SAU Honors College

The SAU Honors College was founded in 2003 by Dr. David Rankin, president of SAU. Dr. Lynne Belcher served as founding director and is retired from SAU. The Honors College seeks and admits qualified students who seek to pursue a serious academic program with equally gifted peers and committed teachers. Honors classes are small and provide academically enriching opportunities for students and the faculty who teach them. Currently, SAU enrolls nearly 170 honors students and graduates about 66% of admitees in four years or less. Anyone interested in applying to the Honors College or seeking further information should contact the director, Dr. Edward P. Kardas at epkardas@saumag.edu or at 870 904-8897.

Thursday, April 3, 2025

International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition

Congratulations to Colin Julian alongside Dr. Zghair as they will be presenting their work at the 2025 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMCE)! Their abstract titled Sustainability Assessment of Lubrication in Material Removal Process: Experimental Evaluation Using Different Materials was accepted in April 2025. IMCE will be held in Memphis, Tennessee. The Honors College is proud to have such hard working students!     

Tuesday, April 1, 2025

SAU Writing Contest Winners

Winners of the 2025 SAU Writing Contest are published in emergence, SAU's student literary journal. (Link provided at the end of post)

The contest consisted of three categories, Poetry, Short Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction. Alexis Goodwin won third place in Poetry for her poem, "10:11". Carmen Lok won first place in short fiction for, "Posthumous". William Ashcraft won second place in short fiction for, "Branches", as well as second place in creative nonfiction for, "Attempt Seven". 

Honors College is very proud of our students! 

https://emergence.saumag.edu/ 

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Sigma Tau Delta Convention

Several honors college students will be presenting at the International English Honors Society, Sigma Tau Delta, convention this year. The conference will be held in Denver, CO this year. The Honors students who will be presenting include Will Ashcraft (original prose presenter), Lexi Goodwin (Roundtable participant), Carmen Lok (original prose presenter)¸ and Lacy Olivarez (original poetry presenter). A previous Honors College graduate Destiny Jones, will also be presenting. The students will attend workshops, hear speakers, and meet with professionals from various graduate programs. SAU is and has been one of the best-represented universities at the convention. The SAU Honors College is so proud of our students attending the convention! 

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Arkansas STEM Posters at the Capitol

SAU's Honors College students Malak Bachri, Grace Edwards, and Rylee Griffis will be presenting their research in Washington, D.C. this afternoon. 

Malak Bachri will be presenting research on revolutionizing medical image segmentation with unmatched precision and efficiency with PH-SAM. (Persistent Homology and Segment Anything Model). 

Grace Edwards and Rylee Griffis will be presenting their research on monitoring water quality in freshwater ponds and in natural springs in Ouachita County, AR. 

Rylee Griffis will be presenting her research on testing raw wastewater as a seed control for the CBOD method.

We are so proud of our honors students and their achievements! 

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Fall 2024 Honors Graduates

 Congratulations to the Honors College Fall 2024 graduates! 

L to R: Ong, Trejo, Payne, Tipton
L to R: Henderson and Lok

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Kaylie Tipton Bucket List

 

I’ve never thought before about what I want done before I die. That seems kinda morbid to me. But if I absolutely had to decide something I would say maybe a well paying job in my dream career. I want to make a game that people love and play all the time. 
 
That’s one of the few things I'm absolutely sure on. I also wouldn’t mind honing my art skills more and becoming more skilled and able to draw things I’m not able to right now, or at least what I’m not good at drawing right now like hands. 
 
There are several stories I’d love to either write or draw out in a comic at some point. But before I do that I want to get better at drawing things so it looks better. 
 
Same for writing, I need to improve before I decide to write any of my stories, especially in a setting where others may read it.
           
 I want to be able to work in a place where I can achieve my dreams of making video games for people to play. That’s all I’ve wanted to do since 7th grade just about. I have ideas for games I’d love to make a thing but I have to learn more before I can make them a reality. 
 
Because while I know some coding, it’s not near enough to be able to make an entire game from scratch. Nor do I have the art skills required to make it good looking as well as functional. 
 
Hopefully it can be achieved in the future because I am learning and I look forward to it greatly.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

3D Printers

 

 

SAU Honors College staff deliver 3D printers

One of our new full honors courses is 3D Printing. Naturally, you cannot teach course without printers.

We are looking forward to offering this innovative course.