Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emerg.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: It's 6 o' clock and time again for Brain Matters, the official radio show of the UA Counseling Center. We are broadcasting from the campus of the University of Alabama. Good evening. My name is Dr. B.J. guenther and I'm the host of the show along with my colleague and producer Kathryn Howell. And in case you don't know, this show is about mental and physical health issues that affect college students and in particular UA students. So you can listen to us each Tuesday night at 6pm on 90.7 FM or you can listen online at WVUAFM UA edu and you can also download any app that you prefer I like my tuner radio app and just type in WVUAFM 90.7. You can find our shows there.
Excuse me. Also, if you have any upcoming any ideas topic ideas for upcoming shows, email those to me@brain mattersradiobuafm ua edu because we're gonna some help with coming up with some show topics for the spring. We don't do shows in the summer, only the fall and the spring and we need some ideas for show topics. And I always say this every week, you know. No, I don't think any topic really is off basis or we won't address or we won't try to do some research on and get some guests on for the topic. So if you have heard us do something maybe even about like depression or stress management or test anxiety, we could still it's still a good idea to revisit those topics every once in a while because trends change in college mental health and we need I feel like some of those topics are really important to talk about. So don't be afraid to send those ideas if you have any or if you want us to talk about something with regards to college mental health. Again, that's Brain MattersRadioJuafm UA Edu Tonight we're exploring one of the University of Alabama's most dynamic and inspiring programs. It's the Honors College. And Joining me is Dr. Ann Franklin Lamar. She's the director of honors year one and an instructor in the Honors College at the University of Alabama, Dr. Lamar plays a key role in helping students transition into college life while fostering academic excellence, leadership, and community engagement. Through the Honors year one program, she helps new college students discover their passions, connect with peers, and chart their course for success, both on campus and beyond. And I'm so excited to have her with us today to talk about the Honors College experience, what makes it unique, and how it prepares students to thrive at the campus capstone and in the world beyond. I was just saying to Dr. Lamar that we've never had anybody from honors College zone, and it's such an important part. It's such a. You know, it's. It's really something that we have not even. I've not even invited anybody to talk about Honors College, but now that I think about it, I've seen many students, you know, over the years at the counseling center who have been a part of the Honors College. So I don't understand why I haven't done that. It's just I haven't gotten around to it, I guess, in all the years. Thank you for being on the show.
[00:03:42] Speaker C: I'm happy to be here. Thank you.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Tell the listeners a little more about yourself, if you would, where you're from, where you went to school, your credentials, and why you're interested in honors college, how you got involved.
[00:03:58] Speaker C: All right. I am originally from Greenville, Mississippi, and that place roots me in a lot of the work that I do. I went to Mississippi University for women for undergraduate.
[00:04:13] Speaker B: Yes, the W.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: And I loved my undergraduate experience. I was in an honors college there.
And then I came to Alabama following a lot of family who had come to school here and worked on a master's and PhD in English. And I actually started teaching in the honors college while I was finishing my PhD. So I got started with being in honors in undergrad, but then was able to begin teaching it. And it was a space where I could teach classes that I was really interested in, bringing together students from all different majors.
And I was teaching classes that directly related to the dissertation that I was writing in a way that we were looking at women's text. So that's. I was transcribing a diary for my dissertation and annotating that. At the same time, I was teaching students about why women's primary texts are so important to our history and to imagining women biographies and who they are and how they appear to us culturally. So my. My work is in. In English, but I also did a good bit of Women's studies and gender studies along with that.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: That's always convenient when your research when. When what you're doing at the moment happens to coincide with what you're researching.
Yes, it's very good. That's very good. That's. Did you plan it that way?
I think so.
What about you mentioned you went to the W.
Mississippi University for Women. Right. And in Honors College and I'm sure over the years you have spoken with other universities, other colleges. How does UA's Honor Honors College compare with other universities institutions? I'm just curious.
