Message from the Dean

As another academic year comes to a close we again find Honors College students among LSU’s – and the nation’s – very best.

The fact that 18 of our Honors College students were recognized as Outstanding Students among eight of LSU’s academic colleges is a testament to the versatility and academic excellence of our student body.

Also exemplifying this is Liz Dunn, an Honors student who was crowned Miss LSU-USA 2007 for displaying her passion for the LSU community and the qualities she has nurtured throughout her collegiate experience.

Having five more of our students named to the Tiger Twelve Class of 2007 for their commitment to the community, and with the latest two students in the Honors College to receive the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the bar has again been set very high for the next generation of Honors students.

And we have faith that the system which graduated 120 of our seniors this May will continue to provide a wonderful environment for outstanding, ambitious young people to make their own strives for academic excellence, commitment to the community and leadership.

Have a wonderful summer!

Dean Nancy Clark

Casey, Kendig named Barry M. Goldwater Scholars

The Honors College is elated by the continued success of its students in competition for prestigious national fellowships.

Most recently, biological engineering junior John Casey and chemistry sophomore Claire Kendig were named recipients of the 2007 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, two of just 317 students nationwide to receive the scholarship.  Hal Boutte, Jr., a chemistry/biochemistry junior in the Honors College, earned Honorable Mention.

Casey, from Lewisville, Texas, earned Honorable Mention for the Goldwater himself in 2006.  He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering after graduation. He wants to do research that will allow him to develop breakthrough genetic discoveries into practical therapies which will help treatment of ailments such as cancer or AIDS.

Kendig, from Shreveport, La., plans to pursue an M.D. or a Ph.D. in biological chemistry after graduation.  She wants to explore multiple research opportunities, including field research in Africa, and to research treatment of infectious diseases here at home in the United States.

Boutte, a Baton Rouge native, plans to pursue an M.D. or a Ph.D. in neuropharmacology after graduation.  He hopes to conduct research on insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetics at a leading research university.

Honors students have now won eight Goldwater Scholarships since 2001, including three last year.  For more information on the Goldwater program or how to apply, contact Dr. Drew Lamonica Arms, Honors College Director of Fellowship Advising, at dlamoni@lsu.edu.

(photos courtesy of LSU Public Affairs)

Claire Kendig, 2007 Goldwater Scholar.

Honors Perspectives:  Liz Dunn, Miss LSU-USA 2007

Honors junior Liz Dunn of Pensacola, Fla., won the 2007 Miss LSU-USA Pageant, and she gives her take on how the Honors College has helped her in her endeavors.

On March 4, I was crowned Miss LSU-USA 2007 in the Union Theatre.  While it may be difficult to see the connection between the LSU Honors College and being Miss LSU, I now realize that won my crown because of my extraordinary experience in the Honors community.

Beauty pageants originate from a European custom in which beautiful young women are chosen to symbolize their nation and its virtues.  Today pageants serve the same purpose, and I am now responsible for representing the LSU nation and its virtues – tradition, diversity, and excellence, among others.  Although a novice to the pageant system, I won by showing the judges my knowledge of and deep love for this university, which have developed because of my Honors experience.

The Honors College community is what originally attracted me to LSU.  I was born in Auburn, Ala., and my father taught at Auburn University’s Chemical Engineering department for 10 years.  I then spent my middle and high school years in Pensacola, Fla.  Although Auburn University and the University of Florida were stimulating and frugal choices for college, I was never as impressed with their students, faculty or programs as I was with LSU’s.  This institution charmed me before I ever set foot on campus; so, I decided that in order to challenge myself socially, academically and culturally, I must attend LSU and enroll in the Honors College.

In the past three years, this Honors community and specifically the Honors student organizations have given me a rewarding undergraduate experience beyond what I ever expected.  As a freshman, I was a group leader in the inaugural year of FOCUS, a student-conceived and student-led honors organization that provides high-achieving students from under-resourced high schools with an arts and humanities summer camp.  In the program’s sophomore year, I struggled through the biggest challenge of my life: recruiting and marketing for a new student organization while finding the money to support its operating budget of more than $10,000.

Through these challenges, I acquired management skills that I have never learned as an undergraduate in the management department.  I also met Honors advisers and fellow students who have become my greatest academic and career mentors.  Involvement in the Honors community unveiled my passion for a career in higher education, and Dean Nancy Clark has been a beneficial adviser as I, too, plan to establish an Honors program at a small university during my career. 

