University of Missouri Honors College Newsletter - Feb. 25, 2013

mu honorsCatherine Newhouse

Student Spotlight | Experiencing Rwanda as a Brazeal Scholar

February 2013 | honors.missouri.edu

Study Abroad

WHAT IS THE MULTICULTURAL CERTIFICATE?

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

It’s a personalized course of study consisting of applied experiences examining multiculturalism and diversity. The certificate is earned alongside your undergraduate degree when you complete certificate requirements.

WHAT CAN THE MULTICULTURAL CERTIFICATE DO FOR ME?Earning the certificate is a way to acknowledge your study of multicultural and diversity issues. In an increasingly global environment, earning this certificate better prepares you to understand and facilitate cross-cultural interaction in your life and in the world at large.

HOW DO I EARN A MULTICULTURAL CERTIFICATE?You need to complete a coherent program of 15 credit hours from a list of approved courses (list available at http://multicultural.missouri.edu) which critically evaluate and examine issues such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion, region, sexuality, class inequality, globally or in the United States. Courses completed for your major, minor, general education requirements or electives can all count toward yourMulticultural Certificate.

– Courses must be chosen from at least 2 different departments or programs. – At least 6 credits must be completed at the 3000 level or above. – At least 9 credits must be completed in residence.– A grade of C- or higher must be earned in each course, and students must maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.0 for overall coursework counting towards the certifcate. – Approved research-based undergraduate courses, Study Abroad courses approved through the Center for International Programs and Studies, and transcript-designated “Service-Learning” coursework are among the possibilities. One course (up to 3 credit hours minimum and 6 credit hours maximum) may include an applied experience of cultural difference. – Only coursework in foreign languages that is numbered above 2100 is applicable, and the maximum number of such credit hours is 6. – An undergraduate degree must be awarded simultaneously with the certificate. – Due to the highly individualized nature of the Multicultural certificate, students must develop a course of study in consultation with a multicultural certificate advisor, as well as with their major advisor.

Requirements

For a list of approved courses, visit http://multicultural.missouri.edu. You can contact the Multicultural Certificate Director, Etti Naveh-Benjamin, with further inquiries at [email protected]. You can also contact the Multicultural Certificate Program office at McReynolds 58, call us 573-882-1117, or email us at [email protected].

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI MULTICULTURAL CERTIFICATE58 McReynolds Hall

in this issue

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Announcements

Study AbroadHonors College students speak up about experi-encing new cultures

Student Spotlight: Catherine Newhouse

Dr. WestOn Travelling

A snowstorm closes MU’s doors on Thursday, Feb. 21 and Friday, Feb. 22. Photo by Katy Mersmann.

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Connected

Twitter@MUHonors

Get

FacebookUniversity of Missouri Honors College The Honors College Newsletter

Editor | Rachel KoehnPhotographer | Katy Mersmann

Faculty Adviser | Dr. Gregory Triplett

Cover photo by Katy Mersmann.

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AnnouncementsHonors College Early-Registration Advising

Who can be advised by the Honors College?

For “Undecided” Honors StudentsHonors students who have not officially declared a major are assigned to the Honors College for academic advising. Un-decided students may meet with an advisor in the Honors College to discuss possible majors and career goals, compare degree programs, select courses, and get assistance with registration. In addition, advisors can assist and/or make referrals for students on any number of academic or non-academic issues.For Premed/Dental/Optometry StudentsStudents who are pursuing pre-professional tracks in medicine, dentistry, or optometry are encouraged to meet with a Pre-Health Professions Advisor in the Honors College. Pre-Health Professions Advisors will be able to provide advice on course selection, information on professional school admissions tests, guidance in making application to professional schools, guidance about letters of recommendation, and information about research, healthcare and shadowing oppor-tunities. Pre-Health Professions advisors are available by appointment to assist students on an individual basis. Call the Honors College at 573-882-3893 to schedule an appointment or talk with an advisor.For All Honors StudentsAny honors student may see an honors advisor to discuss such things as career goals, changing a major, honors courses, etc. However, honors advisors do not serve as the primary advisor for students with declared majors and cannot substitute for a student’s assigned academic advisor. A student’s assigned academic advisor will be able to provide the most comprehensive information on requirements in the student’s degree program.