[00:06:18] Speaker C: We have one of the largest honors college in the nation.
We.
We are able to as a faculty which is. Is something that is not many honors colleges have honors specific faculty members. So we have.
We have that blessing of having. Having faculty members who are full time over here as well as administrators and that allows us to build really robust offer first year through our capstone with a lot of special topics courses where we get into those small 19 person classes that are. Those are the first ones that I actually taught in honors and those are build into our. Our capstone our final research in our curriculum in the university honors curriculum. So we also have 10 programs and that that's something that nationally we are a bit ahead of the curve on because we have programs from STEM to MBA and STEM to create that are housed in the business school but we have a lot of engineers and students in STEM fields but also create MBA as the arts and sciences folks headed into the mba. We also have Witt Fellows and Randall research.
We have McCullough which is a health based program. So lots of. Lots of different programs. And then our.
Our largest program is the university Honors program and that's the one that I.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Teach within and it's the our I mentioned before we started the show. Our first show this semester for the academic year was about the first year experience in general and how important the first year is for college students.
And your role as director of Honors Year one is that similar but it's just more focused on just the honors college obviously. But explain a little bit about year one and your take on how important it is to get started on the right foot. You know, when you start college right.
[00:08:41] Speaker C: Finding your place in college in each change in life is so important and it's something I really have a heart for because I didn't have the easiest transition to college. And my professors and my peers around me did a magnificent job of welcoming me in and making me feel like I was home at the W. So that's something That I like to think about as I'm imagining. What we are doing in Honors Year 1 is helping students find a place in honors and at ua. And the model that we've created for our freshmen is we have, we meet in large lectures, anywhere from 40 to 70 people and half of the time of those classes. So one whole day of that two hour class is devoted to being in a peer led small group of about 10 to 12 students.
So they have the ability to really find people around them who may be very different in a lot of ways, but they all have that shared experience of being freshmen at the University of Alabama and trying to figure out where to do their laundry and what are the best places to eat and all those issues. So within the work that we're doing, we have a curriculum that introduces them to honors as what we want them to think about being citizens and leaders and thinkers and the concepts that we want them to be considering, like what does belongingness do with education and things like that. But we're also pulling in co curricular things like the peer facilitated small groups. And we require them to go to a community event each semester and we're asking them to go to things in the honors college so they see what the seniors are presenting on, but they're also able to go to the Kentuck Festival and see what that's like. So broadening out their, their view of campus of Tuscaloosa in that work of helping them find their place.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: The community event you mentioned Kentuck, what are some other like community community events? Is it a requirement, did you say? Or is it required for a course or is it just highly recommend it?
[00:11:11] Speaker C: It's required for our uh, 100 or 110.
[00:11:14] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:14] Speaker C: And that course is all of our students in the university honors program take 100 or 110. 100 is fall, 110 is spring.
And they're required to go to one of those and reflect on it. So other things could be theater programs and art opening on campus, a research presentation by a scholar. Yeah, the campus. We go through the list of events on campus. So a lot of things that are happening through the counseling center are on that list too. So a wide variety of.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: I wish all students, I wish all students were required to do this, you know, because I meet a lot of students who, they don't really leave the.
In quotes I'm air quoting here, you know, walls of this campus sometimes they don't even know about like Northport or you know, some of the other things that are offered in our community. And it's kind of sad sometimes because they just think, you know, Tuscaloosa is the University of Alabama. And it's not, it's a big park.
[00:12:21] Speaker C: Don'T get me wrong.
[00:12:22] Speaker B: But there's a whole community out there of things to discover. And so this is really cool. Listen, we're gonna take our first break and then when we come back, I've taken notes. I've got so many more questions. I've gone off on a tangent because I've got prepared questions, but then I've taken some notes. So we'll be right back. You're listening to brain matters on 90.7 the Capstone.