Being Miss LSU also gives me the perfect opportunity to serve as ambassador for the Honors College and its students.  In one of my first appearances, I spoke to the Honors College Board of Directors about being crowned Miss LSU. One board member asked me a question that, at the time, I could not answer: Why did I think students left the Honors program?  I have since dedicated my undergraduate Honors thesis to this very topic, to determine what causes my peers to leave the program and how current students and faculty can better recruit and advise to increase student retention.

I know the Honors College is 100 percent responsible for my success as an undergraduate, and I plan to use my thesis to provide that opportunity for success to as many students as possible.  In addition, as I serve as Miss LSU, I know my experience will prepare me to one-day serve as the ambassador of another honors college as its founder and Dean.

Liz Dunn speaks to the Honors College Advisory Council in the French House.  Liz will participate in the 2007 Miss Louisiana pageant on November 9 and 10, representing Louisiana State University.

Academic Consummation

Sally O'Rourke presents a synopsis of her thesis at the Honors College Thesis Colloquium as Grace Juneau and Matthew Calamia look on. Thesis students gathered in the Grand Salon of the French House to present their theses to fellow students and faculty.

(From Left) Joseph Cali, Jackie Zimmerman and Leslie Bourgeois were named the 2007 June Martin and Walter Rudd Thesis Award Winners, along with Trey Smith III (not pictured). Each year, four thesis scholars across various curricula are selected for an outstanding thesis. The awards were presented at the Honors College Senior Recognition Ceremony on May 17.

Sixteen Honors College graduating seniors were named University Medalists for maintaining perfect GPAs throughout their entire LSU careers. Front row: Joseph Cali, Jackie Zimmerman, Alison Landry. Back row: Matthew Calamia, Sarah Perkins, Sally O'Rourke. Not pictured are Raegan Buckley, Courtney Glueck, Stephen Grant, Jr., Angela Kopynec, Ashley Lynnette Lee, Harmony Lyles, Joshua Miller, Gina Palermo, Amy Satterlee, and Amanda Villarrubia.

The Honors College celebrated the graduation of 120 Honors seniors from Louisiana State University for the 2007 academic year. These seniors attended the 2007 Honors College Senior Recognition Ceremony, held the day before LSU's Commencement Exercises.

Honors College Office of Experiential Learning

You are reading correctly: “experiential” is not a typo. It is an adjective meaning “relating to or derived from experience.”

The Honors College established the Office of Experiential Learning earlier this spring. The department, headed by coordinator Cindy Seghers, will help students find internships, co-ops and volunteer opportunities, as well as assist them with career choices.

“It's combining the academics with the real world, and there's great value,” Seghers said.

Seghers came to the Honors College after filling the same position at LSU Career Services. She earned a degree in social work from Northwestern State University and a master’s from LSU. She has served as the Volunteer Management Coordinator for Volunteers in Public Schools (VIPS), a nation-wide non-profit organization, and also has experience in hospitals and psychiatry.

“My personal passion is to help students find their passion,” she said. “My experience working with Honors students is that, because they are typically very bright and talented, they can do a lot, which sometimes presents a challenge to narrow down and find what their niche is.”

To meet this challenge, Seghers sits down with a student and gets to know them to gauge how urgently they need to get things going. 

“What are that person's career goals,” she said, “if they have any? Based on the conversation, I’ll do an assessment and see if discussing internships or experience is premature.”

The department will enter full gear in the fall with career expos and a series of workshops focused on essential skills, including resume writing, job searching and interview skills. Additionally, Seghers said plans have been made, with Residential Life’s approval, to bring employers directly into the Honors residence halls.

Seghers’ office will relocate from West Laville Hall to an undetermined location in the fall semester due to renovations on the building. She said the department welcomes any suggestions, and encourages readers of this newsletter to contact her with internship or volunteer opportunities for students. Contact her at cseghers@lsu.edu.

Cindy Seghers, Coordinator of the Office of Experiential Learning for the Honors College, brings her expertise about internships, co-ops and volunteer opportunities from LSU Career Services.

