Center for Academic Excellence

Honors Convocation

The annual Elizabeth Gibson Drinko Honors Convocation celebrates academics at Marshall University. Featuring a nationally known speaker, the convocation also includes announcements of annual awards to honors students, presentation of honors pins and certificates, recognition of scholarship students, and the winners of department-based awards. Recent speakers include E.O. Wilson, founding father of ecological studies; NPR personality, Noah Adams; actress and Arts administrator, Jane Alexander; and Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys.
 

The convocation represents one of the University Honors Program’s key opportunities for recognizing student accomplishments, so you should always plan to attend to see your peers’ accomplishments and hear the speaker.

Yeager Scholars Symposium

The Yeager Scholars Symposium recognizes and celebrates academic achievements at Marshall and foregrounds the leadership and organizing abilities of the graduating class of Yeager Scholars for that year. Planned and organized by that class, the Symposium events center around themes that the keynote speaker and Marshall University Faculty address in presentations, talks and panels. See the link to the Yeager Scholars web-site for details on recent Symposium presenters and topics, which have ranged from international ecological issues to Appalachian culture.
 

Honors Service Projects

Each year, the honors student association, MUHSA, plans, organizes and presents an event for the University and the larger community. These projects, begun in 2007, may must educate and/or serve and may also entertain.

The 2008 project, a Renaissance Fair, evoked common sights and events in Renaissance England during the reign of Elizabeth, helping educate students and campus visitors about some of that important period's aspects. MUHSA members and the Honors Assistant Director recruited presenters, booth-displays, theatre-program professors and actors, and faculty to act, play, and present in a day devoted to Queen Elizabeth's court and entourage, public readings of poetry, an alchemical and herbalist display, sword-fighting, presentation of soliloquies from Shakespeare's plays, and more. Both participants and visitors were in costume, adding to the color and energy of the event.

The 2009 project, a 5-K run, attracted nearly 100 participants and earned MUHSA a great reputation among local amateur runners for setting up a well organized and professional race. Students planned everything from the route to the EMS and police coverage; from the timing process to the prizes; from drinks to snacks. Raising over $1000 from the race, MUHSA plans to use the funds to set up a one-time scholarship for Honors students. Details on that scholarship will be found on the SCHOLARSHIP LINK when the contracts and arrangements are completed. Honors students will determine the scholarship's purpose, its amounts, and an appropriate selection process.