CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS YEAR'S AETNA FRESHMAN WRITING CONTEST WINNER, LISA RUOHONIEMI!

Congratulations to sophomore Lisa Ruohoniemi, winner of the 2009 Aetna Freshman Writing Contest!

The Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Awards recognizes exemplary academic writing done by students across the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and professional schools. The papers are published in Essay Connections, a collection that features the Freshman English prize essays but that will soon to be expanded to include the advanced writing winners.

ATTENTION SENIORS!
FINAL STEPS FOR GRADUATING AS AN HONORS SCHOLAR

For all seniors graduating in December 2009, please be sure that the Honors office has received your Honors Final Plan of Study and Thesis Plan.  If not, go to our forms page and bring them to the office as soon as possible.  Also, your Thesis Approval form and a hard copy of your thesis are due in the Honors office on the last day of classes, December 11, 2009.  These are all required for Honors Scholar graduation.

 For all seniors planning on graduating in May or August 2010, please be sure to meet with your Honors advisor sometime this semester to complete your Honors Final Plan of Study, which is due the last day of classes, December 11, 2009.  Also, refer to the graduation checklist (http://www.honors.uconn.edu/academics/graduation/checklist.php) and the Registrar’s “Steps to a Successful Graduation” (http://www.registrar.uconn.edu/graduati.html) for more helpful information and deadlines.

 

For students working on Honors conversions, please remember that you will not earn Honors credit for the course until you have finished all the work, received a grade of B- or above and your instructor has approved your conversion in our online system.  It takes about 3-4 weeks after the end of the semester for processing before transcripts will show the “Honors credit” notation.
If you have any questions email honors@uconn.edu or call 860-486-4223 at any time.

 NEW Exchange Program in the Netherlands!
On Wednesday, November 11 from 2-3pm there will be a student session with Dean Louis Boon of the University College Maastricht.  UConn Honors is looking to forge an exchange program with UCM beginning in Fall 2010. This would be a problem based learning program which is a direct exchange allowing you to pay UConn prices while participating in an honors program overseas and earning Honors credits.  If you are interested, please RSVP to honorsevents@uconn.edu

University of Connecticut Honors Program Life Sciences Honors Thesis Research Grant 2009-10
To support the completion of honors theses in the life sciences, the Office of the Provost has provided funding to support honors thesis research for the 2009-2010 academic year. Funding may be used to support laboratory costs or to purchase consumables, and funding must apply to the execution of research leading to the completion of the honors thesis. Application reviews begin Thursday, October 1, 2009. Applications will be accepted through May 1, 2010 or until all funding has been exhausted. click here for more information

"Dangerous Liaisons" by Nima Gerami ’07
Click here to read an article written by Honors alumnus, Nima Gerami, a research assistant in the Nonproliferation Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and editor of Carnegie's Proliferation News.

 

Featured Honors Courses - Spring 2010

SPRING COURSE SELECTION BEGINS OCTOBER 26!

Spring course selection via the Student Administration system begins on Monday, October 26. Appointments date/times are based on the number of credits earned prior to registration. Please contact the Registrar's office with appointment time questions. Please visit the Honors Registration web page to find out more about the Honors courses being offered, course requirements for the Sophomore Honors and Honors Scholar graduation, your registration appointment, meeting with your advisor, and much more!
Students working toward Sophomore Honors must earn at least three of the required Honors credits from the approved list of Honors Interdisciplinary Core Courses. Offered for the first time in Fall 2006, the Honors Core Curriculum is specially designed for first and second year Honors students. The courses are interdisciplinary and fulfill General Education requirements. Check out these available sections...
Students should also consider enrolling in one or more of the Spring 2010 featured Honors courses.  Find out more about these exciting offerings by visiting the featured Honors courses page.

Honors Interdisciplinary Core Courses

HIST/LAMS/PRLS 1570 - Migrant Workers in Connecticut

The Honors Program is pleased to announce the Honors Core Curriculum course, Honors Core: Migrant Workers in Connecticut, has been approved as a cross-listed course offered as HIST 1570, LAMS 1570, and PRLS 1570.  HIST/LAMS/PRSL 1570, approved for Content Area 1 and Content Area 4, will be offered in Spring 2010 on Tuesdays from 2:00 – 4:30 p.m.  Approved students may select HIST, LAMS, or PRLS for their course registration.  Successful completion of this course will count toward the required three credits of Honors Core for the Sophomore Honors.  Admission to this course is by permission only for a maximum of 16 students.  A BRIEF application is required. Please read the description below and follow the listed application instructions.

Professor Mark Overmyer-Velázquez
General Education:  Content Area 1 & Content Area 4

Students interested in this class might wish to take the associated one-credit Spanish discussion section: INTD 3222-097 Linkage through Language: Spanish discussion w/ HIST/LAMS/PRLS 1570.

Course Description:
This interdisciplinary, team-taught Honors course examines the life and work experiences of migrant workers.  Weekly sessions are taught by different faculty from across the university and by practitioners in the field, combining short lectures and discussions of assigned readings.  The emphasis is on migrant workers – mostly Spanish-speaking from the Caribbean and Latin America, but with some attention to non-Spanish-speaking migrants (e.g., from Haiti) – in the United States with a significant focus on migrant workers in Connecticut.  For a more detailed course description, and for application instructions, visit the Honors Interdisciplinary Core Courses webpage.

