Message from the Dean

As the holiday season wraps up our fall semester and 2006, I am nothing less than ecstatic about the achievements of our Honors College.

To begin with, nearly 150 students were honored for academic achievements at our Awards and Recognition Ceremony, including LSU’s first ever Jack Kent Cooke Scholar.

Our education reaches beyond academics, though. From the Honors course “American Combat Infantry in WWII” where students interviewed WWII veterans, to refurbishing Sweet Olive Cemetery, a Baton Rouge historical landmark, to competing in the 2nd Annual Stick It To ‘Em fund-raiser activity, Honors students are successfully exemplifying the priorities of the Honors College: excellence, community and leadership.

None of this success would be possible without the generous support of our Honors College Advisory Council. Members of the Advisory Council are leaders in our community who graciously serve our College as ambassadors on the local and national levels. I encourage you to click here and recognize these people for their hard work and continued dedication.

I would like to welcome the newest members of our Advisory Council: Leroy Lambert, New York City, N.Y.; Elaine Abell, Lafayette, La.; and Larry Simon, also in Lafayette, La. Welcome to the Honors College family! Finally, it is great to hear back from our alumni! This newsletter will debut the Tiger Tracks feature in which we’ll catch up with our alumni. Please check back in with us by emailing honorsalumni@lsu.edu. We love hearing from you!

Have a wonderful Holiday!

Dean Nancy Clark

Fall 2006 Award Ceremony

The Honors College celebrated the exemplary success of its students at an Awards Ceremony on Sunday, November 12 at the Lod Cook Alumni Center.

Honorees included students receiving major fellowships and Sophomore Honors Distinction from the 2005-2006 Academic Year as well as students receiving recent awards. Students were honored at the national, University and Honors College levels.

Highlights from the ceremony include the following (a full listing of award recipients may be found here):

- Students recognized for major fellowships:

• 2006 Harry S Truman Scholar C.C. Dubois and Truman Finalist Andrew Dunckelman
• Barry M. Goldwater Scholars: Katherine Faust, Nickolas Vanmeter, Jacquelyn Zimmerman, and Honorable Mention John Casey
• NOAA Ernest L. Hollings Scholar Patrick Coco
• Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholar Maria Mahoney
• Hitachi Foundation Yoshiyama Award Winner Robert Ingram
• Rotary Cultural Exchange Scholar Candice Scott
• Phi Kappa Phi Slater Fellowship Recipient Monty Aghazadeh

- LSU has also announced the four students it will nominate to receive the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for the 2006-2007 academic year. All four are Honors students.

• Hal Boutte, chemistry senior
• John Casey, biological engineering junior
• Claire Kendig, chemistry sophomore
• Andy McCullough, biological sciences junior

- Each year, the LSU Mortar Board chooses and honors its Top 10 Freshmen Students. For 2005-2006, eight of the 10 students selected were Honors students.

- The Honors College recognized Jacquelyn Zimmerman (Jr.), Arman Sheybani (Soph.) and Brian Goh (Fresh.) as its Outstanding Students.

- Nine Honors students are members of the “Leadership LSU” Class of 2005.

- Two Honors students, Andrew Frilot and Richie Sajan, received the inaugural Jenkins Awards, named to honor LSU President William Jenkins.

- Tiger Athletic Foundation Research Awards were awarded to 10 Honors students.

- Elizabeth Dunn, Julie Gerdes and Sarah Perksin received the inaugural Honors College Service Awards for their participation and dedication to community service.

- Additionally, 102 individual students were recognized for achieving Sophomore Honors Distinction.

Again, to view a list of all students recognized at the ceremony, please click here.

Jacquelyn Zimmerman, Arman Sheybani and Brian Goh were named the Honors College Outstanding Students for 2005-2006.

Liz Dunn, Sarah Perkins and Julie Gerdes received the inaugural Honors College Service Awards.

The LSU Mortar Board named eight Honors students to its 2005-2006 Top 10 Freshman Students.