Honors College Student Distinctions

Honors students have attained many distinctions at the close of the semester, including the following:

• Every academic year, the various colleges at LSU denote three or four Outstanding Students from each classification, and four students are named LSU's Outstanding Students overall. This year, Honors College students nearly swept the overall distinctions, as Robert Ingram, Brian Goh and Tommy Stryjewski were named LSU's Oustanding Freshman, Sophomore and Junior respectively, and Jackie Zimmerman tied for Outstanding Senior. Other Honors students receiving distinctions were:
  
  
  • Honors College: Robert Ingram (Fr.), Santhana Balaji (Soph.), Arman Sheybani (Jr.) and Jackie Zimmerman (Sr.)
  • University College : Sarah Miller and Katherine Smith (Fr.)
  • College of Agriculture : James Rabalais (Fr.) and CC DuBois (Sr.)
  • College of Arts and Sciences : Christen Romero (Jr.)
  • College of Basic Sciences : Brian Goh (Soph.), Tommy Stryjewski (Jr.) and Jackie Zimmerman (Sr.)
  • E.J. Ourso College of Business : Chelsea Robertson (Jr.) and Katherine Fossier (Sr.)
  • College of Education: Amanda Villarrubia (Sr.)
  • Manship School of Mass Communication : Amy Brittain (Soph.), Paul Dietzel (Jr.) and Nathan Spencer (Sr.)
  • College of Music and Dramatic Arts: Kathleen McMurray (Soph.)
    
    
• Five Honors students were selected to the Tiger Twelve Class of 2007. CC DuBois, Andrew Dunckleman, Amanda Exner, Harmony Lyles and Megan McKown were chosen to the group of twelve students who adhere to the tenets of LSU’s Commitment to Community, which is a pledge taken by members of the LSU family to hold themselves to the highest standards of integrity, accept responsibility for their actions, practice justice and equality, and respect others
  
  
• Meredith Lapre, David Leedom and Sarah Owens were recipients of the LSU Distinguished Communicator certification, the first of its kind in the nation. The students excelled in their participation in the Communication Across the Curriculum (CxC) Program in four areas of communication: written, spoken, visual and technological.
  
  
• Students working in Dr. Mark Batzer’s research lab in the Life Sciences Building on LSU’s campus have the frequent opportunity to get published for research work they have contributed to, and to be published as an undergraduate is a remarkable achievement. Honors students Erin Barnes and Erin Sandifer were published in the April 13 edition of Science magazine for their contributions to research on “Mobile DNA in Old World Monkeys: A Glimpse Through the Rhesus Macaque Genome" (PDF).
  
  
• The Honors College Student Council held elections for the upcoming year. Officers for the 2007-08 academic year are:
  
  • President: Allen Bagents
  • VP for Service: Jessica Swiney
  • VP for Social Activities: Bradley Tolar
  • Secretary: John Risher
  • Treasurer: Patrick Haggerty
  • Historian: Connie Boudreaux
  • Sophomore Representatives: Paige Nichols,
    Addison Plaisance and Amanda Morlas
  • Junior Representatives: Ronak Shah, Leslie Smith and
    Jenny Zhang
  • Senior Representative: Kyle Homan

Graduating psychology senior Harmony Lyles was one of five Honors students named to the Tiger Twelve Class of 2007.

Engineering freshman Robert Ingram was named Outstanding Freshman for the College of Engineering and LSU's Outstanding Freshman overall. A total of 18 Honors students were named Outstanding Students for 2007 by their respective colleges.

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 2001

•Mae MacIntire, in the Honors College from 1998-2000, transferred to the University of Cincinnati in 2000 after her junior year at LSU. She graduated Magna Cum Laude and then completed her M.S. in Psychology at Springfield College in Massachusetts with a 3.94 GPA. She was accepted to study for her PhD in Counseling at the University of North Texas. ”Though I transferred out of LSU following my junior year, I have fond memories of my experience with the Honors College,” she said.  “I feel that the Honors College is what universities should be today.  Instead of teaching to the lowest common denominator, universities should challenge students to extend beyond their current foundation of education.  Universities should encourage students to move beyond mere ‘knowing’ and into creativity, wisdom and independent, critical thinking.  I was lucky to have experienced the Honors College at LSU.”

Class of 2002

•Jill Bordelon is in her fifth year as a Neuroscience Ph.D. candidate at Emory University in Atlanta.  She has been published in Cerebral Cortex and the Journal of Comparative Neurology.  She was recently engaged to her boyfriend, Neil Glausier, who is a Sergeant in the US Army.  He returned from duty in Iraq on November 2, 2006.