Message from the Dean

Another year begins at LSU, and another era of discovery begins for the Honors College family!

Many of our endeavors from the previous year are now coming to fruition.  The Law Early Admission Program (LEAP) is being implemented for the first time.  The Offices of Undergraduate Research and Experiential Learning are busy assisting our students in preparing for their bright futures.  And I personally accompanied the China Initiative on its second successful trip overseas.

With growth comes change, and change has brought new leadership to our university.  The Honors College community extends a warm welcome to new System President John Lombardi and Astrid E. Merget, our new Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost.  We also send a fond farewell to William Jenkins and Risa Palm, who left those respective positions.

But, as always, our students are consistently and successfully epitomizing our core values of academic excellence, commitment to the community and leadership, whether they do so in the classroom or in student-run organizations like FOCUS, which enjoyed yet another successful summer.

I have nothing but the highest expectations for the Honors College and nothing but certainty that they will continue to be met.  Keep an eye on us this year and continue to be impressed by the future leaders of our community, state and nation!

Dean Nancy Clark

Adventures in the Orient: the China Initiative's Second Year

The Honors College went solo in its second successful year of the China Initiative. Here, the Honors College delegation poses with Jim Knudsen, LSU Alum and President of ConocoPhillips China Inc.

A sense of adventure accompanied the Honors College contingent this summer as the China Initiative entered its second year.

Dean Nancy Clark, Associate Dean Granger Babcock, Academic Adviser Jeremy Joiner and 20 Honors students travelled to China for two weeks in June.

This year was the Honors College’s first solo trip to China.  “Last year we partnered with the MBA program only because we had never been, and [it] had gone several times before,” Joiner said.  “This year we wanted to go out on our own and build our program with more academic content.”

The group of students, which included incoming freshmen, studied at Tongji University in Shanghai, taking Mandarin Chinese and calligraphy classes.  They stayed at the Tongji Guest house (the equivalent of LSU’s Lod Cook Alumni Center), but were given free reign to explore the city.

“I think being able to study at the University was amazing,” Joiner said.  “We were on campus for all of our classes and ate in the same dining hall as all of the students at the university.  Being able to interact with other Chinese students while on campus made it a truer experience than we were able to achieve in the previous year.”

Additionally, the group took a weekend trip to Beijing and made cultural visits to the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, among other places.  The group also visited ConocoPhillips China Inc., whose president Jim Knudsen is an LSU alumnus.

“China was pretty much incredible,” said Honors senior Reid Tepfer.  “It was way different than I thought it was going to be.  I’m writing my thesis on China, and I’ve taken tons of Chinese politics classes and studied Chinese culture, but it’s a completely different thing to go there and see it in person.  You can read a million books and not get the whole appreciation you get just from two weeks.”

Joiner said if the program expands in the future, it will likely be extended a few days, though the group size will not necessarily be increased.

“It’s definitely intimidating, but if you’re even considering it, definitely apply,” Tepfer offered to interested students.  “It was my best experience at LSU I think.”

(Side photos courtsey of Reid Tepfer)

In addition to studying at Tongji University in Shanghai, students made cultural visits to Tienanmen Square, the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City in Beijing.

China Initiative participants enjoyed a traditional Peking Duck meal while visiting Beijing.

FOCUS: Focusing on College and Ultimate Success

The student program Focusing on College and Ultimate Success, or FOCUS, completed another successful summer and is looking toward a bright future.

"It was great," said Student Activities Coordinator Mark "Doc" Dochterman. "I'd say it was definitely an improvement from last year." It was an awesome group of student leaders."

FOCUS entails a course taken in the spring semester and the actual two-week community service program in the following summer.  College student volunteers work closely with at-risk but talented high school students to help encourage, enhance and explore their potential.  The program’s goal is to give these already-talented students a taste of college life in order for them to realize that a college degree is both important and obtainable.

The program serves as somewhat of a transition between the high school and college cultures.  Participants attend low-key classes and engage in activities involving athletics and the arts.  They participate in group discussions, do creative writing and take field trips around the Baton Rouge community.

Doc, who serves as the program’s faculty/staff advisor, said the program expanded its reach in 2007 by doubling the number of schools it recruited from three to six, but was still able to maintain a 1-to-1 mentor-to-participant ratio.  A total of 23 high school students participated in the program, with 23 Honors students volunteering.  In partnership with Shell Oil Co., a major financial contributor to FOCUS, the program also added a science class.

For their projects this year, FOCUS participants transformed an old encyclopedia into a montage of their individual ideas of art.  Additionally, they created an anthology of their creative works, which included an original musical piece.

“They didn’t know enough about music theory to write the stuff out, but they played around on the piano and got it to where they liked it,” Doc said.  “[Student volunteer] Antoine Jefferson helped them transcribe it.”  Jefferson not only helped them transcribe their original piece but also learn the basics of music theory.