Service Project at Sweet Olive Cemetery

As part of its four-year plan, the Honors College emphasizes “Service” for the college student’s freshman year. On October 1 the Honors College held its inaugural Freshman Service Project to refurbish Sweet Olive Cemetery on North Boulevard in Baton Rouge. Sweet Olive, Baton Rouge’s oldest African-American cemetery, lay in serious disrepair for many years.

Overgrowth and unsightly refuse detracted from the rich history of the landmark, and much of the cemetery’s history is unrecorded. Student Activity Coordinator Mark Dochterman, Honors junior Maria Bianco and Honors College Associate Dean Granger Babcock organized the event, which was held in conjunction with Baton Rouge's Mid City Redevelopment Alliance.

"Doc", as Dochterman is known to students, said some of the tasks facing the student volunteers included removing vines from graves, removing debris and logs and trimming trees.  The volunteers also began historical documentation of the cemetery, recording information for the marked graves.

Approximately 150 students participated in the event, which was so popular that the volunteers called for a return trip, which took place Sunday, November 5. “When you first went and looked at the place, it looked insurmountable,” said Doc. “It’s still not quite finished, but you can see that there is an end. The students that came were excellent and worked really hard.” Doc said the project will likely occur twice a semester. The project's future goals are to finish cleaning up the cemetery and whitewash the tombs.  Additional goals are to continue the historical documentation of the gravesite and create an HTML map showing the location of the cemetery’s occupants.

HNRS 2013: American Infantrymen in World War II

Every day, LSU Honors students are indirectly exposed to pieces of American military history. The familiar Memorial Tower, a symbol of LSU, looms over the campus, and the Laville Honors residence halls stand to memorialize Cpl. Germaine C. Laville, one of two female Marines to die in active duty during World War II.

For the Fall 2006 semester, the Honors College curriculum provided students an opportunity to thoroughly examine part of their nation’s history, offering HNRS 2013 Section 1 - The American Combat Infantryman in World War II.

The idea for the course, taught by Dr. Frank Anselmo of the French Department, materialized while Anselmo was doing research in the Alsace region of France in 2003. Anselmo happened upon the tomb of a lone American lieutenant killed in WWII, where a monument had been built honoring all Americans who died in the liberation of France.

The course focused on individual combat experiences of infantrymen at the company, platoon or squad level, and Anselmo said he avoided romanticizing the war. Students read and viewed a variety of literature and films and analyzed the objectives and viewpoints of the producers and writers. The course also utilized guest lectures, including one by Mr. James Bollich, who survived the Bataan Death March in the Philippines and endured nearly four years of captivity in Japanese POW camps.

In addition, each student was paired with a Baton Rouge area World War II veteran, whom Anselmo located through notices in the newspaper. Students interviewed the veterans, getting first-hand experience of what the war was really like. The students published the veterans’ memoirs and presented them at a ceremony in the French House.

“The students clearly learned to appreciate the accomplishments and sacrifices of these men and women who put their lives on hold for four years,” Anselmo said. “Being able to speak to these men and women really made the stories real.”

To correlate with the course, the Honors College hosted viewings of the HBO series “Band of Brothers” in the French House and co-sponsored a trip to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, both open to all Honors students.

“The trip was a lot of fun,” Honors sophomore John Harvey said. “Perhaps it could be incorporated so students from other classes could also go. I think they should have the class in the future because most people don’t get this type of opportunity. The Honors College gives people a chance to do something different.”

To read the article about the class written for The Advocate, please click here.

Mass Communication sophomore Charlie Pyles interviewed WWII veteran Ralph Hylton Sims, shown here during the video interview. Sims was a B-17 tail gunner in Europe in 1944, and flew 32 missions without being shot down.

Students like sophomore Brandon Deshotel, a military history enthusiast, experienced WWII history in several ways, from visiting the National WWII Museum to interacting with veterans to exploring WWII literature.

Stick It To 'Em

One of the Honors College’s newest events is quickly becoming one of its more popular ones.

Stick It To ‘Em, a student event fund-raiser, debuted in the Spring 2006 semester. Based on the game “Assassin,” Stick It To ‘Em was the brainchild of Student Activity Coordinator Mark Dochterman.