Featured Honors Courses

ENGL 3695H-01,  The Vikings
3 credits
12:30-1:45 TuTh 
Instructor: Tamarah M. Kohanski
Open to ALL Honors Students, and  to non-honors students by arrangement with the instructor.
This class will investigate Viking culture and its ongoing influence through a study of primary texts in Norse mythology, history, and literature as well as art objects and other artifacts. click here for more information

English 3800-01 -" Honors I: Approaches to Literature"
3 Credits
TuTh 11-12:15
Dr. David Abraham
This course is designed as an introduction to the discipline and methodology of CLOSE READING with respect to the genres of short fiction and poetry.  As one thematic focus, we will explore how the masks we use to disguise our private selves may be necessary, but may also come at a terrible price—“a split between a publicly acceptable persona, and a possibly unacceptable, perhaps even monstrous” self.  It is what is under the “pressure of concealment—that explodes,” wrote Adrienne Rich, in “Vesuvius at Home.”  Texts: Charters, The Story and Its Writer (compact 7th ed) and The Norton Anthology Poetry (shorter 5th ed)

ENGL 3800 - "Honors I: Approaches to Literature: may be used to satisfy the ENGL 1010 or 1011 requirement.  Not open for credit for students who have passed ENGL 1010 or 1011.

MCB 2000, Introduction to Biochemistry
4 credits
9-9:50 MWF, 12:30-3:30 M & 3:30-4:20 Tu 
Instructor: Mary Bruno
Description: Three class periods and one 3-hour laboratory period. (extra 50 minute discussion for the Honors section) Prerequisite: CHEM 2241 or 2444. (CHEM 2444 may also be corequisite.) Not open for credit to students who have passed MCB 3010. 
The Honors version of MCB 2000 gives sophomores and juniors in the Honors Program opportunities to study in a small group with the course professor, do work designed to build appropriate scholarly skills and independence in a lab, and have opportunities to think about projects suitable for Honors thesis project research.

MCB 2225W-001L, Advanced Cell Biology Laboratory
4 credits
1-1:50 Tu, 2-5 Tu & 1-5 Th
Instructor: David A. Knecht
Description: One 1-hour lecture and two 4-hour laboratories. Prerequisite or corequisite: MCB 2210. Prerequisite: ENGL 1010 or 1011 or 3800. Open to honors students. Open to non-honors students with instructor consent.
Research techniques that investigate processes in live cells including DNA transfection, GFP-fusion protein dynamics, confocal fluorescence microscopy, time-lapse video microscopy, and flow cytometry. Students will pursue independent research projects. A fee of $20 is charged for this course.

A laboratory experience to prepare students for thesis research.  Focus on experimental design, data analysis and presentation. Cell culture, DNA transfection, fluorescence and time-lapse microscopy, image processing, and flow cytometry. Students will pursue independent research projects. Professor David Knecht is the course instructor and an experienced graduate assistant will assist with labs.

MCB 2410-001D or 002D, Human Genetics
3 credits
001D 12-12:50 MW & 7-7:50 Th
002D 12-12:50 & 12-12:50 F
Instructors: Barbara Mellone, Colleen C. Spurling
Description: Two lectures and one problem session. Not open to students who have passed MCB 2400. Prerequisite: BIOL 1107. Principles of genetics as applied to humans. Focus on modern methods of molecular genetics.
The separate Honors sections of this foundational course provide students with opportunities to discuss course material and problems in detail.

MCB 3100-001, Introduction to Translational Research
3 credits
12-1:50 F
Instructor: Arlene D. Albert
Description: One 2-hour lecture on Storrs campus and one 4-hour work period in hospital. Prerequisite: BIOL 1107; open to juniors or higher; open to honors students; open to non-honors students with instructor consent. Recommended preparation: MCB 2000, 2210, 2610, or 3010.
Basic science and design of human subject research; participation in clinical, patient-oriented research projects in a hospital setting. This is a great opportunity for Honors students (especially advanced sophomores and juniors who have taken the prerequisite courses) who want a research-oriented course that may lead to ideas and opportunities for thesis research projects in the biological sciences.

MCB 3412-002, Genetic Engineering and Functional Genomics
3 credits
9:30-10:45 TuTh
Instructor: Michael J. O'Neill, Rachel J. O'Neill
Description: Prerequisite: MCB 2410 or 2413. Recommended preparation: MCB 2000 or 3010.
Methods and applications of genetic engineering, including gene manipulation and transfer techniques in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Emphasis on applications of recombinant DNA technology in the elucidation of gene function. Consideration of recent technological developments in molecular genetics, such as cloning, gene therapy, the patenting and release of genetically engineered organisms, and societal issues related to these developments.
The separate Honors section of this course taught by Professors Michael and Rachel O’Neill provides students with opportunities to discuss course material and problems in detail with an advanced graduate assistant. For the weekly Honors sections, students will prepare four short written assignments during the semester as a basis for deepening discussion of course subjects.

CAMPUS ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES