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 recently 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, March 9, 2017

Southern Arkansas and Appalachian State Travel to Cuba

The following document was submitted today for consideration in the 2017 NCHC Program. That meeting will be held in Atlanta in November.


Submitted to NCHC Meeting in Atlanta, November 2017
Title
Cuba and Honors: Two Colleges Experience International Education
Authors
Edward Kardas, Southern Arkansas University
Joseph Gonzalez, Appalachian State University
Laura Nash, Southern Arkansas University
Paige Anderholm, Appalachian State University
Kenyon Jeffrey, Appalachian State University
Abstract
Two professors and three students from two schools describe their experiences in traveling to Cuba. For SAU, traveling to Cuba required two week-long preparatory visits, attendance at an international conference in Havana, two 8-day tours with students, personal contact with Cuban officials, and overcoming much red tape. Speaking and writing Spanish well were important in many ways to ultimately getting permission to visit and to work with Cuban faculty and students for a week on their campus. The result was the creation of a large mural on their campus. The student from SAU traveled there during the third trip visiting several cities on the island. The short time spent there felt like several weeks, she said. She found Cuba beautiful, clear, and clean and noted that Cubans scrimped and saved for their cars, farms, and daily lives. She was struck on how much the Embargo had slowed progress. She wishes to return to continue learning about the unique experiences Cuba has to offer. ASU's visits were part of a course on Cuban culture (including music and dance). The first trip showed mixed results in that students treated it more like a vacation than a learning opportunity. Thus, changes were made during the subsequent trip (increasing academic rigor and recruiting serious participants). Those changes were successful and will be reported here. Students acted more like travelers, not tourists. They avoided the tourist sites, slept in private homes, and traveled in buses and taxis. They  reported that Cuba offered friendship, spectacle, music, dance, and food, but the language barrier was a challenge. At the same time, they realized their responsibility to act as ambassadors from a country many Cubans still viewed as an implacable enemy. The trip made them view themselves in new and more mature ways. 
Track
General Session
Topic Areas
    International Education
    Honors Pedagogy
    Faculty
LCD Projector Requested?
Yes
LCD Projector Information
Yes
Mac Adaptors
Yes
Description for the conference program
Professors and students from two colleges describe the challenges, opportunities, and rewards of traveling to Cuba. Getting there requires overcoming much red tape and a working knowledge of Spanish. Cuba offers unique cultural, agricultural, historical, and artistic opportunities for Americans, especially for those who come as travelers not tourists.
If you have presented a similar session at NCHC or a related conference in the recent past, please indicate why the topic is relevant for presentation in 2017.
Submission Date
9th Mar 2017, 10:27am EST
Latest Update
9th Mar 2017, 11:49am EST
Submission ID
390

Friday, March 3, 2017

SAU Honors College Founding

I found this old e-mail recently. It speaks to the founding of the SAU Honors College. Neat!

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From: Donald Watt
Sent: Wednesday, December 4, 2002 3:47 PM
To: Ben Johnson; Betty McCollum; Bob Terry; Bradley Herzog; Cassandra Cooper; Claudell Woods; Dan Skelton; Dave Martinez; David Murphy; David Sixbey; Debi Rago; Donnis Taylor; Douglas Waterfield; E. Birmingham-Pokorny; Ed Kardas; Elizabeth Davis; Gina Bates; James Reppert; James Willis; Jan Duke; Jane Becnel; Japhet Makia; Joe Bates; John Cary; John Dudley; John Otey; Judith Vasser; Juping Wang; Kathleen Mallory; Kristin Larson; Linda Selman; Lynne Belcher; Margie Farris; Mark Fichter; Mary Thurlkill; Michel Hallot; Natalia Murphy; Paul Babbitt; Paul Shaver; Richard Ambler; Scotland Stout; Shannin Schroeder; Stacy Clanton; Steven Ochs; Tommy Milford; Yonghu Dai
Subject: Honors College - Programs

This afternoon at Deans' Council, I was asked by the VPAA to get input from LPA faculty regarding whether or not we would like to see and Honors College or Honors Programs at SAU.  I need this prior to next Wednesday's Deans' Council meeting.

Please give me your thoughts (brief or comprehensive) as to whether or not you would like to see SAU start:

An Honors College (more comprehensive program)

An Honors Programs (departmental honors)

Some other type of Honors opportunities.

Thanks for your help.  Good luck with finals!

Don
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