Join the Honors College for Sunday night must-see TV. This semester we'll be meeting together every Sunday evening at 9 p.m. to watch an episode of Gentefied using Netflix Play. We'll gather together for the first time on Sunday, September 20. From IMDb:
"Based on the digital series of the same title, Gentefied centers on three cousins who band together to keep their Grandfather's popular Boyle Heights taco shop in business as the neighborhood becomes more gentrified. Throughout the show's first season the cousins confront their differences in their connections to their community, their heritage, and their commitment to the family business, all while navigating larger themes of gentrification and the marginalization of Latinx's in America." Netflix Play is a Chrome extension that synchronizes watch times while enabling a chat function for viewers. Hopefully our Netflix and Chill participants will be able to enjoy watching Gentefied together while engaging in intellectually stimulating conversations and reflections via the chat feature. If you are interested in joining us on Sunday evenings, please RSVP. All participants will be added to a GroupMe. You will receive a Netflix Play link via the GroupMe every Sunday evening so that you can log-in and participate! We were so excited to kick off the Honors Ambassadors program in February 2020, only to have our new initiative dramatically altered the following month. Still, this group of Honors enthusiasts stepped up to the plate! They agreed to connect 1:1 with prospective students, represented JMU and Honors in Virtual CHOICES, and then continued to sing the praises of Honors during the summer months with Virtual Springboard sessions. I admire our amazing Ambassadors, and I'm stoked to be able to once again open up recruitment so that YOU can join this esteemed group of super volunteers!
We want the Honors Ambassadors cohort to be made of up diverse students whose backgrounds and majors speak to the wide array of prospective students interested in JMU. We specifically hope that BIPOC, first generation, and LGBTQIA+ students will want to join our Ambassador community. We enthusiastically encourage students with Spanish language speaking ability to apply. Our goal with Fall recruitment is to add enthusiastic Honors spokespeople to make our cadre of Ambassadors more representative of campus as a whole. We will be adding approximately 10 new Ambassadors to our group, and we are particularly looking for folx with majors in the College of Education and the College of Visual and Performing Arts. Regardless of major, students from states other than Virginia are also encouraged to apply. Recruitment opens on August 31, and applications are due by 5:00 p.m. on September 9. Interviews will be held the week of September 14, with new Ambassadors notified on September 18. If you apply and are not selected this fall, please don't despair! It will be a competitive process with only a few slots awarded. We will hold another recruitment in January, however, with 20+ slots available at that time. In order to apply, CLICK HERE. Questions? I'm always here to provide answers! The first of a four-part series Zoom exploring how concepts shared in Factfulness can be applied to some of the world's most wicked problems will be held on Thursday, September 10 at 4:00 p.m. Students, alumni and Honors faculty are all invited to participate. In this Zoom session, we'll have a casual conversation focused on discussing Factfulness as it relates to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We will be joined by two very special guests:
A resource guide is linked below which highlights a variety of coronavirus resources created by Gapminder, the data analytics organization created by Factfulness contributing authors Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund. Also on the resource guide is log-in information for the Zoom session. If you would like to participate in our conversation on September 10, we appreciate your RSVP. Save these dates for future Factfulness Zoom conversations:
Something you don't want to miss kicks off next week! The Honors Book Club will be recruiting for Fall semester from August 31 - September 7. Participating in Book Club is a great way to get to know other students and Honors faculty. If you are interested in participating, take a moment to complete the interest form.
The Book Club will meet approximately every two weeks via Zoom. The first book we will discuss will be Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund. You can purchase the book on Amazon for fewer than $12. If you choose to participate in the Book Club, you will need to have the book purchased no later than September 14. This book is also required summer reading for all incoming Honors students. Questions? Please contact Dr. Davis at [email protected]. Wondering about exact dates? Well, we don't have those just yet... Once everyone submits their interest form, I will follow up with a poll to find actual times for the Book Club to meet. You can, however, roughly plan for the following:
We are excited to launch the Shenandoah Peer Mentors program this semester! The purpose of the Peer Mentors program is to help ease the transition of first-year Honors students to residential living and learning in Shenandoah Hall. Peer Mentors are upper-class Shenandoah alumni who focus on student-directed residential programming and make themselves available to first-year students for peer support.