[00:12:54] Speaker C: WVUAFM, Tuscaloosa.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are US student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Hey, you're back listening to brain matters on 90.7, the capstone. I'm BJ Guenther and we're talking tonight with Dr. Ann Franklin Lamar, who is the director of Honors Year 1 in Honors College. And it's just fascinating to me. I wanted to before I forget, Kathryn just reminded me and I almost forgot. If you have ideas for upcoming show topics, we need those. Send those to me. Email those to me at Brain matters radio at WVUAFM UA EDU. Thanks so much, Dr. Lamar. I want to call you Dr. Franklin. So if I say that, just ignore me.
Anne Franklin, how do you is the Honors college I don't know how to ask this, but is the honors College used sometimes to entice students to come to the University of Alabama? How is it used in recruiting I guess is my question. And what kinds or what types of students are you recruiting?
[00:14:34] Speaker C: So it is something that we we use for recruiting for sure. And our under Dr. Witt was a few presidents ago was actually when the honors college became a pretty large part of the recruiting.
Our students who are coming in with merit scholarships are often applying to the Honors College as well. So it's allowing us to be competitive with schools that are across the nation and folks who are coming into a particular program, maybe they're interested in health studies in McCullough with 20 to 25 people is a really interesting thing for them to imagine.
We have all of those different programs working, but we also are.
Are saying at the Honors College we're going to be able to not only help you find your place, but connect you with research mentors or get you involved in experiential education.
Another part of my role is to lead Honors Action every year, which is a community engaged orientation for freshmen where we go into the county schools and work for a week. They move in a week early and that it's peer led and a really wonderful experience that on the ground gets them into wider Tuscaloosa county and into spaces that they wouldn't normally be in.
So that's.
Experiential education is definitely one of the hallmarks of the honors college and it expands past that to engage Tuscaloosa and Rocketry.
Lots of opportunities for, for experiential education as well.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Does that. Is that one of the things that makes our program different than other institutions or is that offered across the, you know, page in with other honors colleges? How do I say, Did I say that right?
[00:16:45] Speaker C: Yeah, there are a good number of honors colleges in, especially at research universities who are doing very, very similar things.
Our, the experiential education is really one of the places that we stand out. Whether it's action to engage Tuscaloosa, which is in the schools in all different types of ways.
We're doing that a little ahead of other honors colleges as well as the smaller programs and tailored experiences.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it sounds like it.
You know, this is a, this show is a college mental health. We really talk mostly about college mental health. What are some. What have you seen or talked with some of the students? What are they struggling with? Does. Does honors college. Do you feel like the students who are in honors college have more on them or they're struggling with more than just undergraduate students who aren't in honors college.
[00:17:55] Speaker C: I don't necessarily think that they're struggling more, but they are coming to college and maybe for the first time in a space where they're really having to work on their academics as well as their social life, they may have had one or both kind of set for them in high school.
And the worry of am I going to find my friends? Am I going to figure out who I want to apply to be in their research lab? What happens if I don't make an A in absolutely everything?
That stress of potential failure is definitely something that I think all college students deal with. But our honors college students do do work as they're high achieving and they have, they have goals and dreams that we all want them to, to make come true, but they are, they're struggling to, to see that happen on, on the ground sometimes.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I hear you.
You know, it's just, I didn't. I feel like some of the students I have seen who have been in honors College, they take on more.
They just, they feel like they need to I guess or I don't think they're being pressured to that they just maybe society but you know, they feel like they need to take on a lot because I think you're right. I think they did that. They probably were juggling a lot sometimes in high school, but it's different here and I hear that often. You said you mentioned applying to Honors College. So explain that to me.
[00:19:38] Speaker C: I didn't.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: I guess I didn't realize that you may have said that in your introduction, in your, you know, introduction, but.
So they have to apply to Honors College. Does that mean there is a cap on the numbers?
