All posts by Dr. Dave Davies

With the semester several weeks in progress, we’re in the middle of a flurry of activity in the Honors College.

Most importantly, our deadline for fall admissions was on Feb. 1, and we’re gearing up to review applications for the freshman class of Fall 2012. All indications are that we’ll have a bumper crop of applications, and we couldn’t be more pleased. The number of applications has been trending upward in recent years, so it’s no surprise to us that this will be a strong year. Still, it’s a good sign that word is continuing to spread among area and regional high school students about the quality of our programs.

Students who’ve applied to the Honors College should expect to get word back from us regarding admissions in about a month.

The British Studies Program, one of the premier study-abroad programs at Southern Miss, has begun recruiting for the Summer 2012 program. We did our part today by hosting a special recruiting presentation just for Honors College students led by Dr. Doug Mackaman, the BSP director.

British Studies offers a wide range of courses in numerous disciplines, meeting from June 28 to July 29 in London. Students take just one course for six hours of credit. The program has been up and running for decades, but this summer will be one of the most exciting programs ever thanks to the Summer Olympics, which will be beginning in London in the final days of our program. Students will get a chance to attend at least one Summer Olympics event. Our program is headquartered at King’s College in central London, just south of the Waterloo Bridge (A view from the bridge is pictured above).

I’ve been teaching in London almost every year since 1999 in journalism, so I’m familiar with the program firsthand. Typically one- to two-dozen Honors students take part in British Studies, as we strongly encourage our students to consider study abroad because of its many educational benefits.

Great news! We’re halfway through our annual fund campaign, and so far our alumni have pledged $1,337 in gifts to the Honors College, which represents about half of this year’s $3,000 fundraising goal.

Thanks go out to Jessica Neno Cloud, pictured at left, the development officer in the USM Foundation who is doing the heavy lifting of coordinating the campaign. Jessica has brought considerable enthusiasm to this year’s drive, given that she is herself an Honors College graduate. (She received a B.A. in American studies in 2003.) Before joining the Foundation, she was a program manager in the Office of Annual Giving at the University of South Carolina. We’re delighted to have her help!

We’re pleased also at the response to the campaign. Thanks to those who’ve pledged so far, and I hope I’m not pushing my luck to ask those of you who haven’t pledged yet to consider either returning your card with a gift or to make one through the foundation web site at http://www.usmfoundation.com/honors. We very much appreciate it. Of course, your gifts made before Dec. 31 are tax deductible for this year. Your help will enable to upgrade the Honors College student computer lab and to outfit our upstairs classroom.

We enlisted the help of two terrific Honors College students — Jordan Mathews and Kelly Rake — to spread the word about the Honors College annual fund campaign. In the Youtube video, the two offer a guided tour of the Honor House and explain what we’ll do with the money that alumni and others give us in this campaign.

If you care to help out, you can give online by pointing your browser to http://usmfoundation.com/honors.

High school students considering the Honors College sometimes worry that if they come in to Honors, they’ll have to forgo any other activity on campus just to keep up with the workload. I try to reassure these students that while Honors is demanding, it’s not so demanding that you’ll have to give up other parts of the college experience. In fact, our Honors students capably handle their coursework and Honors requirements while taking on all kinds of demanding roles across campus.

Just ask Erick Brown, a senior sociology major from Columbus. Erick is in the Honors College but is also the 2011-2012 president of the Student Government Association. He’s managed to juggle HoCo work and a demanding SGA schedule very effectively. “Time management,” Erick says, “is one of the most valuable skills you can have in my position.” Erick is managing his SGA duties while he applies to medical schools, all the while keeping up with the demands of completing his honors thesis. Not that it is always easy, mind you. Erick, pictured above in his SGA office, says he tries to save some time every day for relaxing, no matter how busy his schedule. That keeps him on an even keel, he says.