The game, open to all Honors students, is an elaborate game of tag with a two-week time-span and no real boundaries. Students are given the names of their initial target. Once a student is eliminated, they give their target to their “assassin,” and the game continues until time runs out or one student remains. Students are fair game to be tagged nearly anywhere! Safe zones include restrooms, residences and class environments.

Stick It To ‘Em was successful in its initial trial, netting 44 participants. Only two students remained after the two weeks were over, but current sophomore Leslie Smith won by virtue of having eliminated more opponents.

Stick It To ‘Em was back for its second go-around last month with 56 participants. Players included Dean Nancy Clark, Associate Dean Granger Babcock and Laville Honors residence halls RLC Brent Cockrell.

The competition was much fiercer this year, with 12 players still in the game on the final day of competition. Freshman Kevin Campbell went on a spree that day, eliminating several opponents en route to the championship and the $60 prize. Freshman Robert Ingram received his $5 entry fee as compensation for being the first person eliminated.

Honors Freshman Kevin Campbell outplayed his opponents on his way to the Stick It To 'Em Championship.

Tiger Tracks: Catching up with Honors Alumni

The Honors College loves hearing back from its former students. If you would like to be featured in the Tiger Tracks: Catching up with Alumni section of the E-Newsletter, please send us an email to honorsalumni@lsu.edu with an update and a photograph. Please do check back in and tell us and your classmates about your successes and experiences!

Class of 1992

• Georg Herlitz, MD., JD., attended LSU Law School graduating in 1995. After then studying law at Oxford University he was admitted to the Louisiana Bar in 1996. He attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City from 2000-2004, where he was a classmate with fellow LSU Honors College alumnus Tristan Sands. He has done volunteer medical work in Nepal and completed a year of research in cardiothoracic surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. Georg is now a resident in General Surgery at Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey. “Because of my education in the LSU Honors College,” Georg said, “I am often told that I am ‘too well-read to be a surgeon’ and that I should switch careers again!”

Class of 1995

• After becoming bored with electrical engineering, Wyatt Johnson switched his studies to aerospace engineering and received his doctorate from Purdue University in 2002. He worked for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for 3 years before starting to miss the Gulf Coast and moved to Houston in 2005. He is currently working for NASA at Johnson Space Center where he’s helping design the space shuttle replacement. In his off-time, he’s a firefighter for the League City Volunteer Fire Department.

Class of 2002

• Martinique Perkins completed her B.S. in Psychology from LSU then received her M.A. in Psychology from Southeastern Louisiana University in Summer 2005. She is in her second year of doctoral studies in the Lifespan Developmental Psychology program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Martinique specializes in the older adult population, studying the psychosocial effects of caring for a family member who has survived a stroke.

Class of 2004

• Lauren Beieler, in the Honors College until 2002, transferred to McNeese State University to attend nursing school. She is now a registered nurse in Houston working with pediatrics and in the neonatal intensive care unit. She is also a nurse for a local elementary school and is attending the University of Texas to get her masters degree as a pediatric nurse practitioner.

Class of 2005

• Thomandra S. Sam is a graduate Teaching Assistant in the Department of Education at Auburn University. She is currently working on her Ph.D. and licensure in Counseling Psychology. She just finished writing a chapter for a book on counseling diverse populations. She is doing her Practicum at Auburn University Medical Clinic, Division on Student Counseling Services and will be proposing for her dissertation soon. “I would really like to thank the Honors College for their help as an Undergrad because I think I am the only one in my department who is calm at the thought of the dissertation,” she said. “Because of my training at LSU, I was able to get my IRB protocol approved for Human Subjects Interventions in the Tuskegee area—where they are very particular of research—for good reason. With the initial guidance of the Honors College, my doctoral process is going much smoother than most.”

Martinique Perkins ('02) is in her second year of doctoral studies in the Lifespan Developmental Psychology program at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Lauren Beieler ('04) is a nurse in Houston and is attending the University of Texas to get her masters degree as a pediatric nurse practitioner.

Thomandra Sam ('05) is a graduate T/A in the Department of Education at Auburn University and is currently working on her Ph.D. and licensure in Counseling Psychology.