[00:19:51] Speaker C: There's not a cap on our numbers. We have around 2,000 freshmen this year and that's, that's a pretty typical number the past five or six years for us. And those 2000 freshmen are coming from all 10 of our partner programs. So that's about 1300 in the UHP. And then the, the other partner programs have, have different, they do have different thresholds for people number of people they can accept into Randall or Wit.
So some of our programs do have, do have capacity limits, but the Honors College as a whole does not.
And we for in state students, they need to have a 28 on the a 3.5 GPA. For out of state students it's 30 ACT and a 3.5.
Students are also able to apply test optional with a 3.75 high school GPA.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Wow. So is there, is there a privilege I guess or a benefit to being an honors college?
You know, so many students talk about like getting sashes for graduation. Yeah, I hear a lot about that.
And also do they get a choice in where they live on campus and also do they get to register earlier or anything like that? I don't know anything about what the benefits are that really entice students to want to be in Honors College other than just for the knowledge.
[00:21:36] Speaker C: Yeah. So there are quite a few benefits to it.
Some of the, the ones that students mention the most are the early registration. So students are able to.
Able to register earlier than their peers with the same number of hours if they're in the Honors College.
And that we do have a residential honors campus.
A couple of our residence halls are honors specific and we have faculty and residents who live there and we do programming, especially HYO programming within the residence hall halls and around the residence halls, so they have that space as well. But I, I'm pretty partial to the curricular reason for being in Honors because you, you get to experience working with all, all different types of students and people who are from any and everywhere are different majors, different backgrounds. And it's. We intentionally create our, our space within Honors to make sure that students are mixing within those small groups and able to meet and work on a group project with these few people and then meet another group at an HCA event. So not just the curricular aspect of thinking about being leaders and thinkers and citizens, but also the co curricular activities as well.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: I was looking on our, one of our, our name lists for our embedded therapists. I think we have an embedded therapist, Haley French.
Yeah, I wanted to make sure she was at Honors College because we only see this, this is kind of new for the counseling center for the last couple of years to have embedded therapists in different, you know, colleges and schools across our campus. And Haley's at Honors College. She is the Honors College impeded therapist. Have you had any interactions with Haley or do you feel like the students are utilizing that service?
[00:23:52] Speaker C: Yes. And Haley is.
She. I can't say enough. Wonderful.
She, she steps in and helps students and faculty. I have popped into her office and asked her questions when I've had a hard discussion with a student or I want to past her.
She is just always, always ready to talk, always ready to help. And she, she specifically helped us with our belongingness and education unit in Honors year one. So she, she's recorded a preliminary video that all of our honors year one students see in uh, 100 or 110. So they're, they're hearing from her. Some, she's making it to some of the classes, but we have 13 this semester. So she, she's recorded a you that not only says hey, I'm here and these are the resources, but also talks through Maslow's and how, how they can be thinking about the beginning of their freshman year and what some things that are coming up mental health wise and how, how she can be there to, to help them. So she has, she's joined us at just the right time, I think. And it, she's a godsend.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: I think so too. And I mean, you know, I feel like most students in Honors College are a little more Mature on some levels. I know developmentally it's different, but on some levels, maybe academically definitely more mature than some, you know, freshmen coming in, for instance. So, you know, I think you, hopefully you would agree with that. But, but sometimes they still need a little bit of help, you know, from counselors and us and Haley. I get it. We're going to take our next break. When we come back, I want to talk some more about the academic experience and also some of the programs you've mentioned, projects in service of Honors College. We'll be right back. You're listening to brain matters on 90.7 the capstone.
[00:26:14] Speaker C: WVUAFM Tuscaloosa.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show hosts or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective counties crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: Hey, you're back listening to brain matters on 90.7 the Capstone. I'm BJ Gunther. We're talking tonight about the Honors College.
And before I forget, I want to mention again if you have any topic ideas for future shows.