Prepare for Registration and Advising Appointment

To have a successful Advising Appointment:· Know the specific dates for registration.· Note the date and time you may register. This will be sent to you from the Office of the Registrar via email to your MU account. You may also use MyZou to view your enrollment date.· Resolve any outstanding holds (immunization, transcripts, etc.). This will be noted in the email from the Office of the Registrar that notifies you of your registration date and time.· Make an appointment to see your advisor. You need to make an Advising appointment as soon as you can, but the actual appointment time should be as near to your Registration time as possible.· Review the online Schedule of Courses on MyZou.· Look through your college catalog and degree requirements/general education check list. The college catalog lists requirements for each major, prerequisites for courses (requirements that need to be completed before a course can be taken), and provides course descriptions for each class.· Using your college catalog and the Schedule of Courses, develop a list of possible courses. At this initial planning stage, it is probably best to develop a list of possible courses and not worry about the specific times and days the classes meet. Since you may not be Registering until late in the registration period, the specific sections for a course you choose may not be available.· Meet with your advisor. Bring the list of your potential courses, degree requirements or general education requirements and a list of all of your questions to your advising appointment.· On the appropriate day and time, register for your classes.

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Summer Study Abroad Opportunities

Ireland Summer 2013: Dublin and the WestEnglish 4260H and History 4004/Peace Studies 4003/English 4000

Dear Students,My name is Bill Kerwin, I teach in the English Department, and I am writing to ask you to look at this summer’s study abroad program in Ireland. Running from May 26 to June 20, this year’s program will involve 6 credit hours: 3 in English, 3 in history (and the English can be taken for Honors College credit). Gera Burton will teach a course in Irish history and I will teach one in modern Irish literature. We will spend most of our time in two places—Dublin and Galway—though we will also have two nights on Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands. We will do a lot of touring to places that are connected to where we are and what we are studying.

A description of the program can be found here: http://international.missouri.edu/study-outside-the-us/programs/detail.php?program=10017

Feel free to email me ([email protected]) if you would like to talk about the program. I think it will be a fantastic trip!

Greece Summer 2013: Greece: From the Bronze Age to the Byzantine EmpireClassical Humanities 4100H (six Honors credits)

From the Acropolis in Athens to the splendors of the island of Crete, you will explore the culture, literature, and geography of ancient Greece: classical Athens, where Sophocles and Socrates once roamed; the royal tombs of the kings of Macedonia in the north; the famous oracles of Delphi and Dodona; and the Roman monuments and Byzantine monasteries that also dot the landscape of Greece. You will have plenty of time to also explore Greek cultural life, the beaches and food while learning about the beginnings of western civilization. You can earn six Honors credits. The dates are May 27–June 18/25, 2013.

A description of the program can be found here: http://international.missouri.edu/study-outside-the-us/programs/detail.php?program=10019

Feel free to email the instructor Michael Barnes: [email protected]

Honors College Scholarships

These scholarships are awarded only to currently-enrolled MU students. Students may apply for any or all of these scholarships by completing the Honors Scholarship Application. Applications for each year will be accepted from the start of Spring Semester. Applications and all supporting materials for the 2013 Honors Scholarships must be submitted to 211 Lowry Hall. The deadline has been extended due to weather to 4 pm, Friday, March 8th, 2013.

