2005-06 Honors Program Activities

Honors Lounge Open House: Get acquainted with the new Honors Lounge, your fellow honors students and your new honors director! We will have light refreshments. Plan to come for a few minutes or the entire time. Before the event, get your key to the lounge from Public Safety – they will provide you with a map to help you find the new lounge.

Freshman Barbeque: During the first or second weekend of school, the upper-class student honors officers will host a barbeque for freshmen honors students. This will be a nice opportunity for all of the freshmen honors students to get acquainted with each other and taste some of Chef Einolf’s famous barbeque cuisine.

HersheyPark Trip: A day at HersheyPark for honors students – buses will leave Patriot Hall at 9:30 a.m. and will leave HersheyPark at 8 p.m. The honors program is subsidizing the cost of this trip, so this is a really good deal!

Orioles Game: An evening at the Baltimore Orioles! We will be joining the Mount’s Alumni Association for the Bullpen Party before the game. A bus will leave Patriot Hall at 4 .pm. and will return at the conclusion of the game. The honors program is covering the cost of transportation!

Annual Honors Banquet: Please tell your family to mark this date on their calendar! They will be invited to our annual celebration of the honors program.

Dinners at the President’s Home: The Mount’s president, Thomas Powell, has graciously invited us to his home for a number of academically enriching evenings. These are intimate affairs to encourage spirited discussion – we limit the dinners to 25 students. Typically, faculty from an academic department will host the dinner by providing readings in advance and leading the group’s discussion. We have two dinners scheduled in the fall and two scheduled in the spring, so you should have an opportunity to attend at least one of the dinners.

Junior Class Leadership Program: With the help of Dr. Charles Beitz, the Mount’s leadership guru, I am introducing a leadership program for honors students in their junior year. The program is optional, but highly recommended. With your talents, all of you are headed toward a leadership role in your chosen field. I would like to see you receive some training. We will meet at least two times in the fall semester, and again in the spring semester. The year will culminate with an incredible leadership experience on the Gettysburg College Ropes Course. We will also invite an expert to speak on leadership at the Junior Honors Dinner. I expect this to become an annual program, so freshmen and sophomores will have a chance to do this when they are juniors. Seniors will also be invited this year, as long as they can spare the time away from their senior honors project.

William Meredith Science and Culture Dinner and Lecture: The Honors Program celebrates academic achievements in science and philosophy by sponsoring a lecture by a noted academic. The evening is held in honor of William Meredith, professor emeritus of science.

Reading Group: Each year President Powell selects a book to give to all honors students. Recent selections have been Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, Waiting by Ha Jin and Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. The book is used as a discussion point in classes and as a common thread for all students in the program.