We've got most of our shows. I think we've got our shows finished scheduled out until the end of this semester, but definitely for spring we'll need some. We do anywhere from 10 to 13 shows. So send those to me at Brain Mattersradiovuafm ua.edu and I'll consider using your show topic. My guest tonight is Dr. Ann Franklin Lamar. She is the director of Honors Year one. And that's what, what we're talking about is Honors College. And we left off talking about the classes. We've talked a little bit about classes, but can you tell us about the smaller classes and the smaller class sizes and how that affects student learning and faculty?
[00:27:51] Speaker C: So we scaffold the discussion that happens in smaller classes from those, uh, 100 small groups through our, our second required courses.
I don't want to get in the weeds too much, but 200 or 205 there and we're stepping down from peer facilitated discussion in a small space where they are learning what it's like to disagree civilly, to have hard conversations. And it's in a safe place to do that when you're with your peers and you can test out and work on that. And then they move into 300 or 205 where they're intentionally moving up that scaffolding into group projects where that may be community engaged or about what is scholarship and how they can live as scholars and work on that not only in academia, but moving forward with their lives.
And then it's on into the 19 person classrooms from there. And by the time they get into those small seminars, that can be everything from the women's text class that I was talking about at the beginning to classes on Shakespeare and love and marriage to some dynamic engineering based courses.
All of our seminars are transdisciplinary in one way or another. So they're going into those spaces ready to ask questions, to be in dialogue, to work through hard problems that you can't solve right away.
And that leads them into their final classes with us, which are their capstone, their mark on research or community engaged events, or maybe even a larger group project or something in their major too. They don't have to stay within honors to finish their capstone. We partner with all of the departments on campus to, to see how we could figure out what we're trying to do with honors with maybe a metacognitive wrapper around the capstone that they're doing for their particular major.
But we intentionally do that work of making sure that they're confident in that Aristotelian discussion and asking questions and being in.
In conflict sometimes. But conflict that's positive and brings new ideas to the topic at hand. And whatever topic that is, we bring in professors from across campus to teach these special topics too. So we have a faculty body who are teaching them, but also folks from all over campus are doing that.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: I think you answered my question a little bit because my next question I jotted down how are the seminar topics developed? Do students help develop of those topics or how are they developed?
[00:31:10] Speaker C: Sometimes students do come to a professor with an idea about a topic.
We changed our curriculum five, really six years ago.
We launched it in the fall of 2020. So it was an interesting launch of a new curriculum.
Yeah. So we resubmitted and reaffirmed all of our classes through the formal process for the new curriculum. So they were workshopped and we were looking at student learning outcomes and making sure that we had that scaffolding, that four year scaffolding in place and the special topics fit into those. But we have special topics at the 200 and 300 level that people can rotate through those, those classes. So if somebody across campus wants to come in and has a syllabus that they would like to work out and try, they can teach a 229 on a topic that is transdisciplinary and they are really interested in. And students love when professors are teaching their passion projects.
So that's something that we've had some fellowship programs that brought, brought professors in to develop curriculum that, or to develop their curriculum within those classes that way.
So there are a couple of, of ways that those classes are built and many of them have been taught in our previous curriculum too. The that I, I started in and helped helped us build out this four year curriculum. So many have, have stayed on but we've, and we've definitely developed the, the parts around the actual topic.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: This is blowing my mind because it sounds like graduate school. Like it sounds so far advanced, you know, than just undergrad. You mentioned 19 person classes. What do you mean by that? Does, is that like commonplace? Is every class just 19 person? What do you mean by that?
[00:33:32] Speaker C: That all of our seminars are after 100, 200 and 205 are 19 person classes. So that's the limit.
Yes. And many of them are smaller. Our honors year one mentor classes. So those folks who are, are, who are the peer facilitators for the groups there, those classes may be 8 to 10. So it's, you really get to know your students when you're teaching a 19 person or a 10 person class and they, they get to know you too. So it's, it's a wonderful experience. Both, both ways. I of course came from a school where it was not unheard of to be in a class of 12 and you've got to read the material and come prepared when you're.
