We are excited to recruit a new cohort of Honors Ambassadors! This wonderful group of students connects 1:1 with prospective students, represents JMU and Honors at admissions open houses, CHOICES, and other virtual college fairs, sings the praises of Honors during the summer months at Springboard, and raises the profile of JMU Honors all across campus. 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 spring 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 is open now, and applications are due by 11:59 p.m. on January 28. Interviews will be held the week of January 31, with new Ambassadors notified on February 4. If you apply and are not selected this spring, please don't despair! It will be a competitive process with only a few slots awarded. We will hold another recruitment in August! In order to apply, CLICK HERE. Questions? I'm always here to provide answers! The Honors College cultivates a young alumni network, the Hillcrest Club, as a way to connect graduates less than 10 years out from college back with current students. Hillcrest Club Advisors, the young alumni advisory group, publish a newsletter for ALL alumni twice a year. Click below to read about what's been happening in the Honors College this fall!
The week of September 13 is shaping up to be fun for the students who love being creative!
First, we'll host the Arts & Creativity Major Mixer on Wednesday, September 15 at 11:00 a.m. in the Hillcrest Living Room. This mixer is designed for any student with an academic interest that intersects with the arts in any way. Are you a musician? A performer? A sculptor? A writer? Are you pre-OT studying the role of dance? Are you a CSD major immersed in music therapy? Join us! As always, Major Mixers are SUPER casual. There's no formal program - it's just an open invitation to swing by the Hillcrest Living Room for snacks and a chance to make some academically-minded friends. Join the Arts & Creativity GroupMe as well - introduce yourself and identify other Honors students who like the same things you do! Second, don't miss your chance to be part of the Honors Craft Underground! This one's a challenge. On September 17, you’ll pick up a box of assorted craft supplies (think buttons, fabric scraps, paint, etc.) in the Hillcrest basement (that’s the “underground” part, see…). You’ll have one week to use the contents of the box (+ anything else you’d like to add) to create your craft masterpiece. You provide the artistic vision! Take photos of your creation and send to Dr. Davis by Friday, September 24 to be entered to win an Honors prize pack. Email Dr. Davis at [email protected] if you want to participate (deadline to sign up is September 15)! Work in Progress is a casual chance for people who enjoy writing/hate writing/want to be better at writing to meet together. This group started via Zoom during the 2020-2021 school year and met every other week. This year, we're going to hang out in person (masked and socially distant, of course). I am so excited to continue meeting regularly with these students - and NEW ones! - as we talk about all things writing. For students interested in attending, please note that there’s no pressure to attend every meeting. The idea is to provide an open forum to share writing tips/tricks, to support each other in your writing efforts, maybe do some peer review if that interests you, etc. We’ll have some grab and go snacks at our meetings. The first one is September 9 at 4:00 p.m. in the Hillcrest Living Room. See you there!
Our first Major Mixer of the year is Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 3:00 p.m. The event is designed for any student with an academic interest that intersects with sports in any way – say, sports communication, kinesiology, pre-PT, neuroscience, etc. Major Mixers are SUPER casual. There's no formal program - it's just an open invitation to swing by the Hillcrest Living Room for snacks and a chance to make some academically-minded friends. Join the Sports GroupMe as well - introduce yourself and identify other Honors students who like the same things you do!
Incoming students: I hope you didn't miss the July newsletter in your inbox. As I said during the Springboard sessions - check your JMU email regularly! Here's a link to get you up to speed! I can't believe it's already August. It will be time to move in before you know it! Are you looking for some sage advice from people who have been there before? This Honors alumni webinar is full of helpful tips - check it out!
Thanks to Hillcrest Club young alumni who submitted their ideas of Honors Traditions for our incoming students. You can see an image of their submitted traditions below - what else would you add to the list?
We are entering year 2 of the Honors ePortfolio Initiative. What does that mean? Well, it means that more than 300 of you have already received your own Portfolium license, and have an amazing tool at your disposal to start crafting a story of your academic journey at JMU. You can check out the JMU Portfolium network to see examples of work that your peers (and some faculty members, too!) are engaging in to build their knowledge and prepare them for their next big thing after college.
At this point, every sophomore Honors student should already have their Portfolium license. If you haven't added anything to your ePortfolio lately, now is a great time to get caught up! All incoming first-year students additionally will be receiving their ePortfolio license as part of HON 100. You'll receive instruction on how to get started from your Teaching Fellows. QUICK NOTE to all Portfolium users, however: I AM HERE FOR YOU! I want to encourage you to make it a habit to work on your ePortfolio. And, you can make it a habit to reach out to me if you ever need help or inspiration! I will be hosting a weekly ePortoflio Advising Hour on Fridays between 12:00 and 1:00 p.m. To participate, simply shoot me an email at [email protected] to let me know your preferred method of meeting - you can either pop into my office (Hillcrest 201) or we can schedule a Zoom chat! I look forward to seeing you!
Attention class of 2025 - the following newsletter will be coming to your inbox soon! We can hardly wait to meet you!
Spring semester ended mere days ago, and my mind has already shifted to summer reading. I polished off the last Honors Book Club selection last week: The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans is a collection of short stories and a novella that made me think about the complexities of confronting history, particularly with regard to race. The book is a quick, thought-provoking read that is absolutely worth your time. That said, I thought it might be fun to give you, dear readers, some insight into a few of the other books that I'm currently perusing (below). Honors Book Club will continue to meet this summer - we'll be diving into a few classics. If you'd like to join us, shoot me an email!
Books on deck:
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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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