The application for the Honors College Scholarships can be found here:http://honors.missouri.edu/students/scholarships.php

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Making the decision to study abroad this past summer was my at-tempt to answer a question I’ve asked all my life: Why England? The last 22 years have been marked by Hogwarts castles, Shakespearean comedies, and the hopes of visiting a future idyllic home. Exploring England with Dr. Hornbeck and Dr. Heringman certainly opened my world to the English countryside, centuries of history, and Gooseber-ry Fool dessert, but the program also gave me an opportunity to learn the most about myself. Before I could understand what I learned, I had to figure out what it was I needed to. My summer journey with the English Architecture and Literary Landscapes program started with a question. Over four weeks, our job was to compile fifteen journal entries, in which we documented and digested what we saw and read. The jour-nals pushed me to frame the sights and sounds with an intellectual context. The question I struggled with and wrote about the most was, Why England? I had a difficult time answering that at first. Why did I leave home, why did I go anywhere at all? What did I have to learn? Removing oneself from traditional academia – the schoolroom set-ting, the large lecture halls, the routine tests and quizzes – requires a new way of learning. You learn to master the Masters - Blake, Bronte, Shakespeare, Kent, Palladio - through immersion. Discussions become an opportunity to comb out the answer to that looming question, why England?, by sharing the impacts centuries of architecture and litera-ture have on the student, the traveler, and the lifetime learner. As I thought about my personal answer, I looked past the tug I felt to call those at home; I knew I wouldn’t find it in the Skype sessions or emails. I thought instead of the hike to Grasmere, crossing sheep-dotted mountains in the hopes of stumbling upon the sublime on the way to Blake’s home. I thought about the marble floor of York Minster, which I lied on as I listened to a choir sing and lights filter through the stained glass. I thought of the steam train through the Moors on a literary lover’s journey to an iconic town. And I turned to the students I was with, who all had a desire to experience what we’ve read so much about, and knew we also learned from each other. I chose England for myself. My hope is that you take the opportunity to choose a trip for you, too.

Alyson GerminderClass of 2013

ABROADstudy H o n o rs C o l l e g e s t u d e n t s s p e a k u p a b o u t ex p e r i e n c i n g n ew c u l t u re s

The most iconic photograph snapped during my time abroad - a red phone booth right outside Westminster and Big Ben.

Photo and caption courtesy of Alyson Germinder.

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When six jet-lagged MU strangers stepped off a plane in a foreign coun-try, they had absolutely no sense of direction and no clue what was in store for the rest of the summer. But it didn’t take long for them to become masters of public transporta-tion, champions of the quest for finding a Döner and defenders of the Ger-man language. The students - alongside Honors College Associate Director Monika Fischer - studied abroad in Leipzig, Germany. They spent the summer studying the German language and Journalism and Media in Germany, as well as visiting the Reichstag, the Office of Foreign Affairs and major me-dia outlets such as the MDR, the regional public TV station. We called Leipzig home, but we made our acquaintance with the charm-ing and unique cities of Berlin, Dresden, Eisenach and Weimar during weekend trips. Studying abroad in Germany, or any foreign country, for that matter, is the experience of a lifetime. Missouri is fun and all, but there’s something magical about experiencing the transformation from being a stranger in a foreign land to actually becoming a part of it. Overcoming language and cultural barriers is challenging, but it’s an exercise in tolerance and creativ-ity. Upon our return to Mizzou, we’ve learned to better appreciate people’s differences and have developed a love for diversity. Not to mention we’ve never appreciated having free ice with our water as much as we do now!

Sally FrenchClass of 2014

ABROADH o n o rs C o l l e g e s t u d e n t s s p e a k u p a b o u t ex p e r i e n c i n g n ew c u l t u re s

The Honors German 1100 class took a field trip on October 20th to Deutsch Country Days in Warrenton, Missouri. It was inter-esting day filled with even more interesting German culture. When we arrived we were not exactly sure what to expect, whether people would be speaking German and wearing Lederhosen or in regular clothes. What we did come to find was a much dif-ferent scenario. The Deutsch Country Days are as they say, “Country”, as in 18th and 19th century German colonialists. There were farm animals, butter churning, an at-tempt on classic German food, and much more. It was an experience to say the least, and I believe the class as a whole enjoyed it. The class was a bit surprised by the fact that it was not an “Oktoberfest”, but more a history lesson of colonialism. There were a rather large crowd that was there, and some of which did speak German. It was a fun time, and a nice opportunity to get out of the classroom!