If you are Shenandoah Hall alum and you are interested in planning fun and engaging programming for Doah residents, we encourage you to apply to be a Peer Mentor! We want the Peer Mentors cohort to be made of up diverse students whose backgrounds and majors speak to the wide array of first-year Shenandoah residents. We specifically hope that BIPOC, first generation, and LGBTQIA+ students will want to be Peer Mentors. The application to be a Peer Mentor is due by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 for academic year 2020-2021 positions. If you have questions, please contact Dr. Alysia Davis at [email protected] Toolbox Workshops are offered by the Honors College twice a month to talk about "soft skills" students need to be successful in college, graduate school, and/or future careers. Many Toolbox Workshops will feature guest speakers, and are casual in tone. This is your opportunity to bring your questions and ideas, and to bounce them off of other students, faculty and alumni.
The first Toolbox Workshop of the fall semester will be The College Classroom Experience. While primarily geared to freshmen just entering college, all Honors students are welcome to attend and learn more about how to be successful in a college classroom. Topics covered will include classroom jargon, how to get actually know professors, how the college classroom differs from high school, study tips, and more. Confirmed guest presenters include Dr. Michael Davis, Executive Advisor to President Alger, and alumnus Saleem Aboite ('18, '20M). This Toolbox Workshop session will be hosted via Zoom on September 3 at 4:00 p.m. We ask for your RSVP by September 1. Zoom log-in information will be sent to you via email. Back to school time is always a time of excitement and anxiety. This year, things are weighted a little heavier in the anxiety category. Together with fellow Honors College faculty, we'll be hosting an Orientation session titled Hot Drinks & Hot Topics on Tuesday, August 18 at 11:30 a.m. The idea behind the session is for participants to grab coffee or hot tea and tune in to talk through what's on your mind as you get ready to head off to college. If you are concerned about how current issues may impact your first-year college experience, please join us to chat in a casual environment. We may not have all of the answers to your questions, but hopefully we can provide support and encouragement as you begin your collegiate journey.
Click here for information on how to log-in to the session. To kick off move-in week and Orientation, I'll be hosting a Late Night College-Prep Trivia Game on Monday, August 17 at 9 p.m. All questions will center on dorm living, so study the Office of Residence Life Move-In page to gather some clues about trivia topics! Trivia will be hosted via the Kahoot! platform. During trivia, I'm also excited to feature guest appearances by current students Mya Warren, Joanna Woo, Laura Garman and Amy Beladia. They will share some of their dorm stories with you as well, and hopefully help get you excited about move-in later this week!
Click here to get info on how to join trivia! Plans are in place for fall Orientation for the Class of 2024. Be sure to check out the Orientation website. Some highlights that you don't want to miss include:
A representative from Women in Sport and Recreation Management, a student org within the Hart School, reached out to promote the upcoming We Hart Racial Equality Virtual 5K. The race will be held on August 28, the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech."
The student race organizer had these nice things to say about Honors: "I have noticed over the years that Honors students are some of the most inclusive, diverse and open-minded people on campus, so I feel strongly that if students hear about this event then they will be interested in participating." If you're interested in showing your support for this initiative of Women in Sport and Recreation Management and the Black Lives Matter movements, you can register via RunSignUp until August 16. |
AuthorAll posts are written by Dr. Alysia Davis, Director of Student Engagement in the JMU Honors College. The goal of these blog posts are to inform JMU Honors students and alumni about programs, activities, and opportunities in the JMU Honors College. To reach Dr. Davis directly, email her at [email protected]. Archives
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