THE BARRETT HONORS COLLEGE



THE BARRETT HONORS COLLEGE

At Arizona State University

Honors Parents March 29, 2003, meeting

MIKE WIECZOREK, Honors Parents President, began the meeting at 9:35 a.m. with announcements of Upcoming Activities. Smoothies Saturday will be May 10th from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at two indoor locations in Irish A and Best C. Honors Parents are asked to bring their blenders and fruit (bananas or frozen fruit). Prior to the Smoothies event, there will be an Honors Parents appreciation brunch from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. The BHC Convocation will take place on May 15, 2003 at 1:00 p.m. in Gammage Auditorium. A couple of Honors Parents are needed to help with Junior Honors Days on April 5th and 12th from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. Honors Parents are also needed to meet one-on-one with prospective BHC parents. These meetings are usually in the mornings, while the prospective students attend a Human Event class. Honors Parents answer questions from the prospective parents.

Next year the Honors Parents board will expand to include members-at-large, as well as officers. Parents make the decisions for Honors Parents and more involvement is needed. It is not a lot of extra work. More information will be forthcoming from Christy Southergill. Mike and Dave shared that their students enjoyed seeing them on campus and involved in events.

CHRISTY SOUTHERGILL spoke on The Jean Strouse Biography Breakfast Workshop and invited all parents to participate. (This event has subsequently been cancelled.) Christy also said that there had been a tremendous response to the Thesis/Creative Project Workshop in January. Many parents have volunteered to be thesis third readers and Christy would like feedback once the thesis process is completed.

Next Suzanne Balamenti, Program Coordinator, Sr. for The Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarship Advisement (ONSA) spoke about NATIONALLY-COMPETED SCHOLARSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS FOR UPPER DIVISION AND GRADUATING STUDENTS. Associate Dean Janet Burke is the director of ONSA. Prior to 1991, the University President appointed faculty from several departments to represent each scholarship. Students had to seek out these various scholarship committees which made applying for them more difficult. In 1991 Dr. Bill Weidemeier began the central office, ONSA, in the BHC at ASU. ONSA helps students from all of ASU's campuses prepare to compete for national and international awards of merit. (ONSA is not able to help with any local awards, ASU scholarships, or financial assistance.) Since 1991, ONSA-directed students have won over 208 major national awards worth over $3 million in external funding. In several competitions, ASU ranks among the top ten schools in the United States. Awards won include: Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, Truman, Goldwater, Mellon, NSF, Udall, National Security Education Program (graduate and undergraduate), Public Policy and International Affairs minority fellowships, Rotary, USA Today, and others.

These national scholarship competitions look for several qualifications from applicants; a high GPA, leadership skills, community service, and passion. Most of the students who qualify are those who want to make a difference in the world. The university record for The Truman and Marshall scholarships is extremely prestigious for a public school.

Each spring semester, workshops are held to provide information for each scholarship competition. Workshops are currently in progress and reservations can be made by calling or e-mailing Suzanne at 480-965-5894 or suzanne.balamenti@asu.edu . It is recommended that interested students get information and begin planning as early as their freshmen and sophomore years. It is helpful for those students to complete a preliminary application to begin the advisement process. Once a student completes the actual national award application and gets the required references, mock interview committees are set up for students, in order to be videotaped and to practice for the actual scholarship interview. For some scholarships the university can only recommend a few applicants and the preliminary interviews are used to determine those who are best qualified.

Currently ONSA is working to have the ASU media link to the ONSA web site whenever they write about students who have won national awards. This will make students and the general public more aware that ASU students do qualify for these awards and let them know that ONSA will provide assistance with the application process.

Suzanne then talked about a few of the many students who have won these national awards and the kinds of work and community service they were involved in while at ASU. For more information and links to these national scholarship awards, click on The Office of National Scholarship Advisement on the BHC web site .

The meeting ended at 11:15 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Marcy Díaz, Secretary

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download