Honors German 1100Fall 2012

Tim Carrillo and Krysta Brown, both MU students, get their workout in by rowing down a river in Leipzig.

Photo and caption by Sally French.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Monika Fischer.

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student spotlight

CatherineNewhouse

Catherine Newhouse is a senior from Wheaton, Ill. majoring in Magazine Jour-nalism, Religious Studies, and International Studies. A Brazeal Scholar, Newhouse used her study abroad sti-pend to travel to Rwanda to research and write an ar-ticle for Christianity Today.

RK: Would you give me a basic run-down of what the Brazeal Scholar-ship is?

CN: The Brazeal Scholarship is a scholarship started by Jim and Cathy Brazeal. The aim is to promote diver-sity, so they select a minority candi-date, and the scholarship includes an out-of-state tuition waiver, a tuition stipend, a study abroad experience and paid research experience for the first couple of years through the Discovery Fellows program. So, it’s a really awesome scholarship. I’ve had the opportunity to meet Mr. and Mrs. Brazeal, and they’re really kind, amazing people. It’s a huge honor to be a Brazeal Scholar.

RK: How has being a Brazeal Scholar enhanced your time at Mizzou? What opportunities have come out of it?

CN: Oh gosh, there’s so many. The study abroad in Rwanda was huge because of the experience on a per-sonal level – being able to experience that culture and talk to people who lived through the genocide and just gain a bigger understanding of the world and how it works. Also, I wrote [the] article for Christianity Today about the Pentecostal renewal in Rwanda since the genocide and that earned me the two major awards I won from the Religion Newswriters

and Evangelical Press Associations. That’s probably the hugest highlight, and then just being able to be in the journalism program is also huge and, you know, through all my classes be-ing able to do real journalism work.

RK: What made you decide to go to Rwanda?

CN: I came into college really set on going to Africa. There were a couple different programs going to Africa, but the Rwanda one really got my at-tention from the start. It was east Af-rica, which is really interesting to go to, and unlike some of the other pro-grams that weren’t with MU, this one was actually with MU. It was led by Dr. Béa Gallimore, and she’s a profes-sor who is Rwandan, so she has a lot of connections to the country and the genocide. When I attended that study abroad session, I knew [that was] the one I wanted to go on.

RK: Would you elaborate a little more on what you did in Rwanda?

CN: Every study abroad student in that program did a research proj-ect. So, I basically made my research project to write an article about it for Christianity Today. What it was about was the genocide survivors and how they found religious healing in these new Pentecostal churches that

What’s Your Story?Do you have a story that deserves to be in the spotlight? If you or some-one you know has a story you would like to see in the Honors College News-letter’s Student Spotlight, let us know.

Send your story idea and contact information to [email protected].

Photo by Katy Mersmann.

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were popping up. What I found was that there was a shift toward this kind of Pentecostal expression, so more emotional religious expressions like speaking in tongues and singing and dancing, and the reason for that was because in Rwanda the culture is very, I guess, reserved, so it’s not really ap-propriate to express emotion. So, when you have all these people who’d had a really bad experience, they needed some kind of release, and religion turned out to be that release for them.

RK: What were the biggest les-sons you learned from your time in Rwanda?

CN: I feel like it’s really hard to sum up because it’s just one of those things – like I know it changed me, but it’s kind of hard to describe how. I think it’s one of those things that like, you go and you learn about genocide and all this trauma that people went through,

and it’s just something that you can never ever forget. It really just im-pressed on me the importance of tell-ing the story, so that way people are aware and they think about the deci-sions they make. If you’re in a position of power in the U.S. and, you know, something like this genocide happens

again, what kinds of decisions are you going to make differently to prevent it from happening?

RK: What’s one piece of advice you would give to a younger student or in-coming freshman?

CN: I feel like there’s a lot I’ve learned

here at Mizzou. I guess, just come in and look for something you love that you’re really excited about and get in-volved in that. There’s a lot of good opportunities for that here at Mizzou and in Columbia with the student or-ganizations, but also in the commu-nity.

