HONORS COLLEGE COMMUNIQUE: December 2020

Hello from the Honors College! In partnership with Academic Advising, we are sending a monthly Honors College Communique on the Advising listserv, in which we will send short updates about:  

1. Honors opportunities open to all students
2. A student highlight from your advising areas
3. Additional opportunities for students you may want to pass along
4. Contacts within Honors for more information

Thank you to advisors for your help judging our Experiential Learning Fair!

Our Experiential Learning Fair, or ELF, is where Honors students showcase the experiential learning they do outside of the classroom. These experiential activities can count for Honors College Experience requirements, too. For those students, our ELF is the 'final exam' for their out of class activities. In their poster and presentation, students talk about how they met Honors College learning outcomes, followed the Honors College ethos, and completed an experience in Service, Professional Development, Intellectual Achievement & Research, Cultural Exploration, Engaged Living, and Skill Development (the "SPICES"). Judges come from across our university: wonderful staff like Advising, faculty from all colleges, and graduate students. Thank you again for making the Fall 2020 ELF a success! To see and listen to our student presentations, visit our ELF site.

Honors Opportunities for All Students: Honors Courses

Each semester, students from across the university have the opportunity to take Honors College courses. For a list of Spring 2020 courses, please see our Course Description page:

Highlighted course: Social Demography and Public Policy: Demography of Latinos

DEM 4963.902 (Hybrid; MW 1:00-2:15pm; Instructor: Dr. R. Sáenz)

Not only are Latinos driving the U.S. demographic future, but they are also increasingly important in their impact on all of the country’s institutions, from the workforce, consumer markets, K-12 and college and university enrollment, health providers, voters and political leaders, religious congregants, homeowners, etc. Despite the growing importance of Latinos for the future of the U.S., they continue to be not well understood and to be perceived as people with a relatively short history in the U.S. This course will provide a comprehensive overview of the Latino population in the United States with a focus on the intersection between Latino demography and major substantive topics including history, theoretical developments, immigration, political engagement, education, work and economic life, families and households, gender and sexuality, religion, health and healthcare, crime and victimization, and mass media. The course will emphasize the usefulness of multimethod data and analytical approaches; demographic, sociological, and critical race theoretical approaches; and multidisciplinary perspectives. Students should have backgrounds in the understanding of the social science, educational, and related disciplines.

If you know of students who might be interested in an Honors course, here are the important details:

1. Students need to complete and submit this form to honors@utsa.edu: https://honors.utsa.edu/resources/pdf/HONORS-COURSE-for-non-honors-students-Final.pdf
2. In general, to enroll in an Honors course, non-Honors students must typically meet Honors GPA standards (3.5 or higher).

Current students can also join the Honors College!

Do you know a current UTSA student with a 3.5 GPA or above (under 45 cumulative hours) that might be interested in joining the Honors College? Have them reach out to honorsadmissions@utsa.edu.  Benefits of joining the Honors College include small interdisciplinary courses and a tight-knit community across all UTSA colleges, Honors-specific scholarships, access funds to pursue experiential learning opportunities, and professional coaching. 

Student Highlight: Meet Aramis Babcock

Aramis Babcock is a senior studying Cybersecurity at UTSA. After traveling to China in high school as a student at Brandeis, Aramis enrolled in Chinese language classes at UTSA. In the summer of 2019, he studied abroad in Taichung, Taiwan, where he took Chinese language courses on a UTSA faculty-led program offered by Professor Ward of Modern Languages and Literatures. Aramis spent this past summer in a virtual internship at Deloitte, where he was a Risk and Financial Advisory Intern for Cyber, Government and Public Services. Aramis trained for and completed an Ironman Triathlon, which he presented at the Honors College Experiential Learning Fair. Aramis is a great example of a student that has taken advantage of UTSA programming from the College of Business, the College of Liberal and Fine Arts, and the Honors College.   

Read more about Aramis here.

Additional Opportunities for All Students: Fulbright Canada Post-COVID Challenge

Students can apply as individuals or teams to the Fulbright Canada Post-COVID Challenge, which link students with mentors across North America. The Post-COVID Challenge hopes to inspire youth and provide a venue for them to engage in shaping and enriching our collective future. We are seeking bold ideas about the way we live, connect, and grow in a Post-COVID world in Public Health and Wellbeing, Digital Transformation or Social Cohesion and Economic Recovery. Applications are due on January 30^th. The Office of Nationally Competitive Awards, housed in the Honors College, can support students to put together an application.  Students can contact Andrew.Chapman2@utsa.edu for more details or visit https://www.fulbright.ca/programs/youth/post-covid-challenge.  Students looking to travel after graduation to do research, attend a funded-MA program, or teach English abroad can also consider the Fulbright Student Program’s other opportunities. 

Our best regards,

Drew Chapman, Director of Nationally Competitive Awards, andrew.chapman2@utsa.edu

Jill Fleuriet, Honors College Acting Dean, jill.fleuriet@utsa.edu

Andrew Chapman, Ph.D.

Director, Office of NationallyCompetitive Awards

The University of Texas at San Antonio

Honors College

andrew.chapman2@utsa.edu