FOCUS provides a mentor-type relationship between its volunteers and participants, and that is something the program will retain whether or not it expands.

“There’s something in the one-on-one approach that’s really beneficial to these people,” Doc said. “I see a few things [for the future]. That could be expanding here at LSU into a larger program that captures more students and more talent. It is also in the constitution of FOCUS to eventually expand to other schools, to perhaps create a model that can be taken to other schools. Teach For America provided teachers to one school, and now it’s nationwide.”

FOCUS provides at-risk students in the Baton Rouge area the opportunity to experience a transition to the college life and includes visits in the Baton Rouge community. Mayor-President Kip Holden poses with a participant.

FOCUS engages students in learning on various subjects and stimulates their own creativity through writing and the arts, including music, painting and dance.

Honors student-volunteer Allison Eskind leads a classroom discussion during FOCUS 2007.

HNRS 2000: Critical Analysis and Social Responsibility

Author and journalist Jed Horne's commentary on Hurricane Katrina in "Breach of Faith" turned many heads and opened many minds because of the depth of his coverage on not only the disaster itself, but also its fallout and the foundations (both literal and metaphorical) of that fallout.

The decision to make "Breach of Faith" the core of the LSU Summer Reading Program this year was an easy one, considering the effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The Honors College has expanded the opportunities for discussion and meditation provided by the reading program and this year's Academic Convocation by offering HNRS 2000: Critical Analysis and Social Responsibility: The Human Response to Disaster and Disease.

The program is popular in its first year. There are 15 course sections, each with a different faculty member, and each seminar group averages nearly 15 students apiece.

Lizzie Horner, Ashley Downing and Barrett Allen are freshmen from three different parts of Louisiana, all taking HNRS 2000 with Associate Dean Granger Babcock. They sat down to discuss how the new course was going so far.

"The class is about human responses to disaster and how people respond to it," said Downing, a family, child and consumer sciences freshman.  “One main thing we focus on is consequences of our actions.  I’m really interested in people, and when I read information about the class I thought it would be something interesting to check out.  It’s turned out to be my favorite class.”

Students will not just focus on the aftermath of Katrina, however.  The course covers a range of topics including the plague and the AIDS epidemic.  Students are assigned thorough critical readings with background, historical and insider information about the issues they will later dissect and discuss in the classroom.  Some sections of the course are designated as communications-intensive courses, making them applicable for LSU’s Communication Across the Curriculum program.

“You get a sense of what’s going on with current events, politics and important issues,” Allen said.  “The reason I chose to be in the Honors College is because the seminars are smaller, and you get to debate and discuss issues on a one-to-one basis with a lot of the people in your class.”

So far, the students have primarily discussed issues relevant to Louisiana, including coastal erosion and Katrina, and thoroughly analyzed “Breach of Faith.”

“It’s the perfect time with the events that have happened to discuss what no one wants to discuss, but needs to discuss,” Horner said.  “It’s cool to see how everyone responds differently.”

Different students have different subject interests.  Horner, a biology major, is looking forward to studying the AIDS pandemic, while Downing is anticipating studying the plague that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.  Allen, an engineering major, enjoys studying the local issues.

“I really like covering Louisiana because you relate to it more,” he said, “because it’s like the downfall of our culture.  It’s a pretty scary thing.   We discuss in class how we can go about doing things.  We don’t exactly know what to do about it yet.”

The course embodies the Honors College values of academic excellence, commitment to the community and leadership by throwing promising freshmen together in an intense communicative environment and guiding them to where they will eventually be able to go about doing things, learning from past disaster management mistakes and alleviating the current issues they face.

Tiger Tracks: Catching up with Honors Alumni

The Honors College loves hearing back from its former students. 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 1996

• Elizabeth (Berry) Long, M.D., and William David Long, M.D., currently live in Alexandria, La.  Now married, they both fondly remember the Honors curriculum: “We still talk about our first semester in Ancient Greece – a tremendous introduction to the world,” they said.

Class of 2005

• Michael Tipton, at age 24, is the Executive Director of Teach For America in South Louisiana. He has come a long way since his first job as a student assistant at the Office of the Chancellor. As a teacher in the Mott Hall Bronx High School in New York, Michael lead his 9th grade American History students from a 2% passing rate on the American History Regents Exam (the high stakes exam that partially determines graduation in New York) to an 80% passing rate in just one year, putting them on track to go to college. Michael graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences and is also a University High School alumnus of the Class of 2001.

Class of 2007

• Henry Louth is working at Tipton Associates in Baton Rouge. Two months ago, he achieved accreditation as a Leader in Energy and Environmental Design. He is qualified to support the efforts in the building industry to provide knowledge and support in certifying structures as "green" in the architectural/construction market sector. “I am very thankful for the guidance and education I received while in the Honors program, and given the opportunity would love to give back and share ideas should the need arise,” he said.

Michael Tipton ('05) is the Executive Director of Teach for America in South Louisiana.