RK: What are your plans for the future?

CN: Well, I really like writing and editing, and I’m really in-terested in race and religion, so I’m hoping to combine those in some fashion. I’m not sure what that’s going to

look like, but I’d love to work for re-ligion outlets that I’ve freelanced for before like Christianity Today or In-terVarsity Press – they’re a book pub-lisher. So, I’d love to work for a similar religion-oriented organization, as well as organizations involved in social justice and race and poverty.

“The study abroad in Rwanda was huge because of the experience on a personal

level – being able to experience that culture and talk to people who lived through the genocide and just gain a bigger understanding of the world and

how it works.”

Photo courtesy of Catherine Newhouse.

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I’m delighted to see that one of the first issues of our newsletter is devoted to international studies, the whole purpose of which is to help students become global citizens. A global citizen, as our web-site explains, is someone who “possesses a sense of her own role as a citizen of the world.” Although global citizenship can be practiced every day right here in Columbia, Missouri, I’m a true believer in the value of travel. We can’t all afford to travel to Africa, it’s true, but we can travel regionally, ap-proaching even neighboring cities like St. Louis from a global as well as local perspective.

Travel comes from the word “travail,” “to work.” It implies industry, energy, activity. It also implies a willingness to take the difficult path (the “road less travelled,” as Robert Frost once wrote) and to learn as much as we can about the customs of the place we’re visiting.

For several centuries, travel played a vital role in education. Those who travelled embraced a spirit of scientific inquiry. “One by-product of real travel was something that has virtually disappeared,” writes Paul Fussell. That “something” is the travel book. As Fussell explains, the travel book was a record of an inquiry--and a “report on how that inquiry affected the mind and imagination of the traveler.” These travel books, some of which are housed in museums all over the world, are absolutely fascinating, revealing how people would sometimes travel hundreds, even thousands, of miles to answer the quirkiest of questions.

One of the richest examples of travel’s intimate connection with study is the “Grand Tour,” which flourished between the sixteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Grand Tour privileged em-pirical knowledge over abstract speculation, seeing and experiencing over book-learning. On these tours, young men (there were no “grand tours” for women) would set out for Europe in order to complete their education. Many would travel for months, sometimes years (part of the experience was not to fix a time to it). Samuel Johnson termed it the “moving academy.” I love this phrase, and I’d like to encourage all of you—no matter how close or far you go—to think of your own travelling as a “moving academy.”

Finally, we might think about travel as an opportunity to embrace the uncertain and unfamiliar. Henry James once said that good travelers practice the art of being “strangers.” This concept of travel is closely connected to the idea that true creativity requires a willingness to adopt the position of an outsider, which I wrote about in the last newsletter. To practice true creativity, and true travelling, we not only have to appreciate the strangeness of whatever we’re approaching; we have to make our-selves strange. What a scary and wonderful idea.

Dr.West On Travelling

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Advice ColumnExplanation

Looking to join a Mizzou Club Sport?

Look no further than Mizzou’s own Quidditch team!

The co-ed sport is quickly growing across the nation and Mizzou’s team is always look-ing for new members. If you’ve ever played a sport in your life, chances are you’ll find something familiar.

Rugby or football? There’s tackling. Basketball? There’s shooting and passing. And dunking. Can’t for get dunking. Lacrosse? Well, there’s a stick involved in both and a fair amount of physicality. Baseball or softball? Your arm will come into play at beater when you get to pelt people with dodgeballs. Cross country? Snitches and seekers run a lot across long, open fields. Soccer? You can kick the ball and playing keeper is similar to playing goalie.

If you’d like to join, either contact [email protected], @Miz-zouQuidditch, or facebook.com/MizzouQuidditch to get info on practice dates and times.

We currently practice three times a week (not all are required to attend, we simply have three practices a week to be flexible) at Francis Quadrangle (the Columns) on Sundays at 1PM and Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5 PM. You don’t need to bring any equipment, but cleats and mouth-guards are recommended.

February 2013 | honors.missouri.edu