Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College

Transcription

Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College Being a citizen scholar means that you have responsibilities apart from just learning the book knowledge. It’s also about learning about your world and about yourself and learning about how you can be that best self. The honors college was the reason I came to Ole Miss, and the reason why I chose the honors college in particular is because it seemed to offer a lot of things that I couldn’t get in a larger university setting. I kind of wanted a smaller liberal arts setting. The honors college just provided the best of both worlds. The honors college really has a homey feel to it. When you walk in there’s a big tables and there’s couches and chairs and a kitchen, and it just gives you a sense of home and not that it’s an academic building until you get upstairs and into the classrooms. We have these small classrooms. Teachers really care about how you’re doing. I can think of several professors whose classes I’ve taken at the honors college and every time we meet on campus they want to stop and chat and know how things are going and that’s always very encouraging. The honors college, they really are about opening the right doors for you and about evaluating what your interests are and what your passions are and connecting you with the resources that you need to make that happen. There was a class I wanted to take as a sophomore. It was a political science class, 303, an American Presidency class. And obviously I wasn’t a junior, so I applied and I got in early and I had a chance to travel to D.C. and that’s an opportunity that I’ve never had before joining the honors college. I recently accepted a job offer with Exxon Mobile in Baton Rouge, and I’ll either be working at the refinery or in the chemical plant as a chemical engineer. And my thesis and my research was something they were greatly impressed with. I have heard from a number of graduate programs that are you know, surprised saying, how have you all ready completed this original research, how are you this far along? And you know I can thank the honors college for that. One thing that really helped me learn more about who I am and who I intend to be was studying in the United Kingdom this past summer. The honors college provided me with the funding to cover airfare to go aboard. And while I was there it was just wonderful for me to be around international students to see how they are engaging in different environments. It’s always been right up my alley because I want to study in the international community and I want to work aboard. Starting your freshman year in the honors college we have this community action component and so we’re required to do ten hours of service, but I don’t know anyone who stops at ten hours. You know once you start working at a site you can’t stop going back. So that’s been a big part of my experience with the honors college. It really shapes you and engages you to think critical thinking and thinking about your surroundings and what you can learn to better those surroundings and what you can do to better your surroundings. So in that aspect the honors college really is molding and shaping citizen scholars.