries, making new friends, meeting up with old friends who were also studying abroad, and enjoying the phenomenal food. 

• Deciding to spend her fall ’16 semester abroad in Dublin, Ireland, wasn’t a hard decision for Emily Jones ’18, a Honors Program Scholar, to make. Having the opportunity to be a part of an International Partnership for Service Learning program (IPSL), allowed Jones to further explore her Civic Innovation and Environmental Studies double major in a different country.

  “My experience abroad was incredible and I would go back in a heartbeat. Both of my majors and advisors helped to make sure that I was prepared academically and personally,” Jones said.

  Joining clubs and taking classes at Dublin City University, and making friendships with students from France, the United States, Malaysia and Kenya, were just a few highlights of her trip. She also spent around 15 hours a week, as part of the IPSL program, at a service site in Dublin with an organization called Global Action Plan Ireland (GAP) working with their Environmental Education Coordinator.

  “I helped to design and facilitate environmental education programs in the primary and secondary schools in Dublin. While working with this organization I was able to learn about the environment in Ireland, how they deal with environmental issues and about ways they promote solutions through education. Engaging with Ireland through a service-learning program allowed me to also reflect on global citizenship, the idea of place and connections across cultures. This was one of the most rewarding parts about my experience abroad,” said Jones.

  Even though her trip is over, Jones has made lasting relationships and connections, including still talking to her host family she stayed with in Ireland. “My semester abroad I call my life-challenging experience because you are pushed out of your comfort zone and learn about adaptability, communication, global citizenship, critical thinking, reflecting, and confidence. I would recommend living and studying in a foreign country to anyone,” said Jones.

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  From volunteering in Costa Rica as an English as a Second Language teacher, to traveling to Trinidad and Tobago for a Habitat for Humanity trip, Casey Heinlein ’18, a Honors Program Scholar who is a double major in Civic Innovation and Religion with a Minor in Math, has experienced parts of the world most people haven’t. Her most recent adventure was spending a semester studying abroad at Cardiff University in Wales.

  While at Cardiff, Heinlein took classes learning about things such as Globalization and Social Change, Reformation History, and Cross Cultural Management. Hitting the books wasn’t the only thing on her agenda while abroad though, Heinlein also took the time to immerse herself in the culture and get involved. She found herself learning the Welsh language, meeting new people, discovering how to cook Welsh Cakes, and trying different things that she normally wouldn’t like.

  Heinlein said she credits the “Little bits and pieces of “Well, you should probably get involved in campus activities,” which is a thing Emory & Henry promotes itself,” for why she got involved at the University while there.

  With her semester abroad over, Heinlein isn’t just walking away having only learned what she was taught in the classroom and from the people and culture, she is also walking away having learned a little bit more about herself.

  “I am a very independent person, but I’m not very confident. When it comes to making decisions? Not confident at all. This trip, there were so many times when I was scheduled to get on a bus, and then I would miss that bus and I would have to think on the spot and make a plan and problem solve. It made me more confident in my problem solving and decision making skills and capabilities, which is really awesome for me,” Heinlein said.

  What began as a simple desire to travel to a place she had never been before, Europe, ended as an experience Heinlein will never forget. Along with newfound discoveries about the world and herself, her time abroad is certainly one for the books.

• Political science–history major Carlie Fugleman ’11 provided a critique of commonly used models for explaining the role of political and ideological considerations in Senators’ approach to advising and consenting to nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court. In her undergraduate honors thesis, Carlie demonstrated why the standard models fail to capture key elements of the political maneuvering that surrounds Supreme Court nominations. Carlie plans to enroll in a Ph.D. program in public law and American politics.

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