[00:34:23] Speaker B: I bet you do, yes. You're going to be called out. You know, it would be intimidating. I'm sure some juniors and seniors before they do a little research on honors College or even realize that they may be eligible I guess would be intimidated by our enrollment of what is it, 42,000 a little over now, you know, and I think I've heard people, you know, make arguments that really don't know what they're talking about. I don't know where they say it, that you know they're going to be just a number. You've heard that before, just a number, et cetera. But in the honors college you're not, not, it doesn't sound like you're not just a number.
You know, there's 2,000 students, but it sounds like those students get Appropriate attention from their professors, you know.
[00:35:15] Speaker C: Yes. And I, it's one of the great blessings of, of having this job is that I have students that I, I worked with at the very beginning of my career in honors. I, maybe I'm thinking of one specific student who went on a study abroad trip with me and then he was one of my action leaders.
And he is now in South Carolina in his first year of residency. And he still reaches out to say, hey, how are things going? And I, I do the same when he, when he checks in on the Honors College and on things happening here. And, and those types of relationships with professors are something that I had at the w. At a very small liberal arts school. And that's one of the things that value so much about Honors College is that I've had interns who come back for homecoming and come by my office and see me or action folks who are checking in.
You have the privilege of writing letters of recommendation for everything from medicine school to, you know, road scholarships.
I've written an FBI one.
Interesting, but. And you can really know the student to do that. So it. You feel like you're making an impact in a lot of different ways, but that making the university smaller and helping people find where they fit is. Is something that I think the Honors College does really well.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: It really does. We're going to take another quick break and when we come back, I want to talk about several signature programs of the Honors College. You kind of mentioned one of them just now, so when we come back, we'll talk about those. I've got lots more. I don't even think we're going to get to all my questions. So you're listening to brain matters in 90.7 in Capstone.
[00:37:23] Speaker C: WVUAFM Tuscaloosa.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: This show is not a substitute for professional counseling and no relationship is created between the show host or guests and any listener. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a UA student, we encourage you to contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county's crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
[00:38:04] Speaker B: Hey, you're back listening to brain matters on 90.7 the Capstone. I'm BJ Gunther and if you have show topic ideas, send those to Me, Brain Mattersradiobuafm.ua.edu.edu.
that's for upcoming shows in the Spring, hopefully, because we've got I think the rest of our shows scheduled out for the fall. But we're talking tonight about Honors College and it's just, it's a fascinating, fascinating aspect of the University of Alabama. My guest is Dr. Ann Franklin Lamar, she's the director of, of Honors Year one and also assistant professor too. And you've mentioned that while we've been talking, the Honors College has several signature programs. You mentioned Action. I'm assuming that's Honors Action and also the fellows experience. Can you describe those?
[00:38:56] Speaker C: Yes. So Honors Action is open to any freshmen coming into the Honors College. So they could be a part of a partner program like STEM to MBA or McCullough.
They could be a Randall Research Scholar or in the University Honors Program to be a part of Action.
And what students are doing, they're applying for action ahead of time. So normally by the end of April, beginning of May, they'll have an application in for that and we let them know early in the summer if they're accepted. And then they move in a week early and they get to meet all of the, their peers and go into Tuscaloosa county and do service work in the morning. So that community engaged work that their peer leaders and I have worked with principals and county schools to plan out, they do that in the morning. And then we have lectures about community engagement, what it means within honors and how they can immediately get involved in serving in their new home. And, and we, we feed them dinner of course. And then, and then they problem with food.
[00:40:17] Speaker B: That always works.
[00:40:19] Speaker C: It does.
And then they go off and do extracurricular activities, everything from like trivia taint nights to the more active, you know, basketball, ultimate Frisbee, things like that. And all of these are led by their, their peer leaders, other Honors College students. And they've, they've been planned out and the structure of Action allows a student to be involved in it all four years.
