Good afternoon, Honors community, and welcome to the Spring 2021 semester from the Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College at Wichita State University! I’m sending this message to share with you some thoughts as we start new this year as well as some resources and reminders about upcoming events and deadlines.

• Watch the welcome message video or read the transcript on the Dean’s Message page of our website.  

• Check out January and February Honors Events and Deadlines for opportunities such as conference paper presentations and town halls with President Muma.

Town Halls are an opportunity for students and faculty to engage in a conversation with the University President and ask him questions. The zoom information can be found in the weekly update EMAIL.

Ever wonder what it would be like to hit the books in the morning and hit the beach in the afternoon? Thanks to National Student Exchange (NSE), you can. NSE allows undergraduate, domestic students the opportunity to study at one of nearly 200 universities across the United States and Canada – while paying regular WSU tuition and earning credit toward your degree.

The application materials for exchange during fall 2021 and spring 2022 are available at wichita.edu/nse and are due February 1. If you have questions, please contact Trish Gandu at trish.gandu@wichita.edu.

The Great Plains Honors Council is a great conference for all students, particularly students who have never presented at a conference. It is a student-friendly intellectual community of regional honors programs and colleges. Submission for oral presentations, poster and paper awards (cash prizes) are due to honors@wichita.edu by February 7 5pm. 

Faculty are encouraged to identify students whose work would be competitive for poster and paper awards. All conference submissions are entered by the Honors dean or director.

Visit the conference website for more information. 

GPHC Proposal Submission

The award recognizes a high-achieving senior leader who takes on challenges and demonstrates commitment to academic excellence in Honors.

Click here for more information and to submit your application.

The application deadline is February 15 at 11:59 p.m.

The Cohen Enhancement Scholarship February 1 deadline has been extended to February 15.

A generous gift from Dorothy and Bill Cohen allows the Cohen Honors College to fulfill its mission of joining knowledge and innovation to grow visionaries. Cohen Enhancement Scholarships of up to $4000 support current Honors students in activities such as study abroad, National Student Exchange, unpaid internships, national conferences, undergraduate research or service learning. 

Apply here.

URCA grants are available to students engaged in collaborative student and faculty research. Grants up to $1,000 can be used for materials and equipment needed to complete research as well as travel in direct support of the research project or to present research at conferences.
 
Visit Wichita.edu/URCA for more information about eligibility and requirements.  Spring 2021 deadlines are February 3^rd and March 16^th.

 Welcome back! Please keep in mind, I am available to assist you as the new semester begins. You can email me at  Jessica.Raburn@wichita.edu and emailing Honors@wichita.edu will get you to anyone in the office. We are all here to help you. For those who are looking for a way to add Honors into this semester, there are still some Honors classes open. However, you do also have the opportunity to do an Honors Option Agreement and modify a non-Honors  course into one. Students work with the faculty member to design the Honors criteria. Find the forms to submit at www.wichita.edu/honorsforms.
 
Important Dates: 
 Feb 1: First Day of Classes
 Feb 5: Last Day to add a regular term course
 Feb 12: Last day to make payment arrangements
               Last day to get a 100% refund for a    
               dropped course 

Dr. Neal Allen, Dalton Glasscock, and Joseph Shepard write about the democratic political system, accepting facts and losing with grace https://www.kansas.com/opinion/guest-commentary/article248378160.html

Dr. Robin Henry wins honorable mention for her podcast on one hundred years of women's suffrage https://www.kmuw.org/awards

Dr. Keith Pickus begins teaching in Honors this semester with a seminar on history beyond the headlines. Dr. Pickus holds a joint appointment as a professor in the department of history and in the Dorothy and Bill Cohen Honors College with teaching and service in both areas. He received a Doctor of Philosophy in history from the the University of Washington and served as a Fulbright Research Fellow at the Institute for European History, Mainz Germany. He has held multiple leadership roles on campus in Arts and Sciences, Health Professions, Academic Affairs and, most recently, at the WSU Foundation. His academic research has focused on constructing modern identities and holocaust stories, and he will be teaching courses on contemporary history. Please join us in welcoming him to the Cohen Honors College faculty.

We've added some leadership course opportunities for spring. Spaces are still available in HNRS 306J Lead for Tomorrow (Leadership Academy), HNRS 310Q Engaging Leaders, and HNRS 310R Evolving Leaders, and HNRS 310S Emerging Leaders.

The Honors College student lounge (on the ground level of Shocker Hall) is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For general questions, email honors@wichita.edu.

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