Gateway to University Honors
In the fall of 2014, I took the course HNRS1010: Gateway to University Honors. This course is designed to help students maximize their potential at UC and in the University Honors Program. The course learning objectives include:
More importantly than what I’ve learned about UC and UHP, however, is all that I’ve learned about myself. This course has helped me to identify my passions and interests and determine exactly what those mean in relation to my experience at UC. I’ve been able to resolve exactly what I want to get out of my time here at UC and understand how the University Honors Program can support me in those endeavors. I’m thankful for the direction and guidance this course has given me in my crucial first semester at UC.
- Understand the requirement and benefits of participation in the University Honors Program.
- Evaluate personal interests, passions, and goals related to the four University Honors Program thematic areas: community engagement, global studies, leadership, research & creative arts.
- Explore the value of reflection and engage in the reflective process to deepen their learning.
- Develop relationships with members of the University Honors Program Community.
More importantly than what I’ve learned about UC and UHP, however, is all that I’ve learned about myself. This course has helped me to identify my passions and interests and determine exactly what those mean in relation to my experience at UC. I’ve been able to resolve exactly what I want to get out of my time here at UC and understand how the University Honors Program can support me in those endeavors. I’m thankful for the direction and guidance this course has given me in my crucial first semester at UC.
For Gateway to Honors, I took part in an assignment that called for reflecting on my personal passions and interest.
I chose to ponder my passion for traveling.
"Augustine of Hippo once said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read one page.” Now, I rather enjoy reading, and I certainly can’t fathom the unfortunate idea of reading only one page of an entire volume. My, what I would miss! Think of the beauty and insight one comes across flitting through the pages of a book. I know that this earth is a marvelous novel just waiting to be perused, with bits of history and poetry and short stories and grand illustration, and I’d like to read as much of it as I possibly can. Thus, traveling and exploring this expansive globe is one of my deepest passions. I love my home here in Ohio, but the whole world is my home. I find such pleasure in watching the sunset from as many different places as I can and learning the vernacular of the millions of small and large discourse communities that span the earth. From exploring communities only miles from where I reside, to roaming the U.S., to crossing oceans and language barriers, I love it all.
There’s a quote by the lovely Eudora Welty that reads, “Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming part of it.” This is what happened to me. When I joined the organization FCCLA (Family, Career, and Community Leaders) in high school, I had the opportunity to travel around the country for national conferences. Particularly during my senior year, when I served as a National Office, I took journeys quite often, as I traveled alone a few times each month to represent in various capacities. I always enjoyed making the treks, and I became an old pro at packing and adhering to flying etiquette. During those times, I loved what I was doing with FCCLA, such as speaking and meeting members and advisors, so the icing on the cake was seeing the gorgeous mountains of New Hampshire, feeling the California Sunshine, and exploring our Nation’s Capitol. The most impactful trip I took, though, was not to one of these glorious locations, but rather to the humble state of Nebraska this past April. Up to that point, I knew that I loved to travel, but I felt like my home would always be in small-town Ohio. I didn’t feel like I could feel at home anywhere else. In Lincoln, Nebraska, though, I realized that I felt right at home. I suppose this could be lent in part to the vast expanses of fields that mirror my hometown, but the similarities ended there. I felt at home because I met marvelous people who are now marvelous friends, and because I fell in love with the all the parts of that place that I wouldn’t encounter anywhere else, such as a delicious runza, Dorothy Lynch dressing, or the unprecedented pride for Husker football. Go Big Red! I realized that everywhere in the world can feel like home if you only become a part of it. I now understand how amazing it is that every place I visit has something unique about it, something to learn or enjoy or experience that I can’t find anywhere else. It is my passion to seek out these unique points in every corner of the globe.
Thankfully, when travel is your passion, you very literally have a world of opportunities that await you. I am so grateful for the many opportunities at UC that encourage and enable traveling. I hope to venture to Europe this spring on a faculty-led study-abroad trip, and I am loving every minute of planning for my ultimate college travel hope: studying abroad in New Zealand. In addition, I am not taking for granted all the wondrous pieces to be a part of here in the U.S. I took advantage of my connections in FCCLA and presented a workshop at the National Cluster Meeting in Little Rock, AR, this past November, and I will be interning in Washington D.C. this summer. I have a savings account set up to help me keep track of funding my adventures, and I love to read about how to travel inexpensively and effectively. There truly is an art to it all. If traveling is an art, it’s one I’d like to master, and if the world is a book, it’s one I want to read.
I chose to ponder my passion for traveling.
"Augustine of Hippo once said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read one page.” Now, I rather enjoy reading, and I certainly can’t fathom the unfortunate idea of reading only one page of an entire volume. My, what I would miss! Think of the beauty and insight one comes across flitting through the pages of a book. I know that this earth is a marvelous novel just waiting to be perused, with bits of history and poetry and short stories and grand illustration, and I’d like to read as much of it as I possibly can. Thus, traveling and exploring this expansive globe is one of my deepest passions. I love my home here in Ohio, but the whole world is my home. I find such pleasure in watching the sunset from as many different places as I can and learning the vernacular of the millions of small and large discourse communities that span the earth. From exploring communities only miles from where I reside, to roaming the U.S., to crossing oceans and language barriers, I love it all.
There’s a quote by the lovely Eudora Welty that reads, “Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming part of it.” This is what happened to me. When I joined the organization FCCLA (Family, Career, and Community Leaders) in high school, I had the opportunity to travel around the country for national conferences. Particularly during my senior year, when I served as a National Office, I took journeys quite often, as I traveled alone a few times each month to represent in various capacities. I always enjoyed making the treks, and I became an old pro at packing and adhering to flying etiquette. During those times, I loved what I was doing with FCCLA, such as speaking and meeting members and advisors, so the icing on the cake was seeing the gorgeous mountains of New Hampshire, feeling the California Sunshine, and exploring our Nation’s Capitol. The most impactful trip I took, though, was not to one of these glorious locations, but rather to the humble state of Nebraska this past April. Up to that point, I knew that I loved to travel, but I felt like my home would always be in small-town Ohio. I didn’t feel like I could feel at home anywhere else. In Lincoln, Nebraska, though, I realized that I felt right at home. I suppose this could be lent in part to the vast expanses of fields that mirror my hometown, but the similarities ended there. I felt at home because I met marvelous people who are now marvelous friends, and because I fell in love with the all the parts of that place that I wouldn’t encounter anywhere else, such as a delicious runza, Dorothy Lynch dressing, or the unprecedented pride for Husker football. Go Big Red! I realized that everywhere in the world can feel like home if you only become a part of it. I now understand how amazing it is that every place I visit has something unique about it, something to learn or enjoy or experience that I can’t find anywhere else. It is my passion to seek out these unique points in every corner of the globe.
Thankfully, when travel is your passion, you very literally have a world of opportunities that await you. I am so grateful for the many opportunities at UC that encourage and enable traveling. I hope to venture to Europe this spring on a faculty-led study-abroad trip, and I am loving every minute of planning for my ultimate college travel hope: studying abroad in New Zealand. In addition, I am not taking for granted all the wondrous pieces to be a part of here in the U.S. I took advantage of my connections in FCCLA and presented a workshop at the National Cluster Meeting in Little Rock, AR, this past November, and I will be interning in Washington D.C. this summer. I have a savings account set up to help me keep track of funding my adventures, and I love to read about how to travel inexpensively and effectively. There truly is an art to it all. If traveling is an art, it’s one I’d like to master, and if the world is a book, it’s one I want to read.
Mock Honors experience proposal - peru changemakers, spring break 2015
peru_honors_proposal_fall_14_copy.pdf |