And they, they can also work their way up in, in leadership. And I've, I, it's a joy to see someone begin as a freshman. And by their, their senior year they, they're the ones emailing the principal once I give them the go ahead to say, okay, this is, I've explained it to the principal, I've explained it to you. Now it, it' organize what's going on here and keep us in the loop. And they do. And that's really wonderful on the ground experience of how to communicate with freshmen and a principal, a teacher, me, faculty and staff, their other leaders. So the growth that happens within Action is wonderful. And we also get to work with the county schools. I mean the painting murals, painting outside areas.
Probably our most ambitious project this summer was building fences around air conditioning units because one of the middle schools has taken two or three pre K classes. So they have all these middle schoolers and now they have pre K classes in that middle school and their playground was around all of these air conditioning units.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: So you got to keep those kindergarteners out of the air conditioning unit. Oh my goodness.
[00:42:15] Speaker C: So what better to do in the middle of August with 70 first year students and a whole bunch of leaders than build fences?
[00:42:25] Speaker B: That is really cool. And you know, it sounds like that really the leadership building helps build confidence and self esteem too. So that's really cool. That's really cool. What about campus life? What is campus life like for Honors College students? You know, is there a school sense? It sounds like it. Based on just the example you gave, is there a strong sense of community?
[00:42:50] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:42:50] Speaker C: And I think like you mentioned with the, the programs, the specific programs.
So if students are in Blount, they're in the Honors College or in Witt and Randall Research, those smaller communities have, they have their own cultures and ways to find, find their places within the partner programs. And then for the larger college we have Honors College assembly and the University Honors Program students are working through the UHP curriculum. So they're seeing the same faces and meeting the, their peers, but also maybe having the same professors along the way and the finding community. I think it looks different for every honors student. Sometimes an honors student is.
They're very involved in other places on campus campus and they're, you know, they're finding community in spaces that maybe aren't honors designated, but they're able to come back to Honors to work on that research that they're really interested in or their community engaged project that they want to be a part of.
I'm using action a lot, but it's the program that I know most specifically. But we have students in Greek life who are involved in action. We have students who are in, in all different majors.
So they, they may have that one tie to Honors that, that allows them to have that identity of being an action leader. But they're, they're involved in so many different things on campus and they're able to, to bring that in with. They may be a worship leader at Wesley and also do that or you know, have all of these different roles and start still be able to come together whether it's in the classroom, in their curriculum or it's in those programs that are more co curricular like HCA or Action.
[00:44:56] Speaker B: You know, you mentioned blending majors with Honors College.
How does the Honors college advisors help students balance the demands of their honors coursework with their majors or their extracurriculars?
[00:45:14] Speaker C: We have two advisors and they've split the colleges up between them. So they have overlaid the curriculum from those majors with the help of the advisors in those home colleges and departments with our 18 hour curriculum in the university honors program.
And they're able to talk to students to see where things fit. So we asked them pretty intentionally, intentionally to look at how they would like to be involved in honors in their honors year one course. They've been introduced to the study abroad options, to all of the community engaged events and ways classes or volunteer opportunities or research that they can get involved in. And we ask them to not only reflect but plan for the rest of their time in honors. And our advisors are very helpful in doing that. But they're working with the advising corps of all the different colleges to see what's best to some of our majors. It's best for them to take uh110 in the spring and the, the major level advisors know that and they're able to suggest it. And our advisors know what works best for, from, for honors with this, that major in this major and help them think through what courses might, might work with their coursework and things like study abroad.
We do mainly summer study abroad because we know our students are double majoring or have a whole lot.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: Of struggle, you know.
[00:47:03] Speaker C: Yeah, we do try to adapt in some ways too. But our advisors, they're constantly working between all the colleges and have good relationships with advisors in all of the different departments.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
Before we go, are there any like exciting and new developments on the horizon for Honors College that you want to mention?
