NCHC 2018 Report

Five students traveled to Boston recently to attend the annual meeting of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) to present posters of their work at SAU.

The meeting was held in Boston, so in addition to their work at the conference they were able to take in some of the important historical sites including the Old North Church, Paul Revere's home, the Boston Common, Faneuil Hall, and the Boston Public Library.

Another of Boston's famous sites is the berth of the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides. In the background is the Bunker Hill memorial.

The group left Little Rock on Wednesday 7 November. Below, they enjoy Starbucks drinks before going through security.

From L to R: Lowther, Murugan, King, Ghazzali, and Nash.

The convention hotel was in the midst of a labor dispute from UNITE HERE's Local 26 after talks broke down. Many of the conferences' participants voiced support for the strikers and the NCHC added a separate session to explain the dispute.

Picket line outside Boston Sheraton, one of seven Boston Marriott chain hotels where workers were on strike.

SAU Honors students presented at two student poster sessions:

From L to R: Kameron King, Azitutu Murugan, and Siobhan Lowther stand in front of their history game poster.

Yassimine Ghazzali is in front of her poster on the effects of simulated microgravity.

Senior Laura Nash poses in front of a poster by Kardas, Wingfield, and herself. This research looked analyzed SAU Honors College applicants' responses to the two new essay prompts recently introduced. One asks students to name the two college courses every student should take and the other asks about a social problem of interest to the applicant.

The analysis revealed that the answers to the question about courses showed statistical significance using a chi-square for goodness of fit. Students were more likely to pick courses related to personal growth than to more academic courses.

Laura Nash stands in front of the poster submitted to the Faculty Poster competition.

Dr. Kardas took advantage of the trip to Boston to visit Brittany Kamson, the EF representative in charge of planning the upcoming trip to Italy in May 2019. EF stands for Education First, a privately held company that offers student travel and other learning services throughout the world. SAU has partnered with EF previously on trips to the WWII European Battlefields, Greece, Cuba, China, now Italy.

EF Building in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Next year's NCHC meeting will be held in New Orleans and the Honors College hopes to take a larger contingent of its students because of our proximity to the Crescent City.