[00:47:30] Speaker C: I think we are living into our new curriculum and really building out different study abroad options, different community engaged options. There's always something new happening in the space of programs that students can get involved in that may be with community engagement, may be volunteer options as well as a three hour or a one hour option to get involved with reading to students in their early literacy.
Everything from that building out. We have a new director of Experiential Education.
The capstone is very new for us. So we've.
This will be our second year to graduate students through the curriculum. So really living into it and, and building out all the, the different pathways through it. So the, that feels very dynamic and new to, to the honors College for me Ongoing.
[00:48:38] Speaker B: Ongoing. Okay, last question.
What is your favorite thing about working with Honors College?
Oh, I know you kind of mentioned a little bit already, you know, but I don't want to put words in your mouth.
[00:48:55] Speaker C: I do think it's. It's the same thing I hope students get from it is it allows me to not only go very deep in my discipline work, so I'm able to show students what it's like. Like to do the transcription that I was doing in my dissertation and that like you were saying that graduate level work, taking them to the.
To our.
I'm blanking on the name of it, the whole library and showing them special collections and what it's like to go in and do that primary research which they don't have access to. And that's allowing me to go deep into my discipline. But I'm also able to.
To work on Honors Action and be involved in so many students lives on campus and seeing them see what Tuscaloosa county is about.
And I'm also able to help plan curriculum. So just like we ask students to have depth in their own major, in their own field of study, but also have breadth and interest and curiosity and a lot things that relate to it, but also open up different and new experiences for them all the time. So that's something that the Honors College allows me to do and hopefully our students and all of our faculty and staff to do as well.
[00:50:23] Speaker B: And you mentioned it earlier, the connections too. I think that would be cool too. You mentioned the student who continuously emails you, gets in touch with you. That has to be special too. I mean, for all of us who work on a college campus, it's kind of cool. That's kind of a neat aspect too, is the connection that we have with our students sometimes, you know, that's the biggest one.
Hey, thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show.
[00:50:49] Speaker C: It.
[00:50:49] Speaker B: I say this every week, but it really does go by fast at first. You think an hour is daunting sometimes. And I will, I will admit this. I've probably had. Over the years, I've had one really slow interview that was just really like pulling teeth, but otherwise, most of the time, it goes by really, really fast. You were great. Thank you.
[00:51:11] Speaker C: Thank you. I really appreciate it.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: Let me make a few announcements. Don't forget our shows are recorded and podcasted on the Apple Podcast, audioboom.com and Voices UA Edu. Just type in Brain Matters and you'll find some of our past shows. There's also a link to Voices UA Edu on our counseling center's website, and that's at Counseling ua Edu. I like to, as always, I like to thank a few people who've made the show possible. Dr. Greg Vanderwaal, he's our executive director here, here at the counseling center. My producer and my colleague, Katherine Howell, my colleagues here at the counseling center, and of course, Gareth Garner, who edits our shows every week, and the WVUA staff. And of course, my guest tonight, Dr. Ann Franklin. Lamar, don't forget, we're on next week. Our topic is going to be one that we haven't revisited in a while and we needed to, I feel like, about eating disorders and how Alsuna can help rebuild mind, body and spirit. Alsana is a treatment facility that's just amazing. A lot of people really don't know about and we need to have them on the show. And I thought it was a good time. So that's going to be our show next week. Again, I appreciate you listening tonight. I hope everyone has a good night. Thank you.
[00:52:21] Speaker C: Bye Bye.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: This show was not intended as a substitute for professional counseling. Further, the views, opinions and conclusions expressed by the show hosts or their guests are their own and not necessarily those of the University of Alabama, its officers or trustees. Any views, opinions or conclusions shared on the show do not create a relationship between the host or any guest and any listener, and such a relationship should never be inferred. If you feel you are in need of professional mental health and are a young UA student, please contact the UA Counseling center at 348-3863. If you are not a UA student, please contact your respective county's crisis service hotline or their local mental health agency or insurance company. If it